Make the Ojai Meadows Preserve Accessible to All
Make the Ojai Meadows Preserve Accessible to All
School is winding down, but community service opportunities abound. You or someone you know may be interested in a community service project on a section of trail on the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy’s Ojai Meadows Preserve adjacent to Nordhoff High School. The section in need of work is a relatively short section (~300-400 yards). The trail goes through some soil with clay in it and intermittent clumps of grass. The project is a trail “smoothing” effort which involves work with shovels, hoes, and maybe a mattocks or two. This work may take a half a day to a day for 4-8 people.
Ideally this work will be completed between now and June 30th when there will be a dedication of a new bridge at the Ojai Meadows Preserve. The bridge will be located at the end of this section of trail located in between the catholic church and the main pond. The idea is that the bridge will fill a gap in a loop trail on the preserve, making the trail newly accessible for less mobile people (people with walkers, canes, and wheelchairs, etc). But the trail itself leading to the bridge presents its own challenges to the less mobile crowd. In the winter when it gets wet and people use it too soon, bicycle wheel ruts and other lumps get in the trail. Then when the earth hardens in the spring we deal with a lumpy trail all summer and fall until the next rain. The lumpiness and intermittent grooves are no big deal for the majority of the population, but our trail users with mobility challenges have problems on this section of the trail. We’ve got a number of people at the Gables and otherwise who are excited to finally be able to get around on the preserve because of the new bridge, but they struggle to roll over this section of the trail. Thus the need, and the timeliness of the smoothing now before the bridge is built.
At the bridge dedication on June 30th at 10 AM, we will recognize people who have worked on the bridge project. Anybody who works on this trail smoothing project will be recognized publicly that day and will get their picture in our summer newsletter, and if they are cute enough, maybe in the Ojai Valley News.
We think this trail smoothing will be a once a year thing going forward, at about this time of year, so if anybody wants to “adopt” this project and make a multi-year commitment, the less mobile people in this community and the OVLC will be eternally grateful.
I am coordinating this project so feel free to contact me at 805 649 6852 x6 or darcy@ovlc.org. Thank you for pitching in to make our community supported open spaces even better!
Darcy Gamble
