Local Rotary Clubs improve nature trails
Nature is about to get even more accessible at Baltimore Woods Nature Center in Marcellus, where Central New Yorkers love to go to breathe deep, explore, hike and learn.
Last weekend, volunteers began installing a stone dust pathway along a popular section of trail that will increase accessibility for visitors with limited mobility and provide new opportunities for all.
The work has been made possible by local Rotary Clubs, said Whitney Lash-Marshall, executive director.
“Baltimore Woods Nature Center is honored to be a recipient of a multi-club Rotary grant that will help improve the accessibility of nature in our community. Thanks to the support of four local Rotary clubs, we will not only upgrade a historical stone dust pathway that looped around the popular Faust Wildflower Gardens, but expand the experience for our guests to also include forests and fields along the Harrison Loop and Backyard Wildlife trail,” Lash-Marshall said. “This will more clearly connect the trail series behind the Interpretive Center and provide new opportunities for visitors with limited mobility to connect with nature.”
The Skaneateles Rotary Club took the lead on a grant that brought four local Rotary Clubs together to improve accessibility to nature.
The Skaneateles Rotary, Skaneateles Sunrise Rotary, Marcellus Rotary, and Camillus Solvay Geddes Rotary Club each contributed funds that were then matched by Rotary District 7150 through an annual grant program designed specifically for projects that benefit the local community.
“This is exactly the kind of local project that Rotary Clubs like to do,” said Skaneateles Rotarian Dale Drake, who led the effort. “This allows us to join together to work hard on a service project that benefits so many people and at so many levels. It is a win-win.”
Lash-Marshall said the funding and the hands-on volunteer work provided by Rotary have allowed them to reimagine a key element of their strategic goals – to improve the visitor experience at Baltimore Woods and to serve as a resource to the Central New York community.
“Having trails that people with differing abilities can walk together to enjoy nature across the seasons is really important to our community, and we look forward to welcoming people to the preserve who may not have been able to hike or participate in programs here previously,” she said.
Baltimore Woods is also able to incorporate new interpretive signage that will provide information and stories about the places hikers and school groups are walking and the natural wonders they are experiencing, Lash-Marshall said.
The trail work will be done this fall and final installations of signage will occur in the spring with a community celebration. The project is being completed 100% by volunteers from both the Rotary Clubs and Baltimore Woods Nature Center.
The project lead is Jeremy Davidheiser, Baltimore Woods Nature Center volunteer and immediate past board president/current board member who has worked closely with staff to design and coordinate this project. The Baltimore Woods Nature Center Environmental Education team has been working on designing directional signage and interpretive signage to add along the trail that will be installed in the spring. “This project would not have been possible without a creative and collaborative team of partners that were all invested in finding a way to maximize this woodland pathway for multiple audiences and to help not only bring people back to The Woods, but introduce it to them for the first time if they haven’t visited before,” Lash-Marshall said.
