Who:
Bill Vanderberg
Volunteer
Where:
Inglewood, CA
The picture is me, today, climbing up the trail my son Marcus built as an Eagle Scout project six years ago, with the help of Sierra Club volunteers from the Angeles Chapter Santa Monica Mountains Task Force. The trail was built in a 900-acre urban park built over former oil fields in a very park-poor area of South Los Angeles.
It's early Saturday afternoon and I've just spent four hours doing trail maintenance work, which is why I look so tired. It is a very heavily used park and hiking trail and each Spring folks always complain to park staff about the non-native mustard, castor bean, and other vegetation which overgrows the trail.
What most folks don't understand is that hiking trails built by volunteers must be maintained by volunteers and this is what I do, on my own son's trail, during the summer months when I'm not working as a local high school teacher, and on many weekends in the Santa Monica Mountains with Ron Webster and the Sierra Monica Mountains Task Force.
When people see me working clearing trails, most assume that I'm working for the county and getting paid for what I'm doing. Some even direct me to work specific sections of the trail that they feel are in particular need of brushing. I always try to use these opportunities to explain how these trails they enjoy were built by volunteers and how they can help by getting involved.
For many in my community, who I am and what I'm doing is their first personal encounter with someone who represents the Sierra Club. I'm working for the day when folks I meet along the trails where I live recognize and understand what that really means.
