Maintenance of thy Holy Land

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Southeast Overland

Southeast Overland

Get lost! Go explore!
Joined
Dec 1, 2006
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www.southeastoverland.com
It is time to give back. We are going to do some maintenance at the 'Holy Land.' I started looking into this last year but never implemented anything. Young JP said we should just go up there and start cleaning up the place - and I think he has the right idea.

Here is what I think we need...
1) People
2) A weekend
3) Trash bags

I don't think we can do much else besides pick up trash since we don't have any heavy equipment and making one water bar or dip with hand tools that will stand up to vehicular traffic will take FOREVER. We also can't spread seed unless we talk with the Forest Service. I'll look into that. (I promise!)

I'm willing to go up there and lend a hand and a weekend of my time. I would prefer to do this over a weekend and camp to help me deal with paying for gas up there and back. If I roll a camping trip into the mix I can justify a trip whereas a day trip gets expensive. We could cover some of the more popular trails and make a point of picking up trash along the way and also get to the balds early to do a good pick-up. I'll buy a pack of trash bags and bring along.

Does anyone have suggestions for a weekend?

:cheers:
 
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The FS has specific requirements for the type of seed you can use. They do not want to spread invasive species (it's one of the big no-no's in the Forest Planning process and in TreadLightly!). So if you want to pick up trash, go for it. Anything more than that, gotta talk to the FS first. Sorry, but we can do more harm than good in the eyes of the FS if we are not careful.
 
eventhough said:
Made some calls about trail maintenance. The FS quits for the day at 4:30 so the office was all but empty. I'll follow-up on Monday.
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Ah, good ole government work. Gotta love it!

If the weekend works out schedule-wise, I am in Steve.

I agree with you about rolling some camping and trail time into the mix to help justify the petrol expense we'll incur.

Some years ago when Alex was president we did a trash sweep of the upper bald after a night of camping and before we moved to the next location. While it didn't seem like there was a lot of trash lying around, we quickly filled up a few bags.

This is also something we do at Uwharrie, especially in larger, slower groups on the trail. I think the last time I had two full bags tied to the front ARB by the time we found a dumpster on the way home.
 
I was there when we did a trash sweep of the bald, there is a lot more once you really do a good sweep. I would be up for a weekend if im avail. Would love to take the 80 on some easier stuff and what better way to do it?
 
I am in for whenever the weekend we decide.......... I know the balds really could use a good clean-up and the lower campsite on caney where the two creeks come together as of last time I was up there was really trashed and def. could use some help

Let me know what I can do to help Steve!!
 
I'm going to get with the :princess: (as truthfully she keeps my 'weekend calendar') and I'll post up a date. I'll try to give a good bit of heads-up but even if we only get three or four trucks we could have a good group to do a clean-up. If we have more trucks we could do two groups and meet up at the balds. Heck, with the price of gas I might even start "Cruiser-pooling."
 
Let me know when you guys are planning this- I will help anyway I can.
 
Great idea...

I have a lot of travel coming up the rest of the summer, but if it's a free weekend, I'm in with the family.
 
I'd be in to help, if the stars, I mean weekends align.
 
If it's possible to plant some grass, how involved are we going to get? Would we want to/be able to plug the area? If so, is it possible to get a trailer (with Kubota+equip.) up there? I know a guy...
 
I'll call the FS tomorrow. My original thought was to just spread some seed w/o any straw. I doubt the FS woudl kick in much or any $ so we would be on our own but with trails being closed down and graveled over I think any maintenance woudl be great.

boombapslappy said:
If it's possible to plant some grass, how involved are we going to get? Would we want to/be able to plug the area? If so, is it possible to get a trailer (with Kubota+equip.) up there? I know a guy...
Click to expand...
 
I think just a basic clean up of the area would be a great start........ if we can spread some grass seed that'd be great as well. But for now lets keep it simple as I can promise we don't need the FS or anyone elses approval to just go up there and start picking up trash, and as simple of a task that it is; it would do wonders for the area and go a long ways for getting things moving in the right direction. I don't want to see this idea get bogged down again by trying to do to much at once........ lets just go pick up some trash :cheers:


we need to get a date nailed down..... August/Septemeber??
 
eventhough said:
An early August run might be good for a "Beat the Heat" trip.
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certianly would ........ we do have the OTMT to contend with though.

What about labor day weekend??
 
Just spoke w/ the FS. They are excited to have volunteers. I am being emailed a simple Volunteer Form to fill out. We show up, do work, record names and hours worked, then turn back in.

Once the FS receives the form they will be in contact with what they need for us to do.
 
eventhough said:
Just spoke w/ the FS. They are excited to have volunteers. I am being emailed a simple Volunteer Form to fill out. We show up, do work, record names and hours worked, then turn back in.

Once the FS receives the form they will be in contact with what they need for us to do.
Click to expand...

Sounds great Steve!!!
 
Meant to add that the guy I spoke w/ was a supervisor and he was going to check with the 'roads guy' to see what type of work the roads needed. I stressed that we don't have ready access to big yellow machines to move dirt but are already planning a big trash pick-up in a few months and could also spread seed, etc.

The super did say that those roads are getting a lot of pressure and some volunteer maintenance would go a long way.
 
NICE! Super well done, Steve! I applaud you for the willingness and the action!

Do me a favor, if I am not there, get me a copy of the forms and the sign in. We need to keep track of the volunteer hours worked. If there is one thing I learned with this Tellico thing, it's keep good records and CYA.
 
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