Volunteers from a local snowmobile club and the community at large pitched in to help a severely damaged trail on Scarborough Land Trust’s Fuller Farm Preserve, a well-loved conservation property on Broadturn Road. If you haven’t visited, you should! The trails offer a great opportunity for getting outdoors, whether you want to take a gentle stroll across the rolling former hayfields, go on a peaceful run, or walk your dog to the waterfall in the heart of the property.
Upkeep is critical on trails that get so much use. On the far side of the
property, the walking trail, a portion of which is also a snowmobile route,
follows an old woods road. This steep section of trail has been slowly eroding
thanks to Scarborough’s sandy soils. Water had cut a channel more than a foot
deep in many places and the embankment was devoid of plant life. The trail was
becoming hard to walk on and difficult for snowmobiles to navigate. It would
only get worse if left alone. We considered rerouting or closing the trail,
building stone steps or felling logs in the trail center. Finally, we worked
with the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District to come up with
a solution that was better than any of our prior plans.
On Sunday, November 17, volunteers from Scarborough and members of the Saco
Pathfinders snowmobile club gathered to implement the plan. We had 1,800 square
feet of jute blanket to pin down on the slope and 35 yards of erosion control
mulch – a specialized, extra-chunky mulch used for stabilizing slopes – to
spread to create the new trail surface. Luckily we also had 12 volunteers, a
dump truck lent to us by The Grounds Crew, some heavy machinery from the Saco
Pathfinders, and a neighbor who kindly let us cross his land. With everything
in place, we got to work and were rewarded with a flat, stable trail surface
that should hold up to years of use. A huge thanks to everyone who helped make
this trail project possible!
