west river trail

by

Invasive Work Morning on the Riverstone Preserve

Please join us for a work morning on the West River Trail. It’s a pleasant way to spend a couple hours in a lovely place. All are welcome!

We’ll teach you how to identify the invasive plants, if you haven’t done this before.

For more info and to tell us you’re coming, please email us at lowersection@westrivertrail.org. Thanks and we hope to see you there!

When:  Sunday, September 24, 9-11 AM
What:  Pulling (mostly) oriental bittersweet seedlings
Where:  We’ll meet at the west end of the Sibosen Interpretive Trail, where it meets the West River Trail. It’s about 1 1/2 miles from the Marina Trailhead and from the Rice Farm Rd Trailhead. You can also get there by parking at the Fox Farm Road trailhead, and walking down the access road to the WRT, turn left and you’ll soon see the sign for Sibosen Trail on the right. Biking in from the trailheads gets you there more quickly, if you’re able to do that.
What to bring:  Water, work gloves, insect repellant, snack if needed.

To learn more about Asiatic Bittersweet and other invasives visit the Vermont Invasives website.
Asiatic bittersweet is a deciduous, woody vine that climbs saplings and trees and can grow over 60 feet in length.
The alternate, elliptical to circular leaves are light green in color and 2-5 inches long.
Small, inconspicuous, axillary, greenish-white flowers bloom from May to early June. Oriental bittersweet closely resembles American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens). The main difference: Celastrus scandens has flowers and fruits at the terminal ends of branches; Celastrus orbiculatus has flowers scattered along the entire stem.
The small globose fruits are green when young; ripen to yellow; then split to reveal showy, scarlet berries that persist into winter.

by

Join the West River Trail Work Morning August 27

Please join us for a work morning to pull invasive plant species on the Riverstone Preserve! We need your help! This is fun, rewarding and important work. Please come!

When:  Sunday, August 27, 9-11 AM
What:  Pulling (mostly) oriental bittersweet seedlings
Where:  We’ll meet at the west end of the Sibosen Interpretive Trail, where it meets the West River Trail. It’s about 1 1/2 miles from the Marina Trailhead and the Rice Farm Rd Trailhead.  You can also get there by parking at the Fox Farm Rd, trailhead, and walking down the access road, to the WRT, turn left and you’ll soon see the sign for Sibosen Trail on the right. Biking in from the trailheads gets you there more quickly, if you’re able to do that.
What to bring:  water, work gloves, insect repellant, snack if needed.

We’ll teach you how to identify the invasive plants, if you haven’t done this before.

For more info and to tell us you’re coming, please email lowersection@westrivertrail.org. Thanks and we hope to see you there! It’s a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, in a lovely place.  

by

Invasive Catch of the Day

A lovely morning was spent pulling Oriental Bittersweet on the Riverstone Preserve, with 6 volunteers, on Sunday, July 23. 

Here’s Alex Wilson (a West River Trail Steering Committee member) displaying the largest, longest bittersweet root pulled out that day!  Mostly we pull small seedlings, but occasionally we find a whopper! 

If you’d like to help out, the next work day will be Sunday, August 27, from 9-11 AM.  We’d love to see you there! 

by

Trail Work Day Sunday July 23, 9-11 am

Seeking Volunteers for a Work Day Sunday, July 23, 9-11 AM.

What:  Pulling bittersweet seedlings and a few other invasive species on the Riverstone Preserve.

Who: Anyone interested in being outdoors, learning about invasive plants and helping to keep invasive plants under control on the Riverstone Preserve.

Where:  Meet at the north Sibosen trail head (just south of the Fox Farm Access road) at 9 AM. 

What to bring:  a water bottle, hat, sunscreen, insect repellant, work gloves, and snack if needed.

Questions and RSVP:  please contact lowersection@westrivertrail.org

We’re going to work in areas we worked a few years ago, on the western end of the Riverstone Preserve. Because of the great work we did, the seedlings that are growing there now are small and easy to pull.  We will have professional treatment done on the areas we’ve been working on last fall and earlier this summer, where the bittersweet has grown so thickly, it is not possible to take care of it manually with volunteers. 

We will talk about the option of “adopting” a plot of land on the Riverstone Preserve that will be yours to monitor and pull the invasive plants.  We anticipate it would only take one whole day a summer to do this, or you could choose to make several trips for a couple of hours each time.  Dan Healey of Long View Forest may be there to talk more about this and show you how to use an online map to know where your plot’s boundaries are. Mike Duffy, a local botanist, may also be there to help you identify the invasive plants or other plants you observe and wonder about. 

Please come!

by

Trail Work Day: Sunday June 25

Please join us for a workday on the West River Trail on Sunday, June 25. 

When: Sunday, June 25 from 9 am -11 am. 
Where: Meet up at 9 am at the south Sibosen trailhead. There is a sign identifying the interpretive trail. It’s about 1 1/2 miles from the Marina trailhead.
What: Help clear invasives 
What to bring: work gloves, water, sunscreen, insect repellent. 

