Local Trail Organizations Develop Volunteer Center

Named Santa Barbara Outdoor Volunteers, on-line site will feature projects of all types — ranging from one-day projects on our local trails, beaches and open spaces to overnight projects in the far reaches of the backcountry. Community members are encouraged to become a volunteer and to participate regularly. To join up head to www.sbvolunteers.org.

The site is what is known as a “meetup”, designed a few years ago as a way for locals to self-organize and work together for common purposes under the belief that people can change their personal world, or community, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

“Santa Barbarans love to help take care of our local environment,” said Ray Ford, Director of the Santa Barbara Trails Council, “and we want to make it easy to know when events are happening and for event leaders to coordinate projects.”

“Having a common place for projects and events is exactly what is needed to encourage volunteers to get involved,” noted LPFA President Jasonn Beckstrand. “With multiple user groups participating this allows the public a way to experience a wide variety of activities they my not be aware of, like backcountry projects, social hiking trips, how to help keep our trails safe and much, much more.”

The initial groups that are collaborating on the new Outdoor Volunteer meetup include the Santa Barbara Trails Council (sbtrails.org), Santa Barbara Mountain Bike Trail Volunteers (sbmtv.org), Los Padres Forest Association (lpforest.org) and the Santa Barbara County Outdoor Foundation (sbcof.org).

Though the founding members of SBOV are primary trail oriented, the purpose of the group is to support all kinds of projects that benefit our local outdoor environment — beach cleanups, habitat restoration projects, open space events — anywhere in the County.

“One of the really cool things about the Meetup concept” Ford added, “is that it isn’t just about the projects themselves. It’s about building a social organization, whereby the members can add their own pictures and stories about the projects, discuss issues and suggest their own activities.”

“Think about what we can do if we all band together to improve every aspect of our local outdoor environment. What a difference we can make.”

For more information about the Santa Barbara Outdoor Volunteers please visit the website at www.sbvolunteers.org . Please make sure to include the “www” in the name.