By Susan J. Liebes
Fallbrook Land Conservancy
The Fallbrook Land Conservancy resumed its monthly Volunteer Day at Monserate Mountain Preserve this past Saturday, Sept. 5 at the crack of dawn!
Board members and volunteers met at the trail head at 6 a.m. in a race against the heatwave. We hiked up the trail about a mile to where it meets an access road. This road is part of the MMP trail system, linking the peak to a lower portion of the trail and creating a challenging 5-mile loop.
However, this road also provides access to the Preserve for emergency vehicles, including fire and paramedics. Over the years, the road has degraded due to erosion and it is now overgrown with chaparral, making it difficult for large emergency vehicles to navigate.
The FLC was recently awarded a grant from San Diego County to make improvements on MMP, including funding to repave this access road. We are leveraging that funding by enlisting our volunteers to prepare the road for grading and repaving by cutting back overgrown brush. This will allow us to reduce the cost of maintaining the road so we can utilize more of the grant funding for trail improvements, which are also greatly needed.
Once the road is ready for paving, volunteer work will continue on the trail where we are addressing erosion issues. The next FLC Volunteer Day is Saturday, Oct. 3 at Monserate Mountain Preserve. Time will be decided based on the weather report but will start between 6-8 am. Please check the Community Calendar, our Fallbrook Land Conservancy Facebook page, or FallbrookLandConservancy.org for updates.