Bethel
Branliere Town Forest, a 70-acre parcel gifted to the town by Mary Stickney Branliere in 1965, is receiving extensive trail work performed by the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps.
A group of six from VYCC — a Richmond, Vt.-based nonprofit devoted to conservation projects — since Monday has been grooming and improving an as-yet-unnamed, roughly 0.6-mile trail leading from Main Street to a potential vista point approximately 740 in elevation.
Located just below the hill’s ledgy summit about 200 feet above the road, the future viewing area faces north and is one of two areas within the property designated as potential viewpoints, according to Bethel Select Board Chair Carl Russell. Partially cleared several years ago, according to Russell, today it offers seasonal views that become miniscule during the summer months.
VYCC — which has been camping at Peavine Park since Friday — has been busy clearing brush, widening the path and installing water bars and culverts to divert runoff. The crew has also removed invasive species and re-routed sections of the trail, parts of which had become overgrown from lack of tread.
It’s the third project of the summer for the crew, which previously performed work at Gifford Woods State Park in Killington, Vt., as well as Fair Haven, Vt.’s Bomoseen State Park.
Crew leaders Lauren Fox and Mike Anderson are overseeing four recent college graduates to form the team.
“They’ve all picked up on the trail work really fast and seem to enjoy doing the work,” said Fox, a California native who’s previously done conservation work in Alaska and Montana. “This project is super unique because, at the other sites, we were working with well-established trails. Here, we’ve had to use more tools at sections that needed to be re-routed.”
On Wednesday, the crew used combination pickaxe-mattock tools (“pickmattocks”), hazel hoes and pulaskis (axes with small hoes on the opposite end of the head) to re-route higher-elevation portions of the trail, rendering them easier to traverse and friendlier to water drainage.
“We need all of these heavy-duty tools to cut through roots and remove rocks,” said crew member Emily Hayes, of Buffalo, N.Y. “It’s pretty steep terrain that we have to cut into, to create the tread.”
Anderson and crewman Dan Horton, of Pennsylvania, installed a wooden post at the base of the trail, upon which the Bethel Conservation Commission plans to affix signage.
The trail departs Main Street steeply along a wide path, maintained so that town officials may reach a water storage tank more than 100 feet above the road. Binghamton, N.Y., native Kaitlyn Carroll was busy sharpening tools in the shade of the tank Wednesday afternoon.
“This is really enjoyable work,” said Carroll, a recent graduate of Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts. “It puts you in a really good head space, being out here and knowing that you’re making the trail better for hikers.”
The path becomes considerably more gradual past the water tank, rollicking northbound before arriving at the potential vista point. The other area earmarked for a view is at roughly the same elevation farther south, Russell said, and there are more trails abutting the property on private land that the BCC hopes to eventually incorporate into the network.
For now, simply having a properly maintained and signed path abutting Bethel Village is an exciting prospect. Emily Miller, a BCC member and biology teacher and Whitcomb Junior/Senior High School, said having a wooded, accessible path on Main Street adds to the village’s appeal.
“It’s a great town resource out here, but there are people who live here who don’t know it exists,” said Miller, who may utilize the area as an outdoor classroom. “If nothing else, this project should help people appreciate it more.”
Improving public access to the property has been ongoing since the 1980s, BCC chairwoman Mary Floyd said. The latest efforts emphasize town goals outlined in Bethel’s town plan, Floyd said, garnering plenty of support from the Bethel Business Association, Historical Society and Select Board.
“The purpose of the easement is conservation and protecting the land from development, so it’s already a huge value to the town,” said Russell.
“Any time you can increase the opportunity for people to get outside and enjoy recreation, especially on a large piece of forest land adjacent to the village, it becomes even more valuable.”
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.