Santa Barbara County Trails Council works with each of our local public agencies to provide trail planning, mapping and maintenance expertise, project funding through our grants program, and volunteer recruitment to augment lack of public funding for trails.

Since 2000, Trails Council has raised over $500,000, contributed thousands of hours of volunteer work and helped rebuild public trails that would not have been maintained without us.

OUR PUBLIC PARTNERS

Los Padres National Forest. Trails Council has a Volunteer Service Agreement with the Forest Service to provide trail maintenance on the Santa Barbara front country trails as well as specific projects in other areas. Trails Council also works closely with the Forest to support the Volunteer Wilderness Rangers, the LPFA Working Vacations program, Trail Leader's Training Program and we are actively involved in major restoration projects in coordination with LP Forest in Gaviota and on Tunnel Trail.

California State Parks. The Trails Council is partnering with the Santa Barbara sector (El Capitan, Refugio and Gaviota State Parks) on efforts to rebuild trails at Gaviota State Park. We are also funding projects to improve trails along the Gaviota Coast.

Santa Barbara County Parks. Trails Council provides trail maintenance services for County Parks for trails in the 2nd and 3rd districts. The Trails Council has provided the volunteer crews to open the Baron Ranch Trail, performed major rehabilitation work on San Antonio Creek Trail and rebuilt trails at San Marcos Preserve twice, first after the Jesusita Fire in 2009 and after spring after floods caused serious damage to the eastern part of the Backbone Trail.

Trails Council has recently completed a project for County Parks on a section of the historic Franklin Trail, mapping out, engineering and cutting the preliminary route and constructing a .9 mile section to bypass private property. This volunteer project involved approximately 250 hours of volunteer time and less than $25K in construction costs.

City of Goleta Parks. Trails Council has worked cooperatively with Goleta Parks to develop management plans for both the Lake Los Carneros and Ellwood open spaces and through generous grants from the city and UCSB's Coastal Fund, have rebuilt almost 75% of the Los Carneros trails and made major safety improvements to the Ellwood trails and beach access points. The Trails Council also coordinated 5 days of volunteer work to replace 100 post that are used to rope off sections of the Goleta Butterfly preserve. Currently Trails Council is working to fund the engineering and construction for the portion of the Coastal Trail at Ellwood.

Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation. The Trails Council has partnered with Parks & Recreation on a number of recent projects, including improvements to the trails at the Douglas Preserve and acquiring an easement for a re-route on the Jesusita Trail that has eliminated a major safety concern. We also partnered with Parks & Recreation on trail improvements on the first .5 miles of the Rattlesnake Canyon Trail.