Author: Tracie Goodman
Planning Unit: McCreary County CES
Major Program: Trail Design
Plan of Work: Unrelated to a specified County Plan of Work
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
In late 2020, a local volunteer approached the McCreary County Extension Office about cleaning up the nature trail located in the woodland area behind the office, which is property owned by the SCC-McCreary Campus and the local school district. Her wish was to make this trail usable again for members of the public, and to partner with Extension to provide an outdoor learning space for children’s programs. I worked in conjunction with her to gain property access permissions and organize the trail cleanup days. She recruited a group of volunteers, who developed a trail design plan and secured funding for the building projects needed. The volunteer group began this project in early 2021 when snow was still on the ground; they put in over 140 hours of labor cleaning up the trail with chainsaws, rakes, leaf blowers, and their bare hands. Besides doing trail cleanup, they also hand-made all of the signs and constructed a footbridge and set of stairs in areas where the trail had been washed out. Local VFW members donated funds to complete the building projects needed along the trail. After the trail cleanup was complete, I went out and filmed a group hike and a short segment from some of our local VFW members on the history of the trail and the man who supervised its construction, who was a local war veteran. The video reached over 1,000 people, and several came out to hike it that weekend. The McCreary County Extension office also held a 4-H Summer Day Camp a couple of weeks later, in which the kids used the trail to collect items for nature art, make observations, and explore the creek and different habitats. More projects and programs are being planned for the coming year, so this is a valuable resource that will be used for many years to come.
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