Trails working on manual for other groups

The Norwood Trails Advisory Committee (NTAC) met recently at the Coakley Middle School, and member Gerry Hopcroft gave the committee an update on the trail structure building manual he and other members have been working on.

“Joe (Barrertt) and I have been putting together a manual on how to build wooden structures around trails,” he said.

Hopcroft said the first basic steps are things like selecting a site, cutting a trail, what equipment might be needed, wayfinding, and other things you would need before you start on wooden structures.

Hopcroft said the structures would be mostly water crossings, stabilization structures and informational kiosks.

“I have some photographs of other things that we haven’t used that are in the manual,” he said, noting that they’ve included examples from other parks that the NTAC should think about. He said they started off focused on Norwood only, but have since branched out.

“This was originally conceived about what we could do here, but it very quickly became realistic to talk about how you would do it in alternative ways,” he said.

Hopcroft is currently a retired college profesor in civil and environmental engineering at the Acadia Senior College and has designed trail structures for the Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor Maine. He said they started with trailmaking techniques he used and took from Acadia, but since has included other possibilities for structures and techniques that he felt was not possible here in Norwood, but could be useful in other places. He said that’s not really the priority at this point, however.

“We’ve got way too much to do in terms of boardwalks, bridges, water crossings, hand rails, all kinds of cool things we can do in there,” he said.

Hopcroft asked the NTAC members to look over the manual and suggest any topics they might have missed.

“If there’s something there you’d like to see in the manual, let me know,” he said. “If there’s anything else you can think of that should go in that table of contents, now is the time.”

Hopcroft said the manual will be available online once finished to anyone who wants a copy.

In other news, the NTAC looked over its recent efforts during the Prescott Elementary School Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Day booth activities and engagement. The review was part of the group’s reviews of past events, including the Norwood 101 Day this past month. Members said they wanted to focus more on youth engagement during these kinds of events, as sometimes the parents seem more interested than the kids.

“How do we better interact with kids?” said member Craig Austin. “Other than the animal shells, what we had was a little more adult-oriented and appealed more to the parents than the kids. Someone came up and asked about doing some sort of program, and we said, ‘How old is this group? Kindergartners? We don’t really have anything for that.’”

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Austin said that’s something they should try to think about. Chair Chris Paddock said maybe they should participate in the introductory day for the elementary schools, which is taking place because of the recent redistricting that’s happened in the last couple of years. Basically, the redistricting means many kids will be switching schools, and this kind of “getting to know you” event would be a great time to introduce kids to Norwood’s great outdoors.

Paddock said he believes there is a good deal more interest in the trails from kids, at least if interactions and attendance from the STEM event he attended two year ago were any way to judge.

“This year we had way higher engagement with the kids,” he said. “I remember the first year I went to it, we just talked to the adults the whole time. But even one more turtle shell and a robin’s nest got the kids over in a huge way, so I think any souvenir we have from the trails I think are great to bring in, because the kids have so many questions about them.”

He added that speaking with the kids about trails, he found many are already familiar with what’s around them, but just need a little push to get to the trails that are maybe outside their comfort zone.

“I ask them if they know the trail across from the Neponset Street (Meadow Street Trails) and I hear, ‘Oh we know that trail, we walk that trail all the time,’ and they know it so well I’ll ask if they’ve ever seen the really big dogs that live next to the trail head, and they’re like, ‘We have seen the really big dogs!’ So it’s so familiar to people in that neighborhood they recognize the neighborhood dogs near the trail. I think it was a great opportunity to realize we’re doing it. The kids know about this spot, the parents know about this spot, they’re all using it and it’s great going to that from four or five years ago when it was a deer path going through swaths of mile-a-minute.”

For more information on the NTAC and to see maps of the trails the group helps build and maintain, go to https://gvimes.link/trailshome