Contra Costa County is defining how volunteer groups can participate in maintaining the Iron Horse Trail.
In a meeting July 11 with the county supervisors Mary Piepho, District III, and Federal Glover, District V, county staff gave an update on the Iron Horse management program. The management program and the Iron Horse Advisory Committee were created, in part, to give the public a chance to participate in the upkeep and appearance of the Iron Horse Corridor.
John Greitzer, the county’s staff liaison to the committee, explained to Piepho and Glover that while the management program has reached some of its goals, like the creation of a Web site and the mapping of the corridor, the greater goals of joint use and landscaping are in need of policy guidance. A pilot-mulching project with the environmental group LifeGarden has brought these policy issues into sharp focus.
Last year the advisory committee was looking for an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to landscape the Iron Horse Corridor. The committee researched a technique called sheet mulching, which kills weeds by creating a deep layer of wood chips. LifeGarden volunteered to run the sheet mulching pilot program. The volunteer project ended up testing the county’s joint use policy, which the committee thought allowed property owners and community organizations to easily help enhance the Iron Horse Corridor.
The partnership worked at first, and LifeGarden held four restoration events in 2004. The pilot program took place on the Iron Horse Corridor just behind San Ramon Valley High School. LifeGarden’s December 2004 event drew around 100 volunteers, even though its permit only allowed for 50.
The pilot program was halted after LifeGarden received a letter from the county, which owns and maintains the entire corridor, detailing concerns of staff and the East Bay Regional Park District, which manages the actual trail. These concerns included the number of volunteers, the lack of supervision, and the safety hazards the volunteer project posed to trail users.
Ever since April, the county and the park district have being trying to figure out a set of guidelines for volunteer projects like those of LifeGarden.
s”It’s a lot bigger and more complicated than anything we foresaw when we created the management program,” said Greitzer.
He explained to Piepho and Glover some of the broader policy issues the pilot program raised. First, does the joint use policy really address landscaping projects? Or should the corridor’s landscaping element, which describes the locations and types of plants allowed on the corridor, be used as the governing document?
LifeGarden’s landscaping plans to plant bushes and possibly trees also brought safety issues into focus. The Iron Horse Corridor is not only home to a paved biking and hiking trail. It is, in fact, a crowded corridor. Underneath and over the trail are also sewer, water, power and high-pressure oil lines from a variety of utility companies.
Piepho brought up the Kinder Morgan pipeline explosion in Walnut Creek in November that killed five workers. She asked staff if utility companies attend advisory committee meetings.
Presently, the utility companies are notified whenever work is being done on the trail that would affect their property, said Greitzer, but utility companies do not regularly attend Iron Horse Corridor meetings.
Projects like LifeGarden’s also raise questions about the 34-foot width of land the county must set aside along the corridor for a future light-rail line. In his staff report, Greitzer asked the supervisors to consider whether the requirement should be removed. Residents and the advisory committee both view the requirement as a hindrance to landscaping efforts, particularly the planting of trees. Lesley Hunt, the head of the advisory committee, cited more shade as the No. 1 request of trail users.
Even though the construction of a light-rail along the much beloved Iron Horse Trial is unlikely, the county continues to reserve the 34-foot width. As long as this requirement is maintained, no trees can ever be planted there.
“It is a big question that is hanging out,” said Greitzer.
When Hunt spoke about the sheet mulching project with LifeGarden, she told the supervisors that the issues it raises are not going to go away.
“We know we’re not the only group that will want volunteers,” she said. “You need volunteer labor when you’re short on money.”
Later that week, the county, the park district, representatives from LifeGarden and the advisory committee met for three hours. They went through all of the park district’s 18 concerns and agreed that a supervisor must be present at volunteer events. They also agreed that the ratio of supervisor to volunteers must be 1 to 20-25, said Stephen Kowalewski, supervising civil engineer with the county.
The county is incorporating the feedback and coming up with a realistic permit that addresses volunteer landscaping projects like LifeGarden’s. Jeff Gustafson of LifeGarden is hopeful that this new permit will pave the way for future projects and that restoration can resume this November.
