Recovering Mills Canyon a work in progress (Daily Journal today with photo)

The Friends of Mills Canyon is inviting volunteers to join in a work day Saturday Oct. 7 to help clear trails and remove trash from Mills Canyon in Burlingame. The cleanup days are a great way for the public to become involved, said Bobbi Benson, chair of Friends of Mills Canyon. We love it when the public comes out to worth with us,? Benson said. It shows they care as much as we do about our beautiful canyon.?

The day begins at 9 a.m. and will last until approximately 11:30 a.m., Benson said. Volunteers meet at the Arguello Drive entrance to the park and will be cleaning up the upper service trail behind Arguello Drive residences. Many people don't see this part of the trail, and it's just too bad,? Benson said. While there is little to no trash on the trails within the canyon proper, the upper trail is littered with bottles and plastic pieces. Benson hopes on Saturday they will be able to remove construction debris and several large water heaters which have been dumped in the park. Also on the day's agenda is to cut off the lower branches of trees at the top of the canyon, to provide more visibility into the canyon and make a fire break since the lower limbs can be more flammable. Last April, heavy rain damaged the trail inside of the canyon. The hillside slipped, causing a mudslide over the trail. Benson said she and another board member discovered the slide during one of their regular hikes. We sank in up to our ankles in mud,? she said. When the trail dried out later in the spring, Benson said hikers eventually just made their own trail around the washed out portion. However, there was still a need to reinforce underneath the trail, on the creek, to prevent further slippage in that area.

The Burlingame City Council authorized $270,609 in early September to build a retaining wall, which is now under construction at the base of the canyon. The wall was originally supposed to be finished by the end of September, delays in the work mean that it will not be finished for another two weeks, Benson said. We're hoping all this work will be done by the start of the rainy season,? Benson said. The section of the trail where the slide happened has been fenced off and once the retaining wall is in place the California Conservation Corps will redirect the trail and reopen it. Hikers will not be able to see the retaining wall from the trail. However, Benson said the natural geography of the canyon leaves it vulnerable to slides and slippage especially after heavy rains have saturated the ground. The whole upper part of the canyon is vulnerable,? she said. Benson and others have plans to continue to protect and maintain the canyon. Friends of Mills Canyon has been in the process of becoming a registered nonprofit since January. After it achieved that status, Benson said it will be able to apply for various federal grants to help maintain the canyon. Although this may be the last work day before the rainy season begins, Benson says there are always projects to be done around the canyon. Benson hopes to remove a large bank of poison oak during the winter after it goes dormant and to cut back several stands of acacia trees which, while a native plant, exude oil which makes them more flammable.

Friends of Mills Canyon also sponsors monthly hikes on the second Saturday of the month. The next hike will be about the geology of the canyon and will meet on the Adeline entrance. Benson stresses that the canyon is a community area. Hikers aren't the only ones who use it,? she said. People come here to enjoy the park. They realize what we have and they're delighted of it.?

– Written by Fiona