Courtesy photo

NH Audubon is celebrating the opening of its newest accessible trail at its headquarters in Concord. Conservation Director Marc Nutter initiated the project with successful funding from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation in 2021.

“We are pleased to announce that, after many years of planning and learning from the communities we intend to serve, we have built Concord’s first All Persons Trail, fulfilling the vision we set out to create in 2019,” Nutter announces. “This effort in July 2022 by our own Director of Lands and Ecological Management, Parker Schuerman, and trail building contractor Lew Shelley from SnowHawk LLC, has opened up new wildlife viewing opportunities for all people.”

NH Audubon created the new trail with two goals in mind: to increase universally accessible trail opportunities in New Hampshire, and to increase awareness of the need for native plant and wildflower meadows in our state to support pollinators.

The All Persons Trail features a compacted, gravel surface designed so that people using assisted mobility devices can experience the pollinator meadow and connect with nature. Just to ensure the trail accomplishes this, Schuerman invited a few nearby guests to try out the trail.

“We reached out to Venessa Blais, Project Manager from NH Council on Developmental Disabilities, who introduced us to some fantastic neighbors,” Shuerman explains. James Piet and Pat Vincent-Piet live close to Silk Farm Wildlife Sanctuary and Deodonne Bhattarai and her son, Bodhi are also local.