The Friends of Sauratown Mountains' trail crew poses by a newly purchased mini excavator with some park staff. FSM has provided funding for Hanging Rock and Pilot Mountain State Parks for the last 8 years. Earlier this year, Pilot Mountain requested that FSM fund a used mini excavator, primarily for building and maintaining trails. Knowing that the funding request might take several years to fulfill but was a worthy goal, FSM had no idea that within 6 months there would be a brand new excavator at the park.
With several parcels of land being added to the park in recent years and the potential for more, recreational development of that land is a priority. The main mountain section of the park attracts more visitors than it can absorb. Having more recreational infrastructure there is limited. So, the new areas need some. That is where the equipment comes into play. State Parks can't just build trails. They don't have the funding. Trail building funds are competed for within the State Park system. The state hires contractors to do the work and provide the equipment. It is common for a 3-4 mile trail to end up costing $100,000. FSM was fortunate to be able to rent an excavator for 2 months, 2 years ago and build a 3 mile trail within the park using volunteers and park staff. However, rentals are time sensitive and the equipment had to be run everyday, including Christmas Day, to get the job done within the rental period. Owning equipment and having volunteers operate it changes the equation. Trail repairs and new trails on the newly acquired land can happen in an orderly way without competing for state funds.
Funding was a mid to long range goal until an unsuspected funding source appeared during the winter. REI donates to local trail organizations and to other recreational groups involved in building and improving recreational infrastructure. For about a month, the Triad and Triangle REI stores designated FSM along with ATC and FMST as the organizations whose specific funding projects would be funded. FSM competed with the other two more well known organizations with the funding split to be derived by REI customers. Each purchase during the period allowed the customer to vote on which organization was to receive funding. If you bought from REI during that timeframe, you may have seem a FSM member in the store trying to sway your vote. I did my time at the Durham store and while there, probably garnered 80% of the votes. When all the dust cleared, FSM ended up with an amount which covered about a third the cost of an excavator but had a deadline in using the funds. FSM scrambled to come up with the balance and worked with Mt Airy Equipment to purchase a new Kubota at cost. Now a brand new shiny orange mini excavator is at Pilot Mountain ready to go.
