Marin County Parks is currently in the process of designating new official trails in the Ring Mountain Preserve (ancestral home of the Coast Miwok), which contains Split Rock and Turtle Rock climbing areas. Starting today, the parks department is opening a comment period to the general public to give feedback about the proposed new trail system, which will make some existing trails official and close others for the sake of the local ecosystem. This trail designation process will affect the entire park, not only climbing areas, and in general the proposed new trail system is friendly to the climbing community.
In early October, the Bay Area Climbers Coalition collaborated with the World Climb Project (@theworldclimb), an international research effort studying the impacts of climbing on cliff vegetation. Felipe Morales (@morarmi.felipe), a researcher with the World Climb Project visited California to sample popular climbing areas around the Bay Area. The project focuses on rock climbing areas in Mediterranean ecosystems around the world, surveying plants, lichens, and mosses on climbing faces. BACC community ambassador Charles Futoran connected with Felipe to act as local guide and rope gun.
