AMHERST — Already a popular spot for walkers, many with dogs in tow, the Amethyst Brook Conservation Area trailhead will undergo work to improve access to hundreds of acres of permanently protected land in Amherst, Pelham and Shutesbury.
With Kestrel Land Trust and The Trustees for Reservations last year placing a conservation restriction on the 1,094-acre contiguous forest now known as the Sarah Cowls Forest at Pelham Hills, the town’s conservation department, in partnership with Kestrel, is upgrading the 132 Pelham Road site.
Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek said that some of the phase one work this fall will include installing new kiosks, revising trail maps, putting in fences and striping the parking lot, as well as having an accessible parking space and crosswalk. The parking area will be closed at times.
The trail itself will also shift. “We’re slightly rerouting the trail that caused erosion on the brook,” Ziomek said.
The original section of the trail along the bank of the Amethyst Brook will be permanently closed to allow for critical ecological restoration, after years of foot traffic impacted the ecosystem.
Visitors will asked to follow the signs and stay on designated trails to allow for native plant species to be re-established
The second phase of the work, starting next spring, will include replacing two undersized culverts and trying to make the first part of the trail, which eventually ties into the Robert Frost Trail, fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and moving the existing main trail entrance out of the low-lying wetland area.
A final phase is eventual installation of a small accessible trail, though this is still being planned and is not yet funded
Amethyst Brook Conservation Area is seen as a “gateway” trail entrance for Kestrel’s Amethyst Brook Nature Retreat,which hosts both the Dorie Goldman Memorial Trail and the Sarah Cowls Forest.
The newly protected land is being stewarded as “forever wild,” with Kestrel and The Trustees taking a passive management approach to the forest to encourage old-growth conditions to develop.
The site takes its name from Sarah Cowls, who was born in 1887 and ran a dairy operation where the Mill District of North Amherst is now located.
