The Importance And Status Of Unpaved Accessible Trails
Shelby Lee | The Shoestring | April 25, 2023
https://theshoestring.org/2023/04/25/the-importance-and-status-of-unpaved-accessible-trails/
NORTHAMPTON – When local artist and accessibility advocate Meg Bandarra gets out into nature, the resulting landscapes she paints offer stunning renderings of the region’s beauty. And cutting through some of those landscapes are the thing that makes her work as a painter possible: unpaved universally accessible trails.
“I advocate for trails because I know the difference they make in my life,” Bandarra told The Shoestring. “Getting back into nature after being removed from it because of physical barriers was a really powerful, immersive experience. I felt compelled to capture that feeling of reunification, and to this day the need to capture those beautiful fleeting moments I get to experience while out on a trail is why I paint the landscape.”
A year and four months have passed since City Council members in Northampton voted to appropriate $100,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to the “Rocky Hill Accessible Trail Project.” Bandarra, who has been instrumental in advocating for this project, now seeks to highlight the need for accessible trails like that one with a virtual exhibit of her artwork, titled “Beyond the Pavement,” which is running through May 31.
“When I learned I could use accessible trails to access nature, it changed my life,” Bandarra said in a press release about the show. “I saw improvements in my health and wellness, and felt such a profoundly deep connection to the natural world that I began painting the landscape.”
The exhibit showcases pastel paintings of landscapes from around western Massachusetts and beyond, set in a virtual space to maximize accessibility. Additional artwork and information is available on the Bandarra’s webpage.
The exhibit comes as efforts to develop the Rocky Hill trail have stagnated. In an interview, Bandarra said that the project seems to have gone back to “square one” of the planning stage.
Bandarra, who created a grassroots group called Unpaved Trails for All to advocate for more accessible trails in Massachusetts, said it is “incredibly frustrating” to see little progress being made on this city project. Unpaved Trails for All estimates that the entire state currently has only 7.5 miles of universally accessible unpaved trails, and that 47% of Massachusetts residents could benefit from these trails.
Bandarra said the city planning department’s reasons for the delay have included a need to address parking as well as restoration of a stream on the property.
“It’s so important to have trail users with access needs be part of the planning and design process for an accessible trail,” Bandarra said. “What we say at Unpaved Trails For All as a general advocacy statement is, ‘Stop building trails for us, and start building trails with us.’ That’s because you get a much better trail when you include people who are living with disabling conditions in the process from the beginning.”
Bandarra said that it is her hope that a more inclusive process will take place this time around the Rocky Hill project.
“In the past, I and others have expressed a desire for Northampton’s planning department to hold a public meeting or forum about the trail, and share the plans with the public at very early stages of design,” Bandarra said.
In an email to The Shoestring, Carolyn Misch – the director of the City’s Office of Planning and Sustainability – explained that the project is moving forward in two parts, with state-contracted design work for part one beginning “later this year.”
Part one includes ecological restoration to remove culverts, restore portions of a former golf course, planning for “an accessible loop trail” and creation of a small accessible parking lot. Misch described part two of the project as “a phased roll out of a universally accessible trail.” She said that the city can move ahead on an “out and back” accessible trail – or a point to point trail – as they continue work on part one, but noted that no trail will be accessible until the parking lot is created.
Misch said the Office of Planning and Sustainability has also requested state grant funds to convert a trail at the Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area into a universally accessible trail. The office will not know the status of that funding until later this year.
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