GREENFIELD – Cutting across the bridge, over the swimming pool and into the woods along the Green River, a group of Greenfield High School students followed their science teacher’s lead.
Their lab for the day was a plot of land along the Green River Conservation Area, and their experiment was to build a trail.
With Advanced Placement tests behind them and finals in the future, a handful of Greenfield High School rising seniors spent an afternoon working to create a trail, following receipt of a grant through the town’s Department of Planning and Development.
“It’s great to get kids out and on this adventure and do such a good service for the community,” AP Environmental Science teacher Cathy Wilkins said.
Wilkins is helping her students apply some of their knowledge from the school. In the woods behind the swimming pool, the students — in partnership with the North Hatfield-based Conservation Works group — are designing a hikeable trail for residents of the town.
“There were a series of trails laid out here but none of them were laid out with sustainability in mind,” Conservation Works employee and trail-building specialist Dick O’Brien said.
O’Brien explained trails need to be designed so that they can be maintained with little work, avoiding potential issues of heavy erosion. A trail poorly constructed could lead to issues for the watershed of the Green River. In this case, O’Brien is teaching the students how to build a relatively flat trail, so that it’s easily walkable and runnable for folks in town over time.
“By creating a flat surface, it makes it more sustainable, it makes it more enjoyable to walk on,” O’Brien said.
The students gathered to learn from him this past Wednesday were rising seniors, although some rising sophomores will join the efforts following the school year when they have free time, Wilkins said.
The project to design the trail was started by O’Brien, who has worked on building trails across the state the past five years for his organization, but it will be carried out by the people of Greenfield.
“We probably won’t be here to see the project to finish but I’m hoping I will have trained the students and the teacher that once our funding is up, they can finish it,” O’Brien said.
At present, the trail has no completion date, but the students will spend some time during the summer, along with any willing volunteers, to create this trail using some existing, but unkept trails in the woods.
For the students, it’s a chance to apply what they have learned in class, and to work on their project for the Massachusetts Envirothon. This year Wilkins’ students came in seventh in the state, the students said, and are working on creating a nature guide based on their findings during the trail-making process.
The students, using tools like rogue hoes and shovels to create the right slope for the trail, talked about their reasons for getting involved.
“I want to become a microbiologist, so I think it’s really important for me to apply the science I know to the environment around me,” Jamie Day said.
“Raising awareness of our environment and of climate change,” was a factor for Lizzy Howland.
Howland, like her classmates, all cited their teacher as perhaps the most compelling reason to participate.
Every summer Wilkins takes students to hike up Mount Washington. Howland was one of the students who went on the hike, too.
“I wouldn’t have known this was going on if it wasn’t for Ms. Wilkins,” Howland said.
Classmate Chloe Lunt added “Seeing her (Wilkins) get so involved and interested, makes me want to get involved, too.”
“Also just doing it for the sake of Greenfield — it’s good for us and good for the environment around us,” Lunt said before getting back to working on the trail.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264