Youth care for hundreds of acres of parks: Students carve out trails; remove invasive species; and create interactive maps

The summer session ended last week with some crews working on trail maintenance, removing invasive plants and park maintenance while others used iPads and geographic information system (GIS) technology to inventory natural resources within the parks.

The parks department operates 20 separate parks, encompassing 17,071 acres, and 190 miles of county and local trails, including three regional trails.

The partnership’s aim is to increase public access to county parks and to care for the land by removing invasive species, County Parks Director Marlene Finley said.

The mapping technology will also allow visitors to one day use a smartphone app to navigate the parks to view all the trails and find the nearest bench, campsite or restroom.

Part of the funding, $547,000 this year, to care for the parks comes from Measure A, the half-cent sales tax county voters approved in 2012.

The summer crews worked on 55 miles of trails in the south and north county including at the San Pedro Valley Park in Pacifica, Finley said.

Crews from the northern county attend Thornton, Oceana and Terra Nova high schools while crews in the south hail from Woodside, Carlmont, East Palo Alto College Preparatory, Mid-Peninsula high schools and the East Palo Academy. About 85 high school students and 20 young adults participated over the summer.

They removed 33 acres of invasive plants, Finley said.

The Student Conservation Association, a nonprofit, also partners with the city of East Palo Alto, Redwood City parks, the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District and the Golden Gate National Recreational Area.

Crews worked at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve on the coast this summer and will also work this winter.

One of the jobs is to help county parks collect and document data about the natural resources and facilities within the parks using GIS technology.

Intern Hannah Ormshaw worked to develop and implement a new natural resources database for all the parks — she does the technical computer-based work to design and maintain the resource database.

She also trains the resource inventory crews in the use of iPads, inventory protocol and how to use the mapping software.

The mission of the Student Conservation Association is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of the environment and communities by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land. In its youth summer programs, it focuses on environmental education through experiential learning and professional development while making improvements to the local parks, according to Sophie Louis, the local agency’s youth program coordinator.

The summer crews worked on improvement projects including fence repair, rocking of fire pits, brushing of foliage from hiking trails, invasive plant removal and light trail work, according to Louis.

A GIS team mapped trails, intersections, trail signs (or lack thereof), points of interest, repair needs, bridges, water damage and general trail condition in county parks, according to Louis.

The survey work will be uploaded to the county’s Open Data Portal so anyone can access the information and develop unique apps related to the county’s parks, Finley said.

The maps could be used for a variety of reasons including for search and rescue crews, she said.

Go to thesca.org/serve/program/san-francisco-bay-area to learn more.

bill@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102