Placer County – Rubicon Grant

CA State parks has awarded Placer County a grant worth almost $300,000!

Link to a chart of awarded values, Placer County is number 67.

Starting October 15, 2013, Placer County has one year to spend the money and document matching funds through volunteer hours for labor and equipment. The grant funds: signage, rolling dips, filling holes, water bars, material and repairing the single lane of asphalt from the residential area to the staging area.

The wording of grant application can be found at the link below. The actual grant awarded changed mostly in the amount not the scope.

Link to Placer County grant application.

Thirty five different spots along the trail from the boundary with the Basin to the turn at Forest Road 03 have been identified as needing attention. Most are either creating a rolling dips or reestablishing the natural drainage from the trail.

The spots were identified, GPSed, photographed and sent to Placer County.  A small group provided transportation while Placer toured the sites to take detailed notes and discuss options and fixes. Once Placer County documents the proposed fixes, they will get sent to the TNF to make sure the FS is good with each fix. This might require a trail visit.

Once all the fixes are decided and approved, the details of how to make each one happen will be documented.  Contractors will need to submit bids for the ‘heavy lifting’, materials and transportation costs. This could take until July! At this point, the volunteer leadership will need to step in and work with Placer County to organize the volunteer labor portion of this plan.

The grant is HEAVY with matching funds from volunteers, so we will all need to document any and all maintenance efforts within Placer County.

This will probably be a September project with finishing touches leaking in to October.  You might want to keep your calendar clear.