Southeast Light on Mohegan Bluffs, Block Island. Photo: Timothy Burling from Fall River, Massachusetts, USA via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Block Island’s walking trails are one of the reasons people come to the island and one of the things year-round residents use most. This year, the groups that keep them open say they are losing ground.
“This has been the hardest year for us, ever,” Scott Comings, associate state director of The Nature Conservancy, told the Block Island Land Trust at its Oct. 8 meeting, according to The Block Island Times.
The reasons are mostly weather. A blizzard knocked down trees and brush, and a wet spring and summer produced an unusual amount of growth. The result, as the Times put it, has been an uphill battle to keep paths passable.
A big network with a small crew
There are more than 28 miles of walking trails on Block Island that are open to the public free of charge, according to the Block Island trail guide published at natureblockisland.org. They run through preserves such as Clay Head, Rodman’s Hollow and Fresh Swamp. Many of those conserved properties are owned or overseen by more than one organization through easements and other agreements. The Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the Block Island Conservancy all have a stake, and representatives of the two conservancies regularly attend Land Trust meetings.
That shared ownership makes it harder to say who should be doing the work. The Nature Conservancy already has staff, including one person assigned to trail maintenance. Volunteers fill in as well. Nigel Grindley, a Block Island Conservancy board member who clears trails as a volunteer with the group known as “Adrian’s Army,” told the Land Trust he worried The Nature Conservancy’s maintenance worker could not keep up with the annual growth.
Dorrie Napoleone, president of the Block Island Conservancy, said one of the trails in the worst shape is Meadow Hill, off Connecticut Avenue. She said she heard many comments about the condition of the trails while staffing the conservancy’s table at the Block Island Farmers Market. The Times photographed a fallen tree near the Meadow Hill entrance on Connecticut Avenue.
Who should pay for another worker
The question in front of the Land Trust is whether to create some kind of position to monitor and maintain trails and certain properties, such as the Solviken property on Corn Neck Road. Land Trust member Corrie Heinz has been pushing for the idea, and at its September meeting the trust agreed to form a subcommittee to study it.
That subcommittee had not met by the October meeting. Andy Transue, a member, said there were many questions to work through. “This is like starting a business,” he said. Since The Nature Conservancy already employs people, he suggested the trust help fund another position there instead. “You can’t ask one of us to start a company,” he said.
Charlotte Herring, also of The Nature Conservancy, offered a different approach: the Land Trust could list the properties it owns on its own and hire someone to maintain only those. “That will free up time for The Nature Conservancy to [take care of] their own trails,” she said.
Wider paths, ticks and erosion
Clearing brush is only part of it. The conservation groups want to widen many trails, partly because of the growing presence of ticks, which wait in tall grass and brush along narrow paths. Some trails also need rebuilding because of erosion. Comings said that is why The Nature Conservancy wants to buy a skid steer, a small loader that can handle heavier trail work than hand tools.
Widening is not possible everywhere. “We can’t widen that,” Napoleone said of Meadow Hill.
The Land Trust’s posted agenda for the Oct. 8 meeting included adding trail widening for selected trails to its annual stewardship bids, a sign the trust may try to handle some of the work through contractors.
For now, hikers should expect some trails to be rougher than usual heading into the off-season, and the online trail guide lists closures, such as the Win Dodge Trail, which was marked closed as of this week. Printed trail maps are sold for $3 at the Chamber of Commerce office in Old Harbor and at The Nature Conservancy on High Street.
