BRATTLEBORO-The gift of an undeveloped property on Rice Farm Road and Black Mountain Road in Brattleboro has dramatically expanded the Riverstone Preserve, owned by Friends of the West River Trail.
The 166-acre acquisition adjoins the existing 22-acre Riverstone Preserve, which was purchased by Friends of the West River Trail in 2012. The Preserve now encompasses 188 acres of woodland and an important cobblestone ecological community along the West River. The donated land includes three-quarters of a mile of West River shoreline and the West River Trail that follows the river, so the Preserve now extends for a mile-and-a-quarter along the river.
This is the largest property along the Lower Section of the West River Trail in Brattleboro and Dummerston.
"We are absolutely thrilled by this remarkably generous gift," Alex Wilson of the Friends board said in a news release, adding that the board had been in discussions with the donors (who wish to remain anonymous) for more than three years.
Friends of the West River Trail will hold a gathering at the Marina Restaurant on Thursday, Nov. 21, from 4 to 6 p.m., to celebrate this expansion of the Preserve in Brattleboro and introduce the first of several upland trails on the Preserve. Those trails, totaling nearly two miles, have now been blazed with color-coded markers.
The expanded Preserve borders on Black Mountain and Rice Farm Roads and extends along both sides of Fox Farm Road. A parking area for a dozen cars has been created at the end of the public portion of Fox Farm Road, and a trail kiosk will be installed there in the coming months.
The newly acquired land has been managed since the 1990s by local forester Lynn Levine, who is pleased the property is being conserved in perpetuity. According to Levine, the entire property is underlain by bedrock known as the Waits River Formation, a calcium-rich rock that makes it a wonderful place to grow plants because it produces sweet soil.
"Such a special land this is," said Levine.
The woodland is unusual for Vermont, with a number of tree species that are more common further south, including white oak, black oak, and shagbark hickory. As climate change advances, preserves such as this, that support these more southern species, will be highly important ecologically, providing seed stock for migrating ecosystems.
The Lower Section of the West River Trail extends 3.5 miles from the Marina Restaurant in Brattleboro to a trailhead at Rice Farm Road in Dummerston. With a tripling of usage, the trail has become an even more important recreational amenity for the region during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it allowed visitors to enjoy the outdoors while practicing social distancing.
The West River Trail is managed by the all-volunteer Friends of the West River Trail, based in Brattleboro. The organization is currently looking into the feasibility of designating at least a portion of this section of trail as accessible, based on standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA); this designation can be achieved without paving.
For further information about the West River Trail and volunteering opportunities, visit westrivertrail.org.
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.