A Day on the Trails with Wildlands Restoration Volunteers

I am still sore and tired. It’s been several days since the New Planet Beer team restored about 700 feet of open space trail in the Bettasso Preserve in western Boulder County. The one day event was orchestrated by the Wildlands Restoration Volunteers with the help of Boulder County Open Space. The New Planet Beer team was one of four teams restoring social trails which had been overused and eroded by mountain bikers. Our goal was to reclaim and to set it back into wild lands. A new more sustainable mountain bike trail was built last summer with the help of the Bikers Alliance to replace the restored trails. Everybody wins on these partnerships including the animals that got displaced from the adjacent lands burned by the Four Mile Creek fire. Bringing restoration helps the ecosystem blossom and participating in this effort was very rewarding.

The team hiked in about 30 minutes to the beginning restoration point and we worked back towards the trailhead. Restoring trails is a four-step process: 1) tilling the land 2) seeding 3) mulching and branching, and 4) creating water retention and diversion. We had a team of six folks with two tilling, one seeding, two mulching and branching, and one developing water rock dams. Every so often we had to team up to tackle a bigger project like placing erosion protection carpets in steep areas. But overall each person picked the tasks they enjoyed most. We were joined by Boulder County Open Space rangers who worked side-by-side with us. We took a couple of breaks throughout the day but for the most part we were restoring. Hiking out was very rewarding and celebrating at dinner with all the volunteers was very rewarding. Everyone enjoyed cold New Planet Beers. I am looking forward to next year’s project. Stay tuned as we select a project near you.

Pedro Gonzalez, New Planet Beer CEO