This trail maintenance project was coordinated as an independent service project by AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project (WSP) member Erica Spohn. It is a requirement of WSP that its members recruit volunteers to participate in a service project that benefits watershed health. Erica, who has been assigned to the Trinity County Resource Conservation District since January, said she found coordinating a trail maintenance project in Weaverville very rewarding. She was impressed by how much community effort goes into keeping the Weaver Basin trail system looking as great as it does.

The District received a grant from the California Department of Conservation last summer. This watershed coordination grant is designed to identify and develop possible projects above the dam based on the Upper Trinity River Watershed Action Plan which was completed by the District in 2006.

The first step has been for the District and representatives of the Natural Resources Conservation Service to meet with interested landowners and land managers. The Coffee Creek Volunteer Fire Department hosted a community meeting in early October and that has led to a series of meetings hosted by the Trinity Center Community Service District in November and December. These efforts will help to determine where and what types of projects can be designed and implemented to benefit landowners, the North Lake communities and the watersheds that drain into Trinity Lake. The initial focus will be on projects that reduce wildland fires, as well as reduce sediment delivery into the lake and improve water quality in the region. Possible projects include fuels reductions in and around communities, larger forest treatments to reduce the effects of a wildland fire and enhancements to roads to reduce the amount of sediment delivered to the streams and therefore the lake. For more information on this project, please contact Alex Cousins at the District’s office, (530) 623-6004.