To RSVP and for questions:, please reach out to us at lowersection@westrivertrail.org

The May workday was a lovely day to be out on the Riverstone Preserve. Six volunteers joined in to pull Bittersweet. We worked hard, got a lot accomplished and learned a lot from each other about plants, birds, and local nature. 

Huge thanks to our May workday volunteers! Photos include Eric Reines, Jesse Wagner, Eric Pofcher, Mike Duffy and Dan Drish. The fallen tree is covered with the piles of bittersweet we pulled, letting the roots dry out and die, rather than throwing them on the ground where they could reroot. 

We will be hosting invasive work days monthly through the fall–and will announce them on this website and our west river trail facebook page. Hope you will join us!

by

Invasive Plants Workday at the Riverstone Preserve

Dame's Rocket

Happy Spring! Come join other volunteers to learn to identify and pull common invasive plants on the Riverstone Preserve.

Workday details:
When: Sunday, May 21 from 9 am to 11 am
Where to meet up: The South Sibosen trailhead at 9 am. There is a sign identifying the interpretive trail. It’s about 1 1/2 miles from the Marina trailhead.
What to bring: Work gloves, water, sunscreen, insect repellent. 
RSVP and for questions: lowersection@westrivertrail.org

We will be hosting invasive work days monthly from now through the fall–and will announce them on this website and the West River Trail Facebook page. Hope you will join us!

by

Vermont Winter Trails

The West River Trail was recently featured in an article on little-known Vermont winter trails. 

Here’s an excerpt:

For a small state, Vermont is big on trails. Fortunately, access to Vermont winter trails can happen without going to a ski resort or traversing the backcountry. The Green Mountain State is home to a variety of smaller Vermont winter trails and trail networks offering snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

The 36-mile West River Trail includes an Upper Section in Londonderry, Jamaica, and Townshend and a Lower Section in Brattleboro and Dummerston. Most of the trail system is not groomed for skiing. However, the Army Corps of Engineers grooms in the Winhall Campground and along a few miles in the Upper Section.

Upper Section access points include the Winhall Campground and the trail head at the end of West River Street in South Londonderry. Lower Section parking and access is at the Marina Trailhead or Rice Farm Road in Dummerston.

Click through to read the full article here. Thanks to Erica Houskeeper at Happy Vermont for the feature!

Happy Winter!

by

West River Trail Annual Letter: Southern Section

Greetings,

2022 has proven – once again – that outdoor recreational opportunities are very important to individuals, families, and the community – in hard times and in good. The West RiverTrail continues to serve as a place to enjoy our world, alone or with others, while being able to be safely distanced; and it is also a place of community, happiness, and joy.

Use of the trail continues to be very strong. Recent trail counts provided by the Windham Regional Commission show that there are typically 80-90 trail users per day, with peak usage topping 150 walkers, runners, riders, and other trail enthusiasts.  For Brattleboro and the region, the West River Trail is not only a place for outdoor recreation, but it is also good for our economy and our community, helping to attract people to the stores, restaurants, and cultural institutions of our area.

Friends of the West River Trail continues to work to improve and maintain the trail; to provide benches and picnic tables for rest and relaxation; to protect the land along the trail, and to improve the ecosystem health on the Riverstone Preserve.  To do this work, we need your help. Please consider a year-end donation to Friends of the West River Trail – Lower Section, to support this work.

Here’s how we’ve been putting your past support to work:

-We acquired an additional eight-acre parcel along the trail – the Town Line Parcel –which spans the Brattleboro-Dummerston town line and includes about a half-mile of the trail.

-We are using professional control services, along with the work of committed community volunteers, to continue our efforts to remove invasive plants from the 22-acre Riverstone Preserve. This includes removal of a variety of non-native plants and their residual seedlings, including: Asiatic bittersweet, multiflora rose, glossy buckthorn, black swallowwort, Japanese knotweed, and bush honeysuckle. And it’s so satisfying to see that native plants are coming back in place of these invasives!

-We installed additional benches.

-We’re continuing regular trail maintenance, removing fallen trees, and dealing with some of the challenging drainage problems.

-We are in discussions with a number of landowners along the trail about the possibility of acquiring additional land to expand the Riverstone Preserve and ensure protection of the entire Lower Section trail corridor. We are hopeful that we will be able to increase the land area that Friends of the West River Trail can fully manage for biodiversity and recreational opportunities.

-We are working with other organizations in the region to create a network of linked trails along the Connecticut River and extending into New Hampshire.

To be able to continue this important work on the trail and to take advantage of land acquisition and easement protection opportunities as they come along, we need community support. Please consider donating today.

Friends of the West River Trail is a nonprofit (501(c)(3)) organization that is 100% volunteer run. Those of us on the Lower Section Steering Committee are your neighbors