2019 AHS Volunteer Trail Project at Gulf Islands National Seashore

Gulf Islands National Seashore, authorized in 1971, offers recreation opportunities and preserves natural and historic resources along the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida and Mississippi. The protected regions include mainland areas and parts of seven islands -- Santa Rosa and Perdido Key in Florida, and Petit Bois, West Petit Bois, Horn, East and West Ship, and Cat Islands in Mississippi. This map shows Gulf Breeze Island and the Naval Live Oaks Visitor Center, as well as Pensacola Beach on Santa Rosa Island and the road to Fort Pickens.

Our work was located at the Visitor Center/Headquarters in the Naval Live Oaks Reservation in Gulf Breeze, Florida (near Pensacola) and also on Santa Rosa Island at historic Fort Pickens, constructed using over 20 million bricks and completed in 1834. It was manned in the Civil War and both World Wars. 

Our main focus as a volunteer trail crew supplied by the American Hiking Society was maintenance of the first (or final) two miles of the 1300 mile Florida Trail. 

A combination of Florida's lengthy growing season and a shortage of maintenance personnel had allowed vegetation to encroach upon the trail, narrowing it in many places. This trail section enjoys much use by through-hikers, day hikers, and visitors to the park. In addition, this section of the trail passes right through the park's campground, and campers make extensive use of the trail both for exercise and as walking/biking access to historic Fort Pickens. Below you can see how narrow the trail corridor had become (and you can also see Peggy, Deb, and Chad cutting back the foliage.)

The trail became so narrow, the park's UTVs barely fit on it. As a general guideline, we were told that the trail should be wide enough for two such vehicles to pass on the trail. Peggy, Chad, and Deb smile for the camera.

As we removed vegetation, the trail seemed to disappear until the cutoffs were removed...

We created a tall archway here where the foliage grew over the trail...

Another assignment was to remove all the vegetation that had overgrown the historic seawall at Fort Pickens, a cultural and historic asset of the park which was scheduled to have preservation work starting soon. Here's the crew after cutting off the overgrowth -- on the left, Fran, Chad, and Donna, and on the right, Peggy, Moriah, Deb, and Linda. In the distance, you can see that the trail has been widened quite a bit.

Our second day, we discovered a trail problem that hadn't been mentioned by Scott, the facilities manager. A heavy overnight thunderstorm had left three inches of water on several areas of the trail, water which was a detriment to hikers and bikers and also harmful to the ecology and the trail. 

I showed these photos to Scott and asked if we should install gravel and he agreed, so Chad and I spent the next two days hauling and raking gravel to fill in the low areas.

Below is the worst section nearly completed.

Our tools included loppers and sheers and also several gas-powered trimmers seen in use by Fran and Chuck in the next photos...

The power trimmers really made our work more efficient...

Half of the crew was later sent to the Visitor Center in Gulf Breeze to clear the boardwalk loop, nature loop, and picnic area. Below is Donna lopping vegetation.

...and here's Fran clearing leaves and debris off the boardwalk...

Our crew leader, Linda, along with Fran and Moriah are seen removing vegetation that was blocking the sidewalk...

Below are a few photos of the widened Florida Trail...

We were housed in the historic "Captain's House" which had 5 bedrooms, 3 washrooms, and a kitchen and which served the 8 of us volunteers very well.

Below is the sunset we enjoyed the first night we were there...

Here's our stalwart, hard-working volunteer trail crew:

L to r: Donna, Linda (our crew leader), Peggy, Chad, Chuck, Debra, Fran, and Moriah.

Here's video of our week's work here.