Local scouts repair, cleanup trails at Coachella Valley Preserve
Many trails still remain closed at the Coachella Valley Preserve after storms last October caused heavy damage.
A lot of shovels are on hand as volunteers clear out trails at the preserve in Thousand Palms washed away by flooding.
” It looked like a mess, I almost tripped here. You could barely walk here, ” Erik Ramirez, a member of Scouts BSA Troop 86, said.
More than 100 boys and girls from Scouts BSA took on the task of restoring the trails. Staff at the preserve say the damage from storms in October were extensive.
“It washed out probably I’m estimating 300 tons of dirt got washed away from this particular trail and ended up down all the way at the other end of the wash,” Ginny Short, preserve manager, said.
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As part of the clean-up and recovery effort, the group aims at restoring two to three trails at the preserve.
” There’s a lot of work being put in. We’ve got about 130 tons of dirt that we’re trying to just move and fill in a lot of the washed out trails with. It’s a lot of hard work and these scouts are doing an amazing job, ” Jordan McCandless , a district executive with Scouts BSA, said.
It was all made possible thanks to the help of scout leaders, helping make the clean-up into some hands-on education.
“Watching these kids, they are really working hard, and they’re learning leadership skills, and how to get along and how to make a difference, and they’re giving back to the community,” Sandy Bock, scoutmaster for Troop 1973, said.
” We’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve been able to flatten out a lot of the places we went to and it’s been kind of hard, but we put a lot of hard work into it, ” Bernadette Flicker, a scout with Troop 451, said.
Hard work that’s helping preserve an important natural habitat.
