FLUZ

For more information about the GSMG Trail Inventory please email Peter Straub, GSMG Trails Committee, at pstraub@gmail.com. Email Resumes to pstraub@gmail.com

POSTED APRIL.14.2008
Do you Ride Motorcycles in Mclean Creek? - New FLUZ will be implemented!
Attend the Meeting  - MORE INFO
POSTED APRIL.13.2008
The Ghost Stewardship Monitoring Group is having an open house on April 30, 2008. 6:00 – 9:00 pm at the Austrian Canadian Club.

Ghost Stewardship Monitoring Group Begins Trail Inventory
By Peter Straub, Trails Committee, GSMG

Greetings to everyone interested in building a sustainable recreational trail system!

The Ghost Stewardship Monitoring Group (GSMG) has been taking steps towards building a sustainable trail network in the Ghost Forest Land Use Zone (Ghost FLUZ). Our next step will now involve the development of a “Trail Inventory” and we would like to invite you to participate.

Our Trail Inventory is a planning process used to create a trail system - wherein we define the overall trail objectives, examine the governing parameters of a trail’s terrain, determine the specific path a trail will follow, and assess related water courses, soils, slopes and vegetation. Those factors are then incorporated into the subsequent trail design in order to maximize user enjoyment and ensure the trail will be as self-sustaining as possible with minimal maintenance and environmental impact.

The Trail Inventory does not involve the physical construction or improvement of a trail. Instead, it is a planning process only for:

• evaluating the required improvements of existing trails
• re-routing trails along a new sustainable path
• reclaiming and closing un-sustainable trails
• building new trails within the given terrain parameters
• improving the recreational experience and opportunities for all users

This Trail Inventory process needs help from the users and volunteer stewards of the Ghost area. In order to inventory a trail a broad cross-section of user skills and experiences are required to find and plan sustainable trails. The GSMG believes that these skills already exist among the users and volunteer stewards of this land. As such, we invite those who are serious about helping to plan the Ghost area trails to fill out our own custom-designed GSMG Trail Inventory Resume. Once we know which skills are available among the volunteers we will tailor our Trail Inventory training to people interested in this task, and will then begin a Trail Inventory of the Ghost FLUZ.

Please be aware this is a very different type of activity than other trail stewardship activities you may have been involved in. It is not for everybody. In fact, we don’t need a huge number of people to do this - but we do need the right people. If you are more comfortable on the working end of a chain saw, shovel, or bulldozer than you are examining soils, water courses, slopes, and documenting what you observe, then maybe this isn’t for you. Nevertheless, we need both types of people to design and build sustainable trails.

Please consider this invitation carefully and decide how you can help the entire community build sustainable trails. If you have the right skills and wish to volunteer in this first step of the new trail system in the Ghost FLUZ, please express your interest to the GSMG by downloading, completing and returning our Trail Inventory Resume. We would like to receive completed Trail Inventory Resumes by April 15, 2008 so we can begin training plans (however we will never turn away a volunteer who wants to help).

To download the GSMG Trail Inventory Resume just click GSMG Trail Inventory Resume.