Trails Committee Provides Annual Report

By Kim Siebert MacPhail

In advance of Town Meeting, the Trails Committee presented its annual report to the Conservation Commission on Wednesday night, asking for permission to move ahead with the installation of close to 20 bog bridges— with ramps where needed— as well as the construction of various boardwalks and footbridges to protect wetlands while providing access to pedestrians and cyclists. The Committee also provided trail maintenance and circuit trail status updates and proposals for work in the coming year.

At issue was the Committee’s request to expand a Conservation Commission order of conditions that currently applies to bog bridge installation on conservation land only. Adrienne St. John and Kristen Dowdy—Public Works liaisons to the Trails Committee—asked if the language could be broadened so that installation of bog bridges could proceed on public and private lands that are not subject to conservation land restrictions. The specific lands in question include properties such as the Massport parcel near Hanscom Field, the Job Lane School, the Town campus, and Huckins Farm—which are, respectively, state, school, municipal, and private lands. Procedures for obtaining authorization—such as site evaluation and vegetation studies—would still need to be followed, but Dowdy and St. John explained that broadening the language would facilitate the bog bridge placement process.

“We’d still need to have written approval from the owner,” said Dowdy. “Each one [of these parcels] still has hurdles [to overcome].”

St. John added, “Most of our work on conservation land is complete. The issue is that when we had this discussion a couple of years ago, I don’t think the Commission made a formal finding. Going forward, we’re expanding [the installation of the bridges] a little bit more to private land, so to bring it all together—to make sure they’reall going to be accepted—we would like the Commission to make that decision.”

After much debate, the Commission and Conservation Administrator Elizabeth Bagdonas agreed to entertain the idea of expanding the order of conditions, pending approval of “a crisply worded” amendment that must first go through the public hearing process before being voted on by the Commission.