The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) Legacy Restoration Fund recently financed a rehabilitation project on the Roof Trail at Jewel Cave National Monument. The Roof Trail is a quarter-mile path that helps visitors explore the relationship between the surface and subsurface resources of the monument. Rehabilitation of this trail is of importance to the monument as they strive to create increased accessibility.
The work was performed by a GAOA funded Maintenance Action Team (MAT) composed of skilled craftspeople from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC). For this project, the small but mighty crew moved approximately 105 tons of gravel to bring the trail to grade. The prior slope of 45% was decreased to an average sustainable slope of 15%. The 50 steps previously on the Roof Trail was reduced to 6. Also, 115 yards of topsoil was placed on the trail slope to correct slope issues on the section of the Roof Trail nearest to the visitor center.
In addition to rehabilitating the Roof Trail, the MAT crew also assisted with other facilities tasks at Jewel Cave. They helped maintain the decontamination trays in the cave to prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome in bat populations. The crew also rehabilitated portions of the trail at the Historic Area and improved tread while cleaning the drains on the Canyons Trail.
HPTC recruits, trains, and employs people in traditional historic restoration and preservation techniques and trades. Several geographically based MATs travel to national parks to train and work alongside park staff to complete small, but critical, maintenance rehabilitation and repair projects on historic structures. MATs enable the National Park Service to complete projects that require knowledge and competency in traditional trades in a consistent and cost-effective manner.