March Trail Day | Advocates for Nisene Marks State Park

March 2026 Trail Day Report
3/15/26

After Mother Nature washed-out our February Trail Day, she shined on us for our March Trail Day!

We had an excellent turnout with 33 participants, including Advocate Board Members and State Park Personnel (Gilbert & Vladan).

Good Fun, Good Cheer and Good Food! Thanks to our generous sponsors, the group enjoyed much needed and delicious coffees from Pacific Coffee Roasting, pastries from Companion Bake Shop and charged our energy with fruits and snacks from New Leaf Community Markets. A big Thank You to our sponsors!

Due to limited parking at Nisene, the group gathered at the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County parking lot. Shout out to CFSCC for allowing us to assemble there before heading to the park!

Volunteers refueled and joined the following teams:

Rail Splitting at Mary Easton Picnic Area (Leader-Joe)
Brushback at Mill Site (Leader-Mikhail)
Brushback and recon on upper West Ridge (Leader-Brett)
Brushback, Ivy and Vinca removal on Aptos Rancho (Leader-Jim)
French Broom removal on Vienna Woods Meadow (Leader-John)

Thank you to everyone who put aside their valuable weekend time this past Sunday to join us in the park and make noticeable, substantial improvements. The park thanks you too!

1. Rail Splitting Team: Thanks to Patrick and Vladan from State Parks, Joe and his team were provided instructions on splitting redwood logs into rails and posts. Splitting huge redwood logs involves starting on the side with a wide and thin wedge to initiate the split. Once the log starts to open, chase the crack until it slowly opens down the length of the log. The team split the logs into halves, then split the half into quarters and then into 'rail' sizes. Everyone enjoyed the experience & look forward to splitting more in upcoming trail days!

2. Mill Site Team: Mikhail and his crew completely revealed one of the most fascinating locations in the park: the historic Mill Site, located just beyond Margaret's Bridge. Grasses, shrubs and other plants had moved-in and obscured the artifacts. The Mill Site team did a great job making it visible for all visitors to see!

3. West Ridge Team: Brett led a group of hardened hikers to the upper West Ridge Trail to brush-back vegetation that was encroaching on the trail as well as providing reconnaissance on trail conditions. There was reportedly lots of poison oak which the team did their best to avoid. We'll be sending another team of sawyers out to clear trees that have fallen across the trail. Nice work West Ridge Team!

4. Aptos Rancho Team: Jim and a small group of UCSC volunteers hiked down to the lower Aptos Rancho trail where the team brushed-back some narrow spots as well as cut ivy from trees and removed invasive vinca. The project had variety and was lots of fun (especially the feel of ivy giving-way) - thank you Aptos Rancho Team!

5. Vienna Woods Meadow Team: Our extraordinary, highly motivated Team of 11 was able to cover approximately 114,000 sq. ft. (that's right!) in the Meadow area. Needless to say, the team removed numerous French Broom! In addition to giving a second pass to areas scoured earlier in the month, the team of energetic volunteers also worked new areas between the mesa and meadow with numerous broom in the 6' height range and along the ridge/fence line where the largest broom were lurking, some 15'+ whoppers were pulled along with many 10'+! (Way to go Luis and Alan!) It was worth the effort to take the large weed wrench as these larger plants were well beyond the capability of our medium sized wrenches. Thank you to our team of extraordinary Volunteers who did a great job in cleaning up the broom; their efforts really made a big difference in improving the meadow area! Special thanks to Elissa for the excellent volunteer support provided and photography and to Ellen for the fantastic leadership in safely managing the crew through the meadow and mesa.