Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Ara Metz is starting her graduate studies this fall in UNC’s Earth Sciences program. An avid outdoor lover, she received her bachelor’s degree last year in Environmental Science from the University of West Florida.

Metz is going to work with UNC’s Sharon Bywater-Reyes, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Environmental Geoscience, and Chelsie Romulo, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, GIS, and Sustainability  on a research project from a one-year, $10,000 City of Boulder grant. The research will focus on the city’s extensive trails through the use of drones and ground data collection to better understand the level of erosion that’s occurring.

“We’re going to look at all of these different variables to enable the City of Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks to plan their trails, if they need to do trail maintenance or just looking at the conditions of undesignated trails that people make on their own,” Metz said.

The completed statistical model will help them better understand and control erosion occurring in these areas. Then they’ll use community outreach with evidence-based information to inform users of these natural areas of how human and animal activity impacts the trails in terms of erosion and others. Metz estimates the overall grant research project will take around two years to complete.

“OSMP does regular trail condition surveys to study the long-term effects of trail management, and soil erosion has a large impact on the maintenance and condition of trails,” Jacob Engelman, a trail research coordinator with the City of Boulder OSMP, said. “This study could help OSMP understand how different soil types react differently to use-patterns and natural environmental processes.”

Above: An example of trail erosion in Boulder. Photo courtesy of City of Boulder OSMP.

One of the city’s biggest concerns is the impacts that off-trail use has on soil erosion and other effects on the open and natural areas. “Research regarding soil erosion rates and geomorphological processes on the landscape can support OSMP in data-driven management plans and work prioritization for the restoration of undesignated trails, as well as designated trail repairs and maintenance,” Engelman said.

“The City of Boulder is interested in understanding what influences the longevity of their trail-building efforts. As such, we are combining our interested to understand how the geologic template may influence erosion and degradation of the OSMP trail system,” Bywater-Reyes said. “To this end, we will use a method of remote sensing that takes overlapping photos to create a three-dimensional model of a landscape that we will be able to characterize the hillslopes with this model and look for erosion ‘hot spots.’”

Metz always dreamed of moving to Colorado to continue her academic career, and her dream came true when Bywater-Reyes and Romulo reviewed her application and reached out about the grant research project.

“Sharon and Chelsie have been talking with the City of Boulder since January of this year, and I put my application in and did the steps of applying to UNC,” Metz (image at right) said. “Sharon reached out to me and was like, ‘Your background, your undergrad and your experience are exactly what we're looking for, and we're able to take on one grad student to do this research.’ So, I got really lucky with that.”

Metz also discussed how helpful the faculty members have been in communicating with her and preparing her for her graduate school experience and research with the City of Boulder.

“I haven't actually met half of them yet in person or actually even know who they are, but I've been talking to them for months over email and figuring out stuff,” she said. “Everybody's been super helpful and I've heard great things, and I’m excited about getting to explore and check out the campus and do all of that kind of fun stuff.”

—Written by Katie Corder