Mianus River Park - Trail Maintenance

Trail Advocacy

Trail Maintenance at Mianus River Park, Connecticut is a volunteer effort. Welcome to our interactive visual log of ongoing Trail Maintenance projects and concerns for the park.

Because of the enormous popularity of the park, scheduled monthly trail work is critical to monitoring and maintaining erosion and the inevitable wear and tear caused by heavy usage.

Our trail work entails:

Assessing and closing/hardening/relocating trails susceptible to erosion
Armoring wet crossings where needed
Closing down some unauthorized bootleg trails, while re-routing others to make them less susceptible to erosion

Learn more about Trail Maintenance (TM) techniques in the About TM page and continue to browse other pages of this site to gain a greater understanding how dedicated volunteers have helped maintain and sustain the park.

Stewardship means preserving and enhancing our parks and open spaces and contributing to the well-being of our community by fostering awareness, understanding, and appreciation our natural environment.

The Mianus Park Trail Maintenance Program is a joint effort of
The Friends of Mianus River Park Group and CTNEMBA Trail Ambassador Program.

A Few Thoughts...

Trails

"Trails have multiple values and their benefits reach far beyond recreation. Trails can enrich the quality of life for individuals, make communities more livable, and protect, nurture and showcase America's grandeur by traversing areas of natural beauty, distinctive geography, historic significance, and ecological diversity. Trails are important for our nation's health, economy, resource protection and education."
-Trails for All Americans report, 1990

Sustainable Trails

Sustainable trails require little rerouting and minimal maintenance over extended periods of time. A sustainable trail system will allow for carrying more visitors into a natural area with little impact on the surrounding ecosystem.

A sustainable trail minimizes the need for ongoing trail maintenance by using construction techniques and materials designed for long term self-sustaining use and by using on-site materials as much as possible.

Characteristics of sustainable trail

Connects control points
Gets water off the trail
Can offer different user experiences
Keeps users on the trail
Follows natural contours

There are three types of trails:

Fall-line trail
Flat ground trail
Contour trail

Only ONE of these is sustainable!