Last year, the San Francisco Parks and Recreation department closed the Glen Canyon Park and at Beaver Street Wall to climbers, siting recent vandalism. It’s always especially painful as climbers when we see an outdoor crag we love disrespected and closed.
Touchstone Climbing acted fast, collecting postcards from our members to then send to the city to show that the climbing community was united and invested in keeping our local crag open.
Local advocates Teresa Black, James Craig, and Matt Ulery from the Bay Area Climbers Coalition met with the SF Parks and Recreation department employees to understand their concerns and identify how to move forward to ensure continued access to these great local gems. And their hard work paid off!
“One of the opportunities that was identified in that meeting was the hosting of an Adopt-A-Crag at Glen Canyon,” said Ulery. “This event was our opportunity to show the local land managers that the climbing community in the Bay Area are passionate and dedicated stewards of their outdoor spaces.” On June 6th, 36 local climbers along with 6 parks department staff got to work repairing walk ways, clearing debris, and picking up trash at Glen Canyon. Dogpatch Boulders and Mission Cliffs jumped on board, recruiting volunteers from the gyms and providing food for the event.
“Thanks to all of the volunteers that showed up and worked super hard, the event was a huge success!”
The Bay Area Climbers Coalition has stated it will continue to work with the SF Parks and Recreation department to establish a more formal “climbing management plan” that will include ongoing stewardship events and educational components to keep you all in the loop about what is going on in the parks and how they can be the best possible partners.
According the the BACC website, here is what was accomplished during the clean up:
- Clearing of brush from trails around park – these trimmings were used to close off a major social trail to the climbing area that was causing erosion issues. Please be sure to stay on the established trails in Glen Canyon (and other spots too).
- Filling and crowing of dirk pack in crib/box steps that lead up to the main climbing areas – when the steps were originally built the treads were not packed correctly, with the guidance of the SF Parks department we fixed this issue on over 30 stairs leading up to the climbing area.
- Trail restoration and erosion control – two teams took on some serious trail restoration and erosion control on the trails around the climbing areas. Work included widening of the trails, bench-cutting, and correction of trail cross-slope. All of this work will make the trails easier to use and allow for better shedding of water off the trails and reducing erosion.
- Removal of fencing and fence posts around climbing area – the SF Parks department had put up this fencing on the hillside around the climbing area to provide the hillside the chance to regrow a number of native plants – with the regrowth completed, the fence could be removed.
“One of the things that we LOVE about these events is that we provide an opportunity for climbers to learn about all the technical details that go into the restoration and maintenance of the trails and systems that make up the areas we recreate. So even if you have never done this type of work before, we will work with you and develop some hard skills that you can bring to the next event with us,” said Ulery.
The Bay Area Climbers Coalition is a volunteer-run 501c3 non-profit and we rely heavily on the generosity of local business to keep the costs of these events to a minimum. We are proud to support the BACC and their efforts in California!
