The Orange County Group and the Sierra Sage Group of South Orange County co-sponsor trail maintenance outings in the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness. These activities occur on a monthly basis from October through June and are conducted in cooperation with the Forest Service. Most are one day activities but the May event has traditionally been a backpack into San Mateo Canyon and other backpacks are occasionally planned. For the past several years volunteers have contributed over 700 hours each year maintaining the trails. With over 60 miles of trails in the wilderness there is always work that is needed.

The most common work is keeping plant growth from closing off the trail and anyone who is capable of hiking and pruning plants can contribute valuable assistance. Another common problem is erosion that creates difficult or dangerous conditions for hiking. Repair of erosion and correcting water drainage problems along the trails are essential to maintaining safe trails.

Occasionally we may have a workday dedicated to the elimination of an invasive plant. An invasion of Yellow Star Thistle at Oak Flats was brought under control by repeated pulling of the plant over several years. Italian thistle and Yellow Star Thistle can choke off trails if ignored when they appear. Both are annual plants which require repetitive annual removal prior to setting seed in order to deplete the seed bank.

Each month, the location of the work is selected based on current needs and trail volunteers are notified by email about the specifics of the event. To receive email notices about future events, those who would like to assist should contact John Kaiser (jkai39@gmail.com) .