Trail Maintenance As A Cito?

[+monahmat]

I am in the process of planning a 2009 CITO event and was wondering if trail maintenance and park improvements are eligible to count as a CITO event? I've been told by a few people that it does but I haven't seen any official ruling on this, all the guidelines refer only to trash removal. Thanks for the help!

[+Rev Mike]

Absolutely.

[+MissJenn]

You can make that work. Here is part of the write up from one that I attended, for example, just to give you an idea:

The winter of 2006/2007 will be one none of us will soon forget. ... While most of us hopefully survived the storms with little or only minor damage, many State Parks did not fare so well. In February 2007 the State Parks put out a call on their website for volunteers to help with storm clean-up. ... This is our opportunity to strengthen our relationship with the State Parks and offer them a helping hand. We'll be working on storm debris removal.

 

So you'll need to bring work gloves and be prepared for a good afternoon of work. ... We will have something for the little ones to do to help out as well. There will be a traditional CITO trash pick up for those who are unable to help out with the heavier work.

 

[+Mother Wolf]

MAGC (Military Association of GeoCachers) here in Md have partnered up with the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center on the Chesapeake Bay to bring caching to their area. In return for them allowing, & encouraging, us to place some caches around their area we are doing a CITO out there which will include some trail maintenance. We did a very small event last fall but are now planning another for in the spring.

 

We are hoping to have a BIG turnout. The date will be locked in sometime in the next 2 wks. Then the event page will be up & running. Should be a fun event. MW

[+briansnat]

Being a trail maintainer myself and the trail maintenance supervisor of a state forest, I can assure you that a big part of trail maintenance is trashing out litter.

 

It also includes clipping overgrowth, erosion control, removing dead falls, grading the treadway and numerous other related activities. If you promote it as a CITO, I doubt you'll get any grief if the participants help with other aspects of trail maintenance while picking up litter.

 

Try wording along these lines:

 

We'll be CITOing the trail system in ___ state park. This involves picking up litter along with clearing out some

of the debris and growth left behind by mother nature.

[+Ranger Smith]

Volunteering for any Park, Resource Area, Wildlife area etc. certainly qualifies as a CITO in my book! Volunteers are needed and wanted nationwide wether picking litter or doing trail maintenance. I am sure that any any person doing trail maintenance who sees litter would take the time to remove it. Simply have some garbage sacks with you while doing the trail maintenance in case the are needed and you have done double duty.

[+genegene]

Use this link, It might help.

http://www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx

 

Its the National Trails Day. It can be used as a CITO as well