Eastbayri.com

LITTLE COMPTON — A groundbreaking here last Friday marking the start of the boardwalk portion of the new Dundery Trail celebrated a project designed to tread lightly on nature as it threads its way through the wetland woods.

Instead of watching dignitaries stick painted shovels into dirt, children and adults were invited to take a “sneak peak” — a short walk out onto a 20-foot stretch of already completed boardwalk.

When completed next April, the boardwalk will extend 3,100 feet through the woods to its terminus at Bumble Bee Pond, then follow a grassy path loop around the pond into the woods beyond, 1.35 miles in all.

The groundbreaking was scheduled for 10 a.m., but it was breezy and cold. When the sun came out at the last minute, however, the Wilbur & McMahon School doors were opened, and 135 students (along with 30 staff) were let loose to join an estimated 100 adults waiting at the tennis courts, near the start of the trail.

Education and nature meet

Don McNaughton, a Rhode Island Nature Conservancy trustee involved with the Dundery Trail project since 2008, and Terry Sullivan, the Conservancy’s state director, spoke at the event. Mr. McNaughton said later that the ceremony’s “most striking moment was when the children came streaming out of the school building and across to the tennis courts where the ceremony took place. It was great.”

“Visually it was a striking image, the parade of kids coming across the field,” said Pam Pomfret, the Sakonnet campaign coordinator for the Conservancy who organized the event. “The goal of the trail is a teaching tool, to build the next generation of conservationists. This is what it’s all about.”

Ties between the trail (as an outdoor classroom) and the curriculum at the nearby school has been a constant theme as the project has evolved.

“I think it’s fantastic,” James Gibney, Wilbur & McMahon’s principal, said later. “From September to June — in nature studies, science, health, etc., right across the board — we’re going to inculcate everything into our curriculum. This is going to be something the community is going to embrace.”

Trail and boardwalk

The 2.7 mile (round-trip) trail will launch into the woods with the boardwalk, measuring nearly 5 feet in width. It will run 14 to 20 inches above the ground as it wends its way through trees, brush, and the occasional swamp, and will rise to 36 inches above the ground where it crosses two brooks, one of them a stem of Dundery Brook.

The boardwalk is designed to allow small creatures and water to pass beneath it, and deer to vault over it. With a 4.75 inch curbing, it will be wheelchair accessible, though the grassy path will not be.

It will end at a lookout platform at the edge of Bumble Bee Pond in the center of Bumble Bee Preserve, owned by The Nature Conservancy.

Only two trees will be cut to accommodate the boardwalk, said Mr. McNaughton — one four inches in diameter, the other six. “In total, we will disturb only 12 square feet of wetlands over the entire distance of the trail,” he said.

Peter Jensen — a professional trail-builder — designed the trail. He is part of a four man trail crew, said Ms. Pomfret, staying at a home in Little Compton that a supporter has offered at reduced rent during construction.

Black locust is being used for the boardwalk planking, which Mr. Jensen said “has a natural preservative that will outlast pressure-treated wood.”

The trail’s greatest challenge, he said, is its length. “This is a very long boardwalk. Just handling the materials is like a military operation, with a supply line.“ The most enjoyable part of the project, he said, “is creating access to an environment that all people can enjoy. And just building it. I like building things like that.”

The boardwalk will be anchored by about 700 galvanized square screws, each five to seven feet long, that will be drilled into the ground at roughly nine foot intervals.

Mr. Jensen said one of the unique features of this site is the alders along the way. “The size of the alders is amazing — six to seven inches in diameter. I’ve never seen them this size in New England, where two to three inches is normal.”

Local partnership

The trail is the result of a partnership between many groups and individuals. Over $465,000 was raised locally, said Ms. Pomfret, from over 120 families, the Carter Family Charitable Trust, the Sakonnet Preservation Association (SPA), the Town of Little Compton (through a state grant), the Little Compton Garden Club, and Newman’s Own Foundation. Timothy J. Csanadi contributed the screws, nuts and bolts for the project, and Piper Hawes, local author of “Do you See what I see?” contributed all proceeds from the book.

An estimated $15,000 in educational funding and funds for trail stewards has come from the Little Compton Educational Foundation and the Rhode Island Foundation.

“It’s been a dream for the last 10 to 12 years, and here it is,“ said Abby Brooks, president of the SPA.