CAZENOVIA — In May, the Town of Nelson completed a new boardwalk trail in the Nelson Swamp behind the town hall.

The trail, which runs through town-owned land, is part of the proposed Nelson Walkability Project. The initiative will eventually create a two-plus mile ADA compliant walking loop through Town of Nelson parkland, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Nelson Swamp Unique Area, and the Nelson hamlet.

According to Town Planning Board Chairman John Dunkle, the grassroots project started about five years ago when a group of community members formed the Nelson Swamp Trail Committee with the goal of determining the optimal location for a walking trail in Nelson.

The committee included Dunkle, who served as chairman, Jeff Palmer, Bob Carr, Dr. Mildred Irizarry, DEC Senior Forester Gregory Owens, local sportsman Charles Pace, Town Councilor Jen Marti, Nelson Co-historian Fay Lyon, and town planning board members Sandy Palmer and Jim St Pierre.

“It was the coolest group of people,” said Marti. “It was such a nice mix — we had hunters, we had biologists, we had [people like me] who lived nearby and enjoyed it previously. It was so much fun scoping it out . . . We started looking at areas of the swamp on the north and south sides of Route 20 where it might be feasible to make a walking path. We looked at a couple trail possibilities on the south side, but they weren’t really conducive. They were either too much work, or too close to an existing trail or private property, or that sort of thing.”

Marti, who lived next to the Odeon on Nelson Road when she first moved to town, eventually suggested that the committee turn its attention to the land behind the town hall.

“In the early 90s, I used to walk out behind my house into the swamp, and it was fantastic,” she recalled. “Back then, snowmobiling was huge and there were bridges built over the creek. As a result of all that, you could walk back there essentially all year round, because the areas where the [snowmobiles ran] stayed packed down. That was what I did every day between [about 1992 and 1996].”

Marti added that when the sidewalks were installed along Route 20 in 2018, the committee realized the potential for a loop.

“You can start at the town office building, walk through the swamp to Route 20, and then you can take the sidewalk back into town,” she said. “They had even extended the sidewalk further than it would have been otherwise to accommodate the potential swamp trail that came out at Route 20.”

Since then, local citizens, DEC, NYS Department of Transportation, the Madison County Highway Department, SUNY ESF, and the Town of Nelson have all contributed to various components of the project.

“Much of the work to date has been donated, including some of the materials and labor for the boardwalk construction by River Rock Dock,” said Dunkle.

The next major component of the loop, which will be completed by the DEC, is a boardwalk and trail on state land from Route 20 to the Nelson-owned section of the trail.

According to the DEC, both the Nelson Swamp Trail Committee and the Nelson Streetscape Committee worked with the department to develop the concept and preliminary design.

The segment, which is funded independently through the Environmental Protection Fund, is 1,520 feet in total, with 840 feet proposed for boardwalk over wetland areas and 680 feet of hardened trail.

In the Nelson Swamp Unique Area, visitors of the trail will pass along the upper reaches of Chittenango Creek and cross both open and forested wetland, including a northern white cedar swamp, meadows, and the riparian zone of Chittenango Creek. Interpretive signage and overlook areas will provide opportunities for visitors to experience the area’s unique flora and fauna.

“Since 1986, DEC has worked closely with the Nelson and Cazenovia communities to sustain the unique natural and cultural resources of Nelson Swamp while at the same time providing opportunities for public access,” said DEC Region 7 Director Matthew Marko. “The Nelson Swamp Trail Project is a continuation of this partnership and an effort to strengthen the connection between these two communities and their local forests and wetlands.”

Construction is tentatively scheduled for 2022.

“At that point, the infamous ‘sidewalk to nowhere’ on Route 20 will actually go somewhere, as planned,” said Dunkle.

Once the DEC section is complete, the trail will be incorporated into the Mad Cow 5K race route.

Proceeds from this year’s Aug. 7 Mad Cow will support completion of the trail.

To complete the entire loop, the Town of Nelson will complete the final section of trail from Nelson Road through the town hall property.

According to Marti, the town is in the process of donating the Nelson-owned section of the loop — which starts behind the town hall — to the state.

“That removes the liability for the town and puts [the land] under the state’s DEC management program,” she explained.

The town councilor also said she is working her way through the DEC application process to establish a Friends of Nelson Recreation volunteer group that would help maintain the new loop, as well as playgrounds and any future trails in Nelson.

According to Nelson Town Supervisor Jim Cunningham, Nelson Swamp is a valuable resource that is worth protecting, maintaining and exploring for a number of reasons.

“There’s a special thrill about wild places – a feeling of discovery,” Cunningham said. “Wetlands offer a wide range of ecosystem benefits. Nelson’s unique swamp is one of the most biodiversity rich regions in Central New York.”

Cunningham explained that wetlands provide flood control, improve water quality, and store large quantities of carbon, helping to moderate global climate conditions.

“One of the reasons Chittenango Creek has such great water quality is that the headwaters flow through the Nelson Swamp, cleaning the water along the way,” he said. “Some of the greatest values of [Nelson Swamp] are the plants and animals . . . The new elevated trail protects the extremely fragile ecology, creating an interesting, walkable loop within minutes of the busy Nelson Route 20 community. Nature-related recreation is the fastest growing [sector] of the tourism industry. Once the DEC has completed their section of the loop, our sidewalks will connect not only to this area of outstanding visual quality, but also to the town’s businesses, our town park, and the recently donated pollinator gardens. Real estate analytics Redfin and Zillow have both found statistical correlations between walkability and home values. People look for communities that offer physical activities that connect neighbors, which together affect the physical, mental and spiritual health of the people in the community.”

To learn more about Nelson Swamp Unique Area, visit dec.ny.gov.

For more information on the Town of Nelson, visit townofnelson-ny.com.