Silver City—Jaime Embick, Silver City Community Development Director (left), trail advocate Bob Schiowitz (center), and new trails maintenance worker, Dustin Gnader, took a walk along a few of Silver City's hiking trails Wednesday to discuss trail maintenance needs. Gnader is a Silver City native and a 2000 graduate of Silver City High School. Here they are pictured at one of the newest trail heads, currently known as the Visitor's Center Riparian Trail, located on the west side of the Visitor's Center.

"I'm really excited to be part of this community and to help in any way that I can," Gnader said. "I love to be outside, so this is the perfect job for me. I'm looking forward to working with local trail advocates and volunteers to improve and maintain our local trail system."

Schiowitz, a long-time Silver City resident and trail advocate, said Gnader's hiring is the starting point for improving maintenance of local trails and trail heads, a job which until now has fallen largely to local volunteers. "It's great that the Town of Silver City has dedicated this position to our local trails and open space," he said. "It will make a tremendous difference in our ability to keep trails open and available for local residents to enjoy. But one person can't do the job alone. We still depend on local volunteers to help."

Embick emphasized that Gnader's sole responsibility is trail maintenance. All other trails related issues, questions and volunteer information should be directed to her at jembick@silvercitymail.com or (575) 534-6349.