South Skyline Association

Remember that questionnaire on the back of your annual membership application in the January newsletter, about your use and opinions on our surrounding parks and MROSD preserves? As author (reviewed by board members) I had the ‘privilege’ to correlate the results. I was impressed with how many of you carefully wound your way through the 86 blanks to be filled, then topped that off with meaningful comments. I entered the results onto a large spreadsheet for 74 questionnaires received by March 3 (when I collapsed with data indigestion) that were completed for at least one of the three park categories: county, MROSD, or state. The survey results have been used at all of the recent Castle Rock planning meetings.

A mistake in the questionnaire was not specifying the intended county. Thus, while nearly all responses were for Santa Clara county parks, a few of the replies were obviously for San Mateo county parks. Regrettably, the latter were not used, as there were not enough replies for a separate analysis. Here are the principal results, by question (74 responses):

1. (status) Resident owner: 66, resident only: 6, nonresident owner:2; SSA member: 72
2. (location) Adjacent to (or on) at least one park/preserve: 35
3. Volunteer park work:
   
   

   	Santa Clara County	MROSD	Castle Rock	Totals
   hours/year	383	850	502	1735

4. Total times per year you and your family:
   
   

   	Santa Clara County	MROSD	Castle Rock	Totals
   Hike/jog	683	1473	972	3128
   Mtn biking	58	323	22	403
   Equestrian	52	578	30	660
   Rock climbing	3	2	97	102
   Exercising dog		641		641
   Other	15	78	11	104
   Total Visits per year				5053
   Park problems seen in last 2 yrs	21	107	45	173
   Park problems reported in last 2 yrs	2	14	23	39

   
   
   The remaining questions required ratings of 1 to 5, not conducive for reporting; so are interpreted qualitatively:
   
5. Severity of problems between equestrians, hikers, bikers:
   
   

   Santa Clara County	MROSD	Castle Rock
   minor	moderate	minor

   
   

6. 	Santa Clara County	MROSD	Castle Rock
   How good is Ranger patrolling?	poor	good	modrtly-poor
   How good is trail maintenance?	good	vry good	good

   
   
7. Adequacy of existing facilities (reader warned, ‘read #8 first’):

   	Santa Clara County	MROSD	Castle Rock
   Parking areas, potties	okay	mod good	mod poor
   No. trails, equestns & hikers only	okay	good	good
   No. trails for mtn bikers, if biker	good	good	very divided
   No. trails for exercising dog	poor	poor	poor

   
   
8. Preservation vs. Recreation: How much agree with:

   	Santa Clara County	MROSD	Castle Rock
   Parking & potties increased w/demand	all very slightly negative
   Eq’str’n & hiking trails incr’d w/demand	neutral	neutral	sl’y neg’v
   Mtn biking trails increased w/demand	disagree, all parks
   Rock climbers can clear moss, use bolts	disagree, all parks
   Give preference to preserving ecosystem, limit all uses above to present use	moderately agree, all parks
   Support park agencies riding feral pigs	strongly agree, all parks

   
   Comments: These 74 responders show South Skyliners to be very involved with our parks/preserves, 5053 visits and 1735 hours per year volunteer work there. A very few of the many comments on most pressing park problems:

   	"We avoid using most MROSD multiuse trails, and then only weekday mornings, to avoid bikers."
   	"Most bikers are okay, but the few, or the few situations that are not, can be extremely serious."
   	"Increased visitation by all user groups, but specifically mtn bikers will result in an increase in trail conflicts. Closing trails to certain user groups will only serve to impact other areas more severely and/or cause an increase in violations. Education, increased staffing and support of our local parks is key."
   	"Parking on Skyline is very dangerous."
   	"It would be wonderful if more of the trails were open to leashed dogs, esp. in off-peak hours."
   	"Feral pigs can contaminate water, erode (the ground) and are uncontrollable. People can be managed, pigs can’t be!"
   	"Protecting the natural resources must be the priority in decision making.