By CAROLYN COE
The Weekly Packet, November 9th 2006.
Peter Clapp moves fallen trees to one side to keep the trail from washing away during a rain storm. He works with three others, creating a waterbar where a stream cuts across the trail. “Maybe dig out a little deeper here,” says Jim Fisher, conferring with Peter Clapp as they clear out an area for a stepping stone.
A dozen volunteers gathered Saturday morning, November 4, to build up and improve the South Street to Parker Point Road Trail, managed by the Blue Hill Heritage Trust.
The very wooded, sloping half-mile trail has a mix of conifer and large hardwood trees and is intersected by two streams. “There are some nice large white pine,” said Erika Rowland, conservation lands manager for the land trust. The trail heads are located beside Mainescape Garden Shop on South Street and behind a nonfunctioning fountain on Parker Point Road. The land is part of a 12-acre conservation easement.
Rowland explained how to dig out swales to shed water off the trail. In twos and fours, volunteers worked for more than three hours with picks, shovels, pry bars and loppers. Some volunteers scouted for rocks or filled buckets with dirt while others dug swales. A metal brush was used to scrape off old trail markings from trees.
Saturday’s sunny weather cooperated with the planned trail work. “It’s such a beautiful day, and people are so enthusiastic,” said Skip Lang, BHHT program assistant.
Healthy Peninsula Project was involved early on in the creation of the trail, wanting to make a path for off-road walking down the hill from South Street. The original trail was built in 2002 with the help of Liberty School and The Bay School students. The land was sold to former BHHT board president Lorenzo Mitchell, who placed the land under conservation easement in 2005. The easement insures long-term public access and makes the land trust responsible for stewardship of the land.
“It is amazing how much wildlife there is on the trail,” Rowland said. And as Blue Hill continues to develop, Rowland sees it as critical to preserve the habitat close to town.
