Volunteers handle minutiae on Tanyard Creek

Tanyard Creek stays tidy, but that’s in no small part thanks to volunteers who work to maintain the nature trail.

Randy Hamm, chairman of the Tanyard Creek Volunteer group, said they work at least once a week during the off season to pick up trash and take on more significant projects during the spring and fall.

“The heavy lifting gets done by the POA staff and we do the little stuff,” he explained.

Volunteers pick up trash and limbs and lay gravel, set up signs, do rock work and paint bridges. If something is too big for them to get with hand tools — a large downed tree, for instance — the POA gets a call and workers typically take care of it quickly.

The POA has also been good about providing the few supplies and materials volunteers tend to need each year, he said.

“It doesn’t take more than a couple hundred a year for the stuff we do. A piece of angle iron here, a few shingles there,” he said.

Because the trail goes through natural areas, Hamm said, it’s always changing and running water likes to move things. One of the crews’ bigger projects was to tether a footbridge in place with a chain and anchor it with T-bars driven into the ground, he explained, ensuring it migrates less in floods.

A kiosk with a trail map was recently reroofed by volunteers as well, he said.

There are currently 16 people signed up as volunteers, Hamm said, mostly retired. Among them are three married couples, he added.

Hamm said anyone who would like to learn more and potentially sign up can call him at (661) 578-1823.

POA lakes, parks and fisheries director Rick Echols said that he appreciated the volunteers’ work.

It’s a huge help to have people taking care of the small things and keeping an eye on the trail, he explained, because POA staff can’t walk the trails all the time.

“They do a really good job for us, that’s for sure,” he said.

The major projects they do also save a significant amount of potential labor cost, he said, and volunteers have covered up graffiti and taken care of other issues very quickly.

Among the volunteers is Dale Judson, who signed up earlier this year.

Judson said he’s interested in giving back and this seemed like a good opportunity.

“It’s an awesome way to pay back,” he said.

The trash needs to be picked up constantly, he said, and it’s important that there’s someone to take care of it. In particular, he said, cigarette butts are incredibly common.

“The trash is year round,” he said.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Tanyard Creek volunteer Randy Hamm, left, foreground, walks into the Tanyard Creek Nature Trail, tools in hand, while fellow volunteer Dave Murphy follows with buckets of supplies.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Tanyard Creek volunteer Dave Murphy stands next to a bulletin board with news clippings and photos from the volunteer group’s history.