HELENA — You might take it for granted: walking, running, or hiking trails, not thinking about how they got to the way we know them. However, maintaining these trails is a labor of love for the open lands team with the City of Helena.
See how Helena's trails are maintained:
"Helena is kind of a trails town," said Tyler Wock, the assistant open lands manager for the city. "It's pretty nice to be able to walk out your back door and go right on the trails."
Tyler Wock is the assistant open lands manager for the City of Helena.
"I'm a very fortunate person where I get paid to hike the trails," said Wock.
A large part of his job is trail maintenance, which begins when the snow melts.
When Wock hits the trails, he notes maintenance concerns like weeds, hazardous trees, and water damage.
"The steeper a trail is, the more likely it is to hold water on the trail, and as the water goes down the trail, it pulls the soil and moves it downhill," he said. "When that happens, rocks become more exposed, and the trail actually becomes harder to walk on."
The City of Helena has been using a Geographic Information System (GIS) for roughly four years, but it has been about 15 years since Helena began to look into it as an option to replace paper maps.
Wock said, "It makes it a lot easier for me to remember where that place was and where I would need to devote time to maintenance."
Around June and July, the maintenance crews take to the trails for what they call "dig season."
Using the maps and notes Wock makes, they can easily find which areas take priority.
"It's how far in a state of disrepair [it is] and how much [it is] being used is primarily our deciding factor on that," said Wock.
The team consists of just about five people, depending on the day.
They have to work in a fairly short time frame because once the soil gets too dry, it turns to dust, which makes it harder to manage.
You can report trails that need attention on the My Helena App.
If you want to join next summer's maintenance crew, visit the City of Helena's employment page in the spring.
