Agenda - 10-13-2009 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment 6 3. incorporate the MST into the County's park plan 4. encourage OWASA to authorize a natural-surface foot trail along the Cane Creek Reservoir 5. continue the County's land conservation work in the Seven-Mile Creek watershed as acquisitions in this area will also provide additional trail corridor How Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (FMST) Can Help FMST is eager to assist your efforts to build the MST in Orange County. One of the ways we can be most helpful is by providing volunteers for trail construction and maintenance. Organizational Structure for Trail Construction FMST organizes its volunteer trail work in a similar manner to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. We assign sections of trail to "Task Forces," each led by one or two "Task Force Leaders." In Orange County, we would probably have three volunteer task forces: 1) for the OWASA Reservoir; 2) fox the section between the reservoir and Hillsborough; and 3) for Eno River State Park. Task Force Leaders 1) work with land owners/managers to lay out the trail route, 2) organize volunteer workdays to build and maintain trail, and 3) manage volunteers who are responsible fox maintaining subsections of the trail. An example of how this works can be found at Falls Lake where FMST volunteers have already built 46 miles of trail. The lake is owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and portions of it axe then managed by the NC Division of Parks & Recreation and NC Wildlife Commission. FMST has a memorandum of understanding with the Corps, NCDPR, NCWRC and Durham and Wake counties which outlines how we all work together. Building New Trail In the first step of building trail, Jeff Brewer and Bruce Wisely, our two Task Force Leaders at Falls Lake, flag a proposed trail route and then walk that line with representatives of all the parties to the MOU. If concerns axe raised, Jeff and Bruce alter the route to resolve those issues. Then the Task Force Leaders organize trail construction workdays once a month to build the trail. When volunteers are close to completing the approved trail route, the entire process of flagging, approval and constnzction starts again. Trail Maintenance Trail maintenance is handled by volunteers who accept responsibility for shorter sections of trail, usually two- to three-miles in length. At Falls Lake, for example, we have fourteen maintenance volunteers. Those volunteers report to the Task Force Leaders -letting them know when they have performed maintenance and if they have any problem areas where a bigger crew is needed to make the repair. When such a repair is needed, the Task Force Leaders send volunteers from one of the monthly trail construction workdays to work at that site. Number of Volunteers and Volunteer Leadership. At Falls Lake, attendance at our monthly workdays has been ranging from 60 to 100 people. About thirty of these people attend regularly and axe very knowledgeable about trail construction, and they are the leaders we will ask to serve as Task Force Leaders fox new trail sections isi the 2