Opening Day at the Brookmead Trails!
This Saturday, May 18th, UVLT is hosting a fundraising event for the stewardship of our Brookmead Conservation Area located on Turnpike Road in Norwich.
The day includes a fun run 5k through the woods and trails that begins at 4pm at the cabin (approximately 1/3rd of a mile from the parking lot up a farm road). There is a $25 registration fee for the run that can be made online here or by cash/check the day of the race. At 4pm we also invite walkers and mountain bikers to explore the trails on their own with the use of trail maps that will be available at the parking lot.
Stewardship Director Jason Berard has been hard at work the last few weeks opening up a new trail on the property. While not yet mapped, this loop trail is clearly marked and open for exploration. It begins just past the last gate as you walk up the farm road, heads south along the edge of the field, then loops back through the woods. It’s a one mile loop with a few steep sections.
At 5pm we will meet at the cabin for a cook out by the Norwich Lions Club and live music by Rob Lees and Cody Williams of Still Hill.
While we are eating and enjoying the music the cabin will be open for people to go inside and see what is still needed to revitalize the space. UVLT staff spent a day cleaning out the building and preparing it to be walked through. More information about what needs to be done to make the cabin usable for UVLT programming and as a community resource can be found here.
Our other spring cleaning has included the parking lot fence. The new split rail fence, purchased locally from a UVLT conserved farm in Hartland, runs along the edge of our parking lot. The fence serves to delineate our parking area and signify to visitors that they are in the right spot! Currently there is a temporary Brookmead Conservation Area sign up by the road, with a more permanent wooden sign coming soon. We’ll be mowing our lawn along Turnpike Road on a two-week cycle based on current research about pollinator abundance in managed grasses. We also installed three bird houses, which are already being inhabited by tree swallows as nesting sites!
We hope that you will join us on Saturday to celebrate a place we love, the trails we love, and our community. If we raise the necessary funds we can make the cabin a wonderful space for UVLT programs and use by the broader community. And we can steward the trails and offer expanded activities at Brookmead.
All of the information about this event, including a schedule, trail map, and location information can be found here. See you out there!
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Thank you to our generous sponsors who have made this event possible. Also a huge thank you to Amanda Kievet for designing the new Brookmead Conservation Area logo.
