Foreign volunteers helping save Sabino
by B. William Poole on Jun. 05, 2007, under Local‘Almost like a prison camp,’ but smiles abound
Heleen De Haan of the Netherlands turns a rock end over end to move it about 10 feet along a trail in Sabino Canyon. She is a volunteer for American Conservation Experience.
A small army of foreigners has descended on Sabino Canyon, but they aren’t tourists, and they didn’t come to hike the canyon’s world-class trails.
They’re volunteers, and they came to fix them.
Two crews of eight from American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit clearinghouse for ecovolunteers who want to visit the American West, will be in the canyon through Wednesday. They’re rerouting Sabino Trail, the main route from tram stop 9 to a popular swimming hole, before the annual monsoon rush. The Sabino and Phone Line trails have been closed since July.
The work is funded by donations to Save Our Sabino, a Friends of Sabino Canyon campaign launched in April to help fix trails ravaged by last year’s flooding. The group has raised more than $450,000 toward its initial goal of $500,000, including $250,000 from two Tucson businessmen, said Dave Bushell, president of Friends of Sabino Canyon.
“We haven’t quite made that, but we’re very close,” he said.
The latest confirmed total is $405,000, but that does not include $40,000 expected from Pizza Hut or about $23,000 raised by Tom Zlaket, a local radio executive who walked the canyon every day for a month to raise donations, Bushell said.
Repairing the trails is hot, dusty work – the high was 101 Monday – that ends each day with a milelong hike to tents scattered near tram stop 8. There are no showers, no television, no Internet, no cold beer.
“It’s almost like a prison camp, and these kids are up there with a smile, making sure our trails get open,” Bushell said.
Heleen De Haan, 25, was a grade school teacher in the Netherlands until April, when she quit to find work in her college major of sociology.
“I’m a career-changer. In between I wanted to travel,” she said during a break from rolling a 2-foot boulder that would soon be seated along the edge of the Sabino Trail.
The group in the canyon Monday included De Haan and others from the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and England. Next week two more crews will replace them, said Colby Martin, 32, an ACE project coordinator.
They will keep rotating in and out as long as necessary.
“Until they run out of money or they don’t want us any more,” Martin said. “The amount of work here is infinite.”
The fundraising started when businessmen Jim Click Jr., who owns the Jim Click Automotive Group, and Mel Zuckerman, owner of Canyon Ranch Fitness Spa, announced they would contribute $250,000 toward what they hoped would be more than $1 million in donations over the summer.
Donations allowed Friends of Sabino Canyon to start work immediately. About $60,000 has gone to ACE for crews that have been working for more than a month on the Phone Line and Sabino trails.
The goal is to have the routes open before the monsoon hits so hikers can get to Hutch’s Pool, a blissfully cool swimming hole nestled about sevenmiles above Sabino in the Santa Catalinas, said Bob Magon, recreation forester for the Santa Catalina Ranger District.
ACE crews have done the heavy lifting, and they have been joined by volunteers from local organizations including the Boy Scouts of America, Tucson Trail Runners, Arizona Trail Association and the Southern Arizona Hiking Club, Magon said.
“The lighter work has been done by volunteers. We’re up in the thousands of hours of labor,” he said.
One spot near the top of the Phone Line Trail will require blasting with dynamite, a job that has not yet been scheduled, Magon said.
If there is enough money after trail repairs, Friends of Sabino hopes to build a permanent search and rescue station with a helicopter landing pad and a parking lot for annual pass holders, Bushell said.
The end of fundraising is not yet in sight, he said.
“It’s whenever the community wants it to end.”
Martin
Colby Martin (left) and Josh Shapiro work on steps above the end of the road where rocks and debris cut the trail about 8 feet deep.
Kris Seidel (left) of Germany and Marco Noya of Italy carry a large rock along a trail in Sabino Canyon.They are volunteers for American Conservation Experience.
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HOW TO HELP
To donate, go to the Friends of Sabino Canyon Web site, call 749-1900 or send a check to:
Friends of Sabino Canyon
P.O. Box 31265
Tucson, AZ 85751
Gifts are available for the following donations:
● Historic Sabino Friends ($25 or more): one-year Friends of Sabino Canyon membership, a Friends bumper sticker
● Cactus Buddies ($50 or more): all of the above and a Friends of Sabino Canyon pin
● Sycamore Reservoir Waders ($100 or more): All the above and a Save Our Sabino bandanna
● Palisade Pals ($250 or more): all the above and a Save Our Sabino baseball cap
● Rattlesnake Runners ($500 or more): all the above and your name on a hand-painted tile at the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center entrance
● East Fork/West Fork Wanderers ($1,000 or more): all the above plus a Save Our Sabino MP3 player
● Bear Canyon Benefactors ($5,000 or more): all the above plus a one-year America the Beautiful Pass, giving free access to Sabino Canyon and other federal parks and recreation sites
Phoneline Summiteers ($10,000 or more): all the above plus an invitation for you and a guest to a Save Our Sabino celebration hosted by Jim Click Jr. and Mel Zuckerman
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