Volunteers help protect former Fort Ord public lands

Dave Nordstrand

Settled in her saddle, Michele Hoover scans the horizon. There's not a building in view.

Hoover sees coyotes, though, and bobcats, rabbits, snakes, lizards and deer.

A wild menagerie in its natural setting, she said.

"Plus quail, turkey vultures, turkeys and an unusual white-tailed hawk flying over," Hoover said. "Some of our members have even sighted mountain lions. We report those so we all know."

Hoover and her husband, Thomas Hoover, residents of Las Palmas Ranch, volunteer in a patrol that helps users of the semi-wild Bureau of Land Management public lands on the former Fort Ord.

The space is roughly 7,500 acres. That will double once all explosives left from the Army's training days

are cleared from restricted lands.

The patrol, 35 members strong, is called "BETA," for Bicycle, Equestrian, Trails Assistance. It includes hikers, dog walkers, runners, mountain bikers and horseback riders.

James Beam from Greenfield, for example, started visiting the BLM lands as a hiker. Then he got interested in mountain biking. Then he joined BETA.

"It's a [nonprofit] service organization," said Tom McKay, BETA president.

"We have no agenda other than serving the BLM and its users and perpetuating that open space as a great community asset."

In bright orange vests, BETA volunteers stand out as sharp chromatic notes against the muted beauty of greens and rocky browns in the natural setting.

BETA volunteers help in many ways, said Eric Morgan, BLM manager of Fort Ord lands.

"They're well-versed on the trails, and they have radios with our BLM frequency on them," Morgan said.

BETA members carry water and maps, too, should a hiker or biker need a drink or get disoriented and need directions back to their car.

On occasion, public land users fall off their mountain bikes. They get tossed from their saddles.

The volunteers are there with their CPR and their First Aid certification from the American Red Cross.

"They encounter just about everything," Morgan said.

"Like with the Sea Otter Classic. You could have an injured rider go into shock. If you didn't have a BETA person on that remote ridge directing in a rescue helicopter or first responders ..."

BETA helps during the Sea Otter, posting members along trails used by cyclists. It also serves as "our eyes and ears for unlawful behaviors," Morgan said.

Unlawful behavior would include motorcycles or ATVs on open spaces. Suspicious people, too, would be noted.

In one case, a hiker approached the Hoovers. She said she'd found a snare, a device to trap small animals.

"So we took it down and reported it to the BLM," Michele said.

The BLM Fort Ord public lands, have, after all, only one paid park ranger and one law officer.

"So it's nice to know you have somebody else out there who you can trust," Morgan said of BETA.

Members also call in hazards, such as a large tree uprooted and blocking a trail or a hornets' nest next to a trail. They pick up garbage and clean restrooms. With shovels and garden clippers, they fan out and maintain trails.

BETA and the BLM have what Morgan calls, "a cooperative agreement to provide visitor services on the Fort Ord trail system."

In all, BETA members donate roughly 3,000 hours annually of volunteer effort, he estimated.

The group's ranks grew last year. It hopes in the future to recruit more university and high school students, McKay said.

Members' "schedules" are structured loosely, requiring only that they donate at least 16 hours per quarter.

During the week, the Hoovers keep their horses behind a white fence in an Indian Springs pasture. Michele is a fourth-grade teacher at Spreckels Elementary School and Thomas, who's president of the Spreckels school board, works at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. During weekends, they ride in their capacity as BETA members. Their dachshund, Zeus, scampers ahead on the trail.

The Hoovers take two- to three-hour rides. Often, they go for long spells just feeling the silence and seeing no other humans.

"Besides helping in BETA, riding out there [on BLM lands] is a great time for my husband and I to be together and to enjoy this gorgeous scenery," Michele said.

"We're feel we're lucky to live here."

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Source: http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20100917/OFFSIXTYEIGHT11/9170319

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