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The December 1st Jesusita Maintenance was quite a success!. We had a crew of nine volunteers arrive for the 8:30 meeting time and a second crew of nine arrive for the 12 noon option. The second crew or "B Team" included two team Chicken Ranchers! The first crew worked the lower Jesusita slide and area from 9:00am through 3:00pm. Slide material/debris was removed from the trail bed and transported outside of the slide area via wheelbarrow. Removal of the debris improved the useable trail bed's width from 8-12 inches to three to four feet. Outslope of trail was maintained to a guideline of 3 to 5 degrees throughout most of the slide area. As slide material to accumulates on this section of trail, users are forced to the outside edge of the trail. Off the edge of the trail is a 20 to 30 foot vertical drop to the creek bed. Due to the instability of the soils at this location this slide area requires maintenance every six months. Heavy weather events will cause need for additional maintenance. The trail route here is not sustainable and will need to eventually be rerouted. The removed slide material/debris was used to enhance three non-functioning waterbars outside of the slide area. The waterbars were converted to large rolling grade dips. With the amount of material added to these rolling grade dips, they will route water effectively off the trail for some time to come. The "B Team" volunteers where tasked with cleaning out waterbars/rolling grade dips above Moreno Ranch. These water control structures need to be cleared of soil/material deposits in order to effectively route water off of the trail and reduce further erosion. Weather and trail use loosens soils that then may become trapped in the water control structures. Poor initial design of water control structures contributes to the trapping of material. The volunteers worked at cleaning and improving these structures from about 12:30pm to 3:00pm. After the day's work was finished, the volunteers assembled at Steven's park for a late lunch feast of Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch BBQ, beans, and rice... A thank you goes to the City and Forest Service for support and coordination on this event.
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