During the 2023 maintenance season two TERMITES volunteers, either singularly or as a team scouted and removed downed trees from a number of trails in the Pecos Valley. A number of the scouting trips were conducted out of the Jack’s Creek Trail Head.

Three solo scouting trips were conducted. Trails scouted included Trails Jack’s Creek Trails 25 & 257, and the Hamilton Mesa Trail 249. During the scouting operations, small trees blocking or encroaching on the trails were sawed and removed.

Five team scouting trips were conducted. Trails scouted included the Holly Ghost Trail 283, Cave Creek Trail, Trail 25 & Trail 259, and Trail 254. Using Silky saws or the crosscut saw a number of trees were sawed and removed from the trails. The team also encountered larger diameter trees that would necessitate additional resources (larger team and additional tools) to saw and remove the trees from the trail. 

Tasks associated with each trip included planning, selecting tools for the trip, notifying the Pecos Ranger District of the proposed maintenance activity, coordinating volunteers traveling to the trail, hiking the selected trail including packing in the required tools, identifying the number of downed trees and other pertinent facts, providing an estimated of the number of downed trees sawed and removed from the trail, number of trees remaining to be sawed, and providing a maintenance report to the Pecos Ranger District. 

Scouting reports giving the number of downed trees blocking trails following sawing operations, the number of trees sawed and removed from the trail, evidence of chain saw use, ATV incursions, and other relevant information were emailed to the Pecos Ranger District office.