How many people does it take to maintain PAS's trails? 15 seems like too many to me. At every work day I've been to with more than a half dozen or so people at least half my time is spent standing around doing nothing because there are too many people and not enough organization or instruction. How many volunteers maintain the trails in the Shining Rock and Middle Prong Wilderness areas? The last I heard it is 8. They maintain all those trails (which are lot harder to get to than Farlow or Laurel) using no machinery and do a damn fine job of it. I don't understand the need for enormous work groups. A small, dedicated force can do just as much work with much greater efficiency. I know on 4/9 I have no desire to walk up Laurel and drag limbs off the trail with 14 other peopleearl06 said:Gee, 30 total volunteers allowed to maintain all the trails. Doesn't look like a whole lot will be getting done.
If the pool of volunteers is only 15 people what makes you think that they will all show up? Say one has a doctors appointment or another has to work and another has to take his kid to cello lessons. Say only 2 show up. Clearing all of laurel with only 2 people could be much less effective.driftwood said:How many people does it take to maintain PAS's trails? 15 seems like too many to me. At every work day I've been to with more than a half dozen or so people at least half my time is spent standing around doing nothing because there are too many people and not enough organization or instruction. How many volunteers maintain the trails in the Shining Rock and Middle Prong Wilderness areas? The last I heard it is 8. They maintain all those trails (which are lot harder to get to than Farlow or Laurel) using no machinery and do a damn fine job of it. I don't understand the need for enormous work groups. A small, dedicated force can do just as much work with much greater efficiency. I know on 4/9 I have no desire to walk up Laurel and drag limbs off the trail with 14 other people
I cannot blame the Forest Service for putting these guidelines in place. We cannot just have anyone running around doing whatever they want to the trails because they are in PAS.
David, you are absolutely correct. Allow to try and clarify myself as little:Maida7 said:
. 15 people are not needed but it would be good to have them in the available pool as you have pointed out. I'm sure there are 15 PAS members who would like to be able to participate in these work days so I will graciously not fight them for a spot and will stick to my renegade antics instead :skep:
I'm not sure how we got to this point. I'm not privy to the negotiations. I don't know where these numbers (15) (30) come from. But sometimes the specifics cloud the bigger picture.driftwood said:David, you are absolutely correct. Allow to try and clarify myself as little:
I'm not at all bashing PAS for setting the cap at 15 volunteers (or agreeing to the FS's cap, or whatever happened). That is a very reasonable number to deal with. I was flaming earl06 for ignorantly thinking that 30 (!!!) people is not enough to get anything done
I agree. I don't know much (anything) about PAS but I did email the BOD many months ago as you suggested volunteering to help in anyway. I exchanged a couple of cordial emails with one board member and that was it. Now, I'm gonna just wait and see how it plays out. Clearly this is a transitional time for the group and as such I'm not sure that this is the time for me to contribute.Maida7 said:
Finally someone posting that knows the facts, thanks Karen.DirtyMtnBikeHer said:
