Norwich
Planners of the new trail, which is yet without a name, described it as an opportunity to open up unused forests, fields and streams for dog walkers, birders and kids to learn about nature.
The path would cross Main Street south of the school and pass behind a few private homes — whose owners have given permission, trail planners said — on its way south to the Advance Transit bus stop near King Arthur Flour on Route 5.
“It’s meadowland, it’s hills, it’s forest — it’s amazing that it’s right in the middle of our town,” Brie Swenson, a town Trails Committee member who helped lead the initiative, said in an interview last week.
Swenson said the trail would be geared toward and in large part built by children, but would be open to anybody. Soon, organizers will place stepping stones across Bloody Brook, which, she said, “does this beautiful meandering down there. It’s really for anybody who loves the outdoors.”
Swenson visited the Selectboard last week to describe the trail, which she said was mostly in place already. Although she and board members agreed that the panel’s approval wasn’t needed to move forward, most members gave an informal thumbs-up anyway.
“It sounds fantastic,” Selectboard Chairwoman Mary Layton said, according to a recording of the meeting.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” Selectman Steve Flanders added later.
Selectwoman Linda Cook asked whether there could be any insurance or legal issues for the town connected with the trail, given that the Trails Committee was involved with its planning and upkeep.
“Does it hold the town liable?” Cook said.
Swenson said the organizers had looked into the matter and were of the belief that the town would not be liable for whatever may happen along the trail, which is completely on private property.
She added that much of the land is protected by easements held by the Upper Valley Land Trust.
A good part of the trail is already in place and open to the public on Selectboard Vice Chairman John Pepper’s property off Elm Street, and Pepper said during an interview last week that he looked forward to maintaining his segment and connecting it to the rest of the town.
“We were always hoping that it would find some sort of contiguous use where it would connect the different ends of the town,” he said, “so this is great.”
Planners are still working out some of the details, Swenson said, including the trail’s name and some of its future uses.
Swenson said she envisioned people being able to take bicycles on the trail, but as for motor vehicles, she said, “I would probably say not yet — not until we see what the traffic is out there.”
The Recreation Department and Trails Committee are raising money to finish up the project, she said, which has included the creation of a fund through the town where people can send donations.
The trailblazers are also bandying potential names. Pepper has proposed naming his section the “Betty Booth Trail,” after a former owner of the property, but planners will have to consult with other landowners to make that final, Swenson said.
Bill Hammond, principal at Marion Cross, said his students have been visiting Pepper’s land to study changes in stream ecosystems over the course of a few recent years.
Second-graders have been looking at the varying makeup of insect populations there, and in the winter the children study black-and-white photography.
In another project called “Source to Mouth,” the students follow Bloody Brook from its swampy source to its confluence with Charlie Brown Brook all the way to where the tributaries empty into the Connecticut River.
“They get out quite a bit, and if they have access to natural areas they will inhabit them,” Hammond said of the schoolchildren.
“They’ve got their muck boots.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.