Volunteers “bushwacking” through walls of green to review the damage from the storm.

Good afternoon John and Sally,

As you know, tropical storm Hilary pounded Southern California as the “storm of the century”.  Beginning on Saturday, August 18, we decided to close the Preserve until the storm passed.

On Sunday, over 5” of rain fell on the Preserve causing massive flooding and subsequent mud flows that inundated the driveway, Marsh and Mesquite Trails.  In many areas, 6-8” of mud covered the boardwalk.  In other areas, the sections of the boardwalk have disappeared downstream.  A bridge on the Mesquite Trail was displaced over 6 feet making the trail impassable.  The driveway had many deep gullies and ravines due to the water runoff from SR 62.  Here is a link to a file full of images.  On Monday, SR 62 was closed due to massive mudflows at East Drive, which is the road to the Preserve.  It took a day for Caltrans to remove the mud.  On Tuesday, we entered the Preserve and a small, dedicated work crew began to “bushwack” through the 17+ fallen trees that blocked the boardwalks to ascertain the damage.  And, they shoveled mud from the kiosk area and from inside the ambassador booth.  It was a mess.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the trails crew returned to continue to remove the branches off of the main trunks of the trees that fell and they proceeded to work on Desert Willow Trail.  On Friday, a crew from California Conservation Corps arrived to begin to cut down large broken overhead branches, suspended in the tree canopy.  They called them “widow makers”.  Then the CCC crew proceeded to cut up the large trunks that laid across the boardwalk.  This team was supplied by Jihadda Govan, Manager, Sand to Snow National Monument.  Jihadda made a site visit on Friday and Beahta Davis, Director, Regional Parks of San Bernardino County made a site visit today.  We reviewed the damage and we will be making joint decisions on how we will rebuild the infrastructure that was lost.  We got a lot of work done in just a few days.  And, as you can see in the photos, there is a lot of work ahead of us. Thank you to all of our dedicated volunteers!

Now, how can you help us?  Until we can make the preserve “safe” for public work crews, we will hold off on any large work events.  As a lover of Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, you can make financial contributions to the recovery effort.  Friends of Big Morongo Canyon Preserve is a small 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is supported primarily by donations. We need your help to restore your Preserve.   Please give what you can afford by pressing the “Help Now” button.

We look forward to seeing you once we reopen the Preserve.  Stand by for more information.

Kevin

Kevin Wong, Executive Director, Friends of Big Morongo Canyon Preserve

760-792-1843