Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Fallbrook Trails Council members Scott Gallan, right, and Stephani Baxter, in back, pick up trash along the Santa Margarita River Hiking Trail during the cleanup Aug. 11.
Fallbrook resident Stephani Baxter collects trash in a bucket, helping to clean up 112 pounds of trash along the Santa Margarita River Trail.
Cub Scout Pack 329 from Murrieta and Temecula participates in the trail clean up becoming Watershed Warriors for the day.
I Love a Clean San Diego volunteers, many of whom drove one or two hours to get to the trail, pose with some local volunteers and some of the trash that was picked up along the river trail.
I Love a Clean San Diego and Fallbrook Trails Council volunteers head down the trail by the Santa Margarita River to pick up trash.
I Love a Clean San Diego brought its "Watershed Warriors!" program to a cleanup of the Santa Margarita River Hiking Trail, Saturday, Aug. 11.
In all, 28 volunteers collected 112 pounds of trash, 27 pounds of recyclable material, 36 plastic straws, one tire and one household battery. They also found a traffic cone and a pair of cowboy boots.
The event was planned in partnership with the Fallbrook Trails Council.
"Nik Kennedy from I Love a Clean San Diego was doing some research about watersheds and came across our website," Donna Gebhart, president of the Fallbrook Trails Council, said. "He hadn't known anything about the Santa Margarita River Trail system, so I gave him the whole history of it."
Gebhart said once he heard the story, Kennedy committed 10 to 12 volunteers and set a date. The cleanup event also drew the interest of Stephanie and Dave Baxter, Fallbrook Trails Council members, and they brought with them volunteers from Cub Scout Pack 329 of Murrieta and Temecula.
"Scott Gallan, who for the last several years has been doing trash cleanup and knows the whole area, met the volunteers down there, and they each took a group and went different directions," Gebhart said. "They had a big, big haul, which was very nice."
Santa Margarita River Hiking Trail, which spans more than 18 miles of trails, has been in the news recently as it was revealed that The Wildlands Conservancy and the Fallbrook Public Utility District are in escrow over the sale of the property.
The Wildlands Conservancy would pay FPUD $10 million for the 1,384-acre property which was at one time planned for a dam along the Santa Margarita River.
"Wildlands' mission is education and to get people out on the trails, so that this will go on forever," Gebhart said. "We are working with them to create some educational programs on the trail. So, if anybody's interested in maybe being a docent and go out on hikes like that, we have that availability coming up too."
Currently, the Fallbrook Trails Council is responsible for maintaining the trails and property through a memorandum of understanding with FPUD.
"If we take care of the trails and garbage and all of that, which we have done for the past 19 or 20 years through our nonprofit, (FPUD) will allow public use," Gebhart said.
Since the popularity of the Santa Margarita River Hiking Trail has increased considerably over the last few years, Gebhart said keeping up with the trash that is generated, as well as naturally-occurring erosion and degradation, keeps the council on its toes.
She said they recently installed trash cans out on the property and created an agreement with http://www.rover.com to place doggy bag stations along the trails.
"Our volunteers sign up and go out and bag up the trash bags and take them to the spot where FPUD then takes the trash for disposal," Gebhart said. "And since the rover.com agreement, we haven't seen as many doggy bags laying on the side of the trail. It is 100 percent better."
The council's ability to continue to maintain the property is a priority, Gebhart said, and the group is always looking for volunteers and groups to join in the program.
"We have a great group of people and our core isn't that large at all, but it's nice to put out an email and have people show up like we do," she said. "We will take any other organizations that want to come out and help us and be put on a list. We're always looking for volunteers."
To volunteer or learn more about the Fallbrook Trails Council, visit http://www.fallbrooktrailscouncil.com. To learn more about I Love a Clean San Diego, visit http://www.cleansd.org.
Gebhart said she hopes to make it onto the list of projects conducted by I Love a Clean San Diego each year.
"But the bottom line is this is a very precious jewel that we have," Gebhart said. "To have a river shed right here where we live, we are very fortunate to have this place that is open to the public. If everybody does a little, it would be extremely appreciated and helpful."
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