The Volunteer Program has morphed to another level as it is running
through its 4th season.
During last years season I started making inquires about volunteers
reclearing the Vista/views the Island "had" been known for
but have disappeared over the years. It took some extra paperwork and
networking constantly with Park Chiefs to get them to understand what
the intent was and have time to discuss it amongst themselves, but in
the end we were successful in convincing them that all 14 projects requested
were approved.
To date you/we have recleared the 2 taxi pulloffs on the North Shore
Road (Maho & Trunk), Bordeaux Mt (which is a really great one) the
Caneel Hill Trail bench vista and the Caneel Hill Tower area, Cinnamon
Bay Trail, then Francis Salt Pond, then 2 on the Johnny Horn (overlooking
both Leinster Bay and the other Tortola) and of course at the end of
last season we squeezed in the Lameshur Trail Vistas that everyone is
raving about.
The ruins that many of you help clear in the last couple of years with
continued maintenance by volunteers are looking really good and visitors
and Islanders alike are very appreciative that they can now see some
of the history and not just read about it.
We have had the American Hiking Society down in November that installed
a new trail for the Park to the Jumbie Beach from scratch moving many
2000 lb boulders using some great team work. They also repaired many
of the water diversion features "Rolling Grade Dips" on the
upper Reef Bay Trail and recently I had the Sierra Club help move 8000
lbs of gravel from the Center Line Rd down the 75 ft stair case and
down the first 1000 ft of trail regraveling and grading the trail as
they went. Picture an army of ants all doing their part in moving it
along. Everyone was very please and impressed again on what they pulled
off.
We have several more groups booked into our new Volunteer Group Camp
Site tucked on the back side of the Cinnamon Bay Campground. Through
some generous donations of money, material and also volunteer effort
n labor the tent base platforms were build late last spring in time
for the incoming Student Conservation Corps. to use it for the first
time last June and July. Since then the American Hiking Society and
6 other groups have booked the site, though some are having to cancel
due to economy type funding issues - others are still coming, in particular
the Appalachian Mountain Club and the University of St Thomas Michigan
for the 4th time.
In the mean time what we could always use your help in is networking
with any groups that you come across that might be interested in a service
trip to come down. Of course we have lots of trail erosion work, but
their are many other things that can be done by volunteers, for instance
the Sierra Club is putting together a "Skilled Carpenter"
group to come down in November to do just those types of projects another
need is a "Skilled Historic Masons" to work on ruins stabilization
etc.
