Come Hike the Trails

A little over 100 acres, the Boone County Environmental and Nature Center is a valuable community resource.  The pristine resource is home to pollinator plots, a wildlife viewing area, vernal ponds, old and newer forests, a lake, and shelter houses for outdoor programming.  Recently revived, the one acre demonstration garden displaying commercial production for vegetables and cut flowers, a high tunnel, small orchard, blueberry row, and raspberry row.  A forage demonstration and honeybee hives feature agriculture for public education.  Hike the Trails allows the community to enjoy this property on self-guided trails, allowing visitors to self-educate.

Hike the Trails was created as a Master Gardener project to GIS the trails, and identify trees in the forest to teach the community about native trees.  Three trails were chosen which bypass the wonders of this property (red, blue, and yellow).  As we began to GIS the trails, the GIS system measured the distance of the trails to promote healthy lifestyle by hiking in nature.  The trails range from two-half miles to a half mile, the idea was to have a trail of each level of difficulty ranging from easy to hard.  

As the project evolved, other Master Gardeners joined the effort by researching information on native trees, designing maps of the trails, and volunteering their time to check people in and out of the trails.  

On the third Wednesday of each month, from May through October the trails are open to the public.   Master Gardener volunteers explain the trail system, check people in and out, and evaluate participants.  The first month open, there were eight visitors.  However, by the time October rolled around, we were up to forty-eight participants ranging from 9 months old to 67 years of age.  Participant said, “Love how raw it is!”; “Great trails, so glad to be able to enjoy the beauty.”; “This is great exercise.” and “Everyone in the community needs to enjoy this!”  

The Master Gardener volunteers continue to do great work with Hike the Trails and are using feedback from participants to improve the quality of the program.   Now participants have better signage on the trails, as requested, a brochure including photos of the trees along the trails to help identify them with their botanical information, and are in the process of adding the trails to the ALLTRAILS APP, so people can follow the trails on their phone.  As we continue to improve the program, we hope more of the community continues to enjoy the outdoors by exercising on the trails and learning how to identify native plants along the way!