SFNF TERMITES Volunteer Trail Maintenance Team
Grants Awarded
The proposed non-profit program focuses on maintaining and enhancing popular trails in the Santa Fe National Forest through activities such as the removal of downed trees, elimination of trip hazards, trail grading, and sign replacement for improved navigation. The program endeavors to create safer and more accessible hiking trails for users of varying experience and physical capabilities, ultimately helping to protect the forest floor and mitigate erosion.
The Santa Fe National Forest TERMITES Volunteer Trail Maintenance Team (SFNF TERMITES) was organized in the fall of 2021. TERMITES is an acronym which stands for “Trail Engineering, Rehabilitation, Maintenance, Including the Elevator Shaft.” One of our active members came up with the name, and it has stuck. The elevator shaft is a colloquial name for a very steep trail in the Santa Fe Wilderness. Currently, there are seventeen active members. The SFNF TERMITES Volunteer Trail Maintenance Team is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. During the period October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024, TERMITES members volunteered over 1100 hours (143 days) performing trail maintenance in the Santa Fe National Forest and Hyde Memorial State Park. The value of the labor provided by the volunteers for that period is estimated at $37,073.00. During the period October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023, twenty three TERMITES members volunteered 1109 hours performing trail maintenance. Our mission is to work with the US Forest Service and other federal and state agencies to assist in maintaining trails within the Santa Fe National Forest in the greater Santa Fe area. We also provide trail maintenance assistance to Hyde Memorial State Park. All participants are volunteers, with most being retired. For the most part volunteers participate because they enjoy making trails safer, get satisfaction from seeing one’s accomplishments, and because they love being outdoors. Accomplishments: 1) The organization continuously monitors and removed downed trees from approximately 50 miles of trails within the Santa Fe National Forest and Hyde Memorial State Park; 2) Maintains the Norski Cross Country Ski Track including downed tree removal and the installation and maintenance of directional and informational signs; 3) continues a project started in 2023 to improve the Winsor Trail between the Ski Basin and Porto Nambe; 4) in 2024 began maintenance of the Chamisal Trail, 5) installed temporary trail information and directional signs along the Winsor Trail between the Ski Basin and the Juan Trail. One of our most significant accomplishments occurred in 2023. Poor signage was attributed to two groups of hikers becoming lost while hiking the Winsor Trail. The TERMITES installed temporary and later permanent signs that indicated not only the trail that an individual was hiking, but where the trail lead to, specifically listing trail heads and parking lots. Since that time no additional lost hikers have been reported on the section of the Winsor Trail. In 2025 the TERMITES plan to continue downed tree removal, continuation rehabilitation of the Winsor Trail, begin rehabilitation of the Tesuque Creek Trail, improve signage for the Norski Track, and replace temporary signs installed along the Winsor Trail with permanent signs. Steeps will be taken to ensure that persons requiring crosscut saw certification and first aid skills receive this training. Downed tree removal will include routine scouting of popular trails to identify the need for downed tree removal.