Two Cottonwood canyons' cleanup projects set

Two events aimed at beautifying Salt Lake County's Cottonwood canyons will be held this week.

The conservation group Save Our Canyons is sponsoring a cleanup campaign from 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday between Mineral Fork and Butler Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Volunteers are being asked to meet at the park-and-ride lot at the mouth of Big Cottonwood and to carpool from there to the cleanup site, 8 to 10 miles up the canyon.

On Saturday, the focus will shift to Little Cottonwood Canyon and a project to restore some sensitive Albion Basin lands damaged by the creation of what Alta Environment Center Sustainability Coordinator Maura Olivos called a "rogue mountain bike trail."

Her organization, town residents, the U.S. Forest Service, Friends of Alta and the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation are teaming up on the second "Alta Trail and Restoration Day."

Olivos said organizers hope to include mountain bikers and others who recreate in the canyon to "build appreciation of Alta's natural landscape and learn more about collaborative recreational management efforts."

Volunteers will be put to work in two shifts, morning and afternoon, to repair a bike trail cut through Albion Basin last summer and made worse this summer by more riders. "They tore apart the site and even poured concrete in a sensitive area," she noted.

Organizers also will provide information, Olivos added, about "building and maintaining a sustainable trail system for multiple recreational user types."

Volunteers may sign up in advance at volunteer@cottonwoodcanyons.org or by calling REI's Public Lands Information Center at 801-466-6411. Workers will meet Saturday in Alta's Albion Basin parking lot, congregating at 7:30 a.m. for a shuttle ride to a light breakfast near the Catherine's Pass trailhead.

mikeg@sltrib.com

Twitter: @sltribmikeg