Laguna Canyon Foundation invites volunteers to connect with nature and complete critical trail work

Stewardship Days at Laguna Canyon gives volunteers a chance to contribute to critical maintenance and connect with one of the most biodiverse habitats on earth each weekend through May and June.

The program hosted by the Laguna Canyon Foundation and OC Parks launched in March and has already seen much needed work accomplished, the foundations executive director, Hallie Jones, said during an interview Thursday. An especially rainy winter in Southern California left paths in far worse shape than they had been in previous springs.

“It’s exacerbated the need for maintenance, but it’s also a great opportunity,” Jones said of the storms that passed over Orange County. “Because you can’t do effective trail work as easily when you don’t have any moisture in the soil.”

Each week, between 10 to 15 volunteers who preregister on the foundation’s website will get a chance to shape trails shared by roughly 4 million people, Jones said. They can also commune with a unique Southern California habitat that is home to 1,500 species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world, Jones said.

“Laguna Canyon is a global biodiversity hotspot. We have amazing endangered habitats, endangered plants, reptiles, birds. The land itself, the open space, was preserved for its habitat value. Our ability to recreate on that land is a secondary benefit.”

Volunteer spots to help improve drainage on Laguna Ridge trail on May 14 have already been filled. But help remains needed for a similar project along Old Emerald Trail on June 11.

Other Trail Stewardship programs still accepting volunteers include the installation of lodgepole fencing on the Meadows Trail in Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park on May 27, and drainage and brush clearing on Valido Trail in the same park June 24.

“It’s a great way not only to get some wonderful trail work done but also to connect people to the trails, to connect people to the land, help people start to understand the value of the habitat that we have here and how much work goes into a well-maintained trail system.”