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Community
Connections: Trails, Greenways, and Other Linkages
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COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS; TRAILS,
GREENWAYS, AND OTHER LINKAGES
Bill Smith
798-5836
Last February the Open Space and
Recreation Task Force held a public forum to find out what aspects of open space are most important to Brunswick
residents. Expanding our trail network
was voted the number one general priority.
Making the list of the top ten special places were theAndroscoggin
River Bicycle Path, the Town Commons, and Crystal Spring Farms, all popular
trail sites.
This spring the Task Force invited
John Balicki, Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator for the Maine Department of
Transportation, and Burnham Martin, the Maine Director of the National Park
Service, Rivers and Trails Program, to help us learn more about this topic
during our community discussion series..
They spoke about current trends in trail planning, why trails are
important, and what characteristics make successful trail communities.
Walking, they said, is the single
most popular outdoor activity. As
people spend more time at sedentary occupations, the health and sense of
well-being walking and biking give us will become even more important. Trails are a valuable community resource
used by people of all ages and all athletic abilities. Trails provide a sense of community and
connect people to something that is real.
Appropriately placed trails, they told us, can provide kids with safe
routes to school and friends' homes.
Our own Androscoggin River Bicycle
Path fosters community connection by providing a safe, attractive place for
young children to learn to ride a two-wheeler and for friends of all ages to
meet and walk. The river view and the
activity combine to create an inviting, friendly gateway to Brunswick. The Town Commons on Harpswell Road has
nature trails throughout that allow users to experience the seasonal changes of
the leaves. For area residents the
Commons trails provide easy access from one part of their neighborhood to
another.
Burnham Martinexplained that
successful trail communities have a clear vision of who a trail is for, how the
trail will be used, and what it will link.
Brunswick's vision for the Androscoggin River Bicycle Pathis
that it could potentiallyprovide access along the entire twelve-mile
stretch of waterfront and link with similar paths in Bath, Topsham, and
Freeport. The Town Council has made
linking the Town Commons area with the College to the north and Middle Bay to
the south a priority. Should the
vision expand to include securing public access along the Naval Air Station
corridor to Harpswell?
Volunteers, we learned, are key to
trail management, advocating, fund raising and as an entity to hold easements
and agreements. Volunteers from the
town and Bowdoin College perform trail maintenance and cleanup at the Commons
every year. Volunteers are building a
trail system at Crystal Spring Farms.
Volunteers are working on a unique public-private fundraising effort to
purchase land adjacent to the Commons.
And volunteers on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee have
done much work to identify potential locations for paths, trails and links.
As the Task Force continues to study
trails, we want to hear from you. What
trails do you use? Are there trails we
don't know about? Where should there be
trails? Where do key trail connections
need to be made? Could our trail system
provide viable year-round transportation in addition to recreation? What is your vision for Brunswick’s
trail system?
