Above: In 2018, new signs were installed inviting hikers to explore the Town Forest. This spring, stewards will be posting new signs marking trails, after they decide what names to put on them. (contributed image)
Southborough’s Stewardship Committee is inviting residents to give some quick feedback before they name trails in the Town Forest. (For those of you not familiar with the property, you can view a map of the forest below right.)
An announcement asks for help choosing trail names for new signage to be installed. A message within the survey further explains:
The Town Forest signage is getting a makeover thanks to funding from a Choate Fund Grant. The Stewardship Committee is seeking community input on trail names. We want your help to narrow down a list of potential trail names related to the flora and fauna found on the property. We are asking you to rank the names in order of your preference. The top 5-6 highest ranking choices will be used for the trail names. Responses are due by Sunday, 2/20/22.
The Town Forest is a 54 acre forest that offers a small trail system located between Woodland Road and Walnut Drive. It’s a beautiful place for a brief stroll in the forest. To learn more about the town forest, click here.
We expect the signage to be installed in April/May. Thank you for your feedback.
Happy Trails,
Stewardship Committee
The survey simply asks residents to rank their preference for the following choices:
- Witch Hazel Way
- Rocky Narrow
- White Pine Path
- Wood Frog Way
- Spring Peeper Path
- Hickory Lane
- Huckleberry Way
- Sweet Pepperbush Path
- Wintergreen Way
- Black Birch Way
- Red Maple Trail
- Spicebush Trail
- Salamander Trail
- Sassafras Path
- Solomon’s Seal Trail
- Pipsissewa Path
If you haven’t hiked the forest trails within the last year, you also may be interested in reading about a project from last spring to add handcrafted bird houses and “small wetland statuettes of local wildlife” along the trails for the community to “hunt” for on their hikes.
It is great that all this new signage is going to go up but a real issue for the people who live around the trails is parking for the people who are coming in cars to the area. Walnut Drive residents are seeing people park all over the street and on our properties. When they leave they often throw trash on the side of the road and if it is food, it brings the coyotes. I have had people park in my driveway and go for a walk in the woods for a couple hours. One neighbor put up a big yellow no trespass sign because of it. If you don’t have a place for them to park, why try to attract them? Walnut Drive is a very small, narrow street and attracting new people to come onto the street is an issue in many ways. There are lots of kids that play in their driveways and these people that come don’t always drive slow (Kat!). We don’t want more people on our street and ruining our front lawns because they park on them or letting their dogs go to the bathroom on our lawns. Create a parking area other than the 2 spaces available only when it isn’t muddy so that people can park and inconvenience the residents that live there. Solve the real issues instead of worrying about naming trails.
Thank you for sharing your concern about parking. As the chair of the Stewardship Committee, I am happy to share that we are working on new signs that we hope can help. And I would like to remind visitors that parking is available as follows:
2 spots at Trailhead off Walnut (drive down dirt path, continue past house, into woods, taking care not to block the driveway and not parking next to the house)
2-3 spots at cul-de-sac at end of Walnut Drive
2-3 spots along Woodland Road, next to Town Forest Sign, between the two trail entrances
2 spots on Kidder lane (with a short walk to the forest)
It is interesting that you note that there are 2-3 spots in the Walnut Drive cul-de-sac. Whenever I have been down there, the entire cul-de-sac is full with a truck from Mancini Landscaping that is always parked illegally there and cars from the workers and the houses. There is almost never any parking available. I am not sure why this truck is allowed to constantly park in the cul-de-sac. It would be nice to have parking for the trails but the bottom of Walnut never works. Thank you for pointing out the other places, much appreciated.