AMHERST — A hiking trail named for Amherst’s most famous poet, extending along the Fort River from Groff Park to the Norwottuck Rail Trail, is getting a makeover this summer.
With a nearly $8,000 grant from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, the ad hoc Fort River Watershed Association will be rehabilitating the Emily Dickinson Trail with new kiosks and several stations to provide information to people walking on the path.
Bruce Stedman, co-director of the Conway School of Landscape Design, told the Conservation Commission at a recent meeting that the idea is to improve the trail as it runs along the south bank of the river, the longest tributary of the Connecticut River without a dam.
The grant will pay for replacing the existing numbered posts that were part of an earlier interpretative trail and establishing kiosks at either end of the path, along with seven to nine way stations covering different topics.
“We think it will be a dramatically improved circumstance,” Stedman said.
The project aims to have better signs for visitors, with QR codes so they can access more information with their phones, a more comprehensive understanding of the ecology of the watershed, with a focus on some of the birds, beavers and migratory fish that inhabit it, and more community engagement.
The Emily Dickinson Trail also includes a poetry box that was put there last year, where people are encouraged to write their own compositions, and a birdhouse that has been converted into an unusual dollhouse.
Work on the trail is expected to be done by mid-fall, at which time there will be a grand reopening.
Though most of the trail is on land owned by Amherst College, Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek said the town maintains it and has done work to improve its walkability and bridges.
Ziomek’s predecessor, Pete Westover, put in the trail with assistance from the college. The trail took its name in 2005 when trails around town were named in honor of local writers, past and present.
Meantime, the town is seeking a $400,000 grant from the state’s Parksland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities that would pay for improved trails through the former Hickory Ridge Golf Course, and provide more direct connections for nearby complexes to the site, and for residents in Orchard Valley to get to Groff Park.
The grant proposal includes fashioning a loop on the southern section of the golf course that will include benches, stream crossings and kiosks, and making existing paths carved by golf carts more accessible.
Ziomek said a comprehensive plan for Hickory Ridge is also underway that will look at reuse options for the area of the clubhouse, which is expected to be demolished, and the parking lot, with a section likely to be set aside for trailhead parking. Other buildings on site, including prefabricated storage buildings, may be salvaged and used to keep town equipment out of the elements.
One municipal use being considered for the West Pomeroy Lane site is for the long anticipated fire station south of downtown.
“We are still looking for and planning for a South Amherst fire station, and I would honestly say that part of that available upland could be some sort of substation or modest fire station, it’s not out of the question,” Ziomek said.
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