Wilderness trails are in new manager’s hands

Alan Kaufmann’s entire career has been spent outdoors. So when the Laguna Canyon Foundation opened up a new position to manage and restore wilderness trails, he didn’t hesitate to apply.

“My career mission, if you will, is to reconnect people with the landscape … so that they feel the land they live on and use for recreation is their land and … they want to be involved in its protection,” said Kaufmann, 42, a Newport Beach resident and the Laguna Canyon Foundation’s first habitat and trails restoration manager.

The new position will support OC Parks in identifying deteriorating trails in the South Coast Wilderness, which is made up of 20,000 neighboring acres of open space, including Laguna Coast, Aliso and Wood Canyons wilderness parks, Crystal Cove State Park and southern areas of Irvine.

Every year, more than 250,000 people use the 70 miles of trails in the area, according to the foundation’s website. Its executive director, Hallie Jones, said the number of users is increasing, leading some trails to degrade faster than others.

“What we’re seeing is some of our more popular trails are really being loved to death,” Jones said. “They’re being used so extensively and, in some cases, being used inappropriately to the extent that the trails themselves are showing damage.”

The new position, funded by individuals and grants, will identify those trails and restore them in a way that’s sustainable but still appealing to users — from bikers to hikers to environmentalists.

Overuse and water are the top two reasons trails erode, but the solution is not keeping people away, Kaufmann said.

“There’s a tendency in our culture to put a sharp dividing line between nature and humans, and that nature is good and humans are bad, and you have to keep them apart. I think that’s really destructive,” said Kaufmann, who started in September and has been spending the past few weeks meeting with stakeholders and exploring the trail network.

Kaufmann graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College, where he studied geology, anthropology and ecology. He worked myriad jobs in the outdoors involving conservation and education, and then went on to receive his master’s in forestry from Northern Arizona University.

“I was in Boy Scouts when I was a kid, and I always had a special connection with nature,” Kaufmann said. “I always liked going hiking and camping.”

At 16, he went on his first real backpacking trip to Wyoming. That’s when he realized his passion for protecting open spaces and wilderness areas.

“It just blew my mind,” Kauffman said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is what’s important. This is what’s been missing in my life.’ That’s been one of the most important things in my life ever since.”