Santa Margarita River Trail maintenance done

FALLBROOK – The Fallbrook Land Conservancy Trails Council, led by Al and Donna Gebhart, and the Fallbrook Village Rotary organized trail maintenance for the Santa Margarita River Trails the week of Nov. 11 along with the Rainbow Conservation Fire Camp workers and volunteers from the Fallbrook Village Rotary.

The work involved hauling a significant amount of trail material down the trail to help stabilize some trail sections as well as trimming vegetation and moving sand and rocks to improve sections of the trail.

The Santa Margarita Trail System is within property owned by the Fallbrook Public Utility District that was originally acquired to be the site of a raw water storage reservoir with the construction of a dam on the river. Due to environmental concerns, this project was modified to develop a joint project with Camp Pendleton to store water in wet years in water aquifers below ground on the military base instead of building a dam, and to build facilities to deliver water back to Fallbrook as part of the Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project which is currently being developed.

The Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project will provide a mechanism to permanently preserve the property and protect the passive recreational uses for perpetuity. The property is currently managed by the Fallbrook Land Conservancy Trails Council, which agreed to manage the trail system and public access on behalf of FPUD.

Without the volunteer efforts this trail system would not be able to be maintained to be open to the public. Volunteers that helped with the recent trail efforts include Donna and Al Gebhart, Steve Hartshorn, Bert Hayden, Vince Ross, Scott Harry, Bob Butler, Eric Ramos and Jack Bebee.

Anyone interested in helping with trail maintenance can contact Joe at [email protected].