Green Hills trail building volunteer day this Sunday!

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager

We’re planning our regular “rotating” Force of Nature volunteer day this weekend to be held at Green Hills. Everyone is welcome to join us—we’ll be building a new section of trail from 1 – 3 pm Sunday afternoon.

I’ve drawn in the new section of trail approximately on the map below. We’ll be relocating a trail that is somehow simultaneously steep, muddy, and located in full sun with a section that is more gentle in grade, avoids a known perennial wet spot, and is shaded by a patch of forest (trust me, that will be welcome in July).

For the first couple years at Green Hills we’ve made use of old tractor paths as trails (since they were still being used for farming). I’m hoping that by this time next year the trail system (which will be about the same length and mainly go to the same parts of the preserve) will be moved onto higher, un-eroded ground, making for better visitor experience. We can use your help making this happen.

Will it be cold on Sunday? You bet. Dress appropriately, and bring warm work gloves, loppers, and pruners. This section of woods is loaded with invasives but could someday be beautiful. We’ll be leaving the parking area at 1 pm to get started, and will finish the afternoon with some hot chocolate.

While I personally prefer warm weather, land managers also need the cold weather so the ground is hard enough to get equipment in without creating ruts. While marking and prepping the trail alignment today we could not haul out any of the old dumps that exist on the preserve: the ground was too soft. We’ll drive the pickup off-road to the work site on Sunday only if the ground is frozen hard so that we don’t create ruts, compact the soil, or get stuck. Even if it’s cold, strong sunshine can soften the surface so we might be walking in.

Please give me a call at 610-286-7955 if you think you’ll be there on Sunday. We’ll want to make enough hot chocolate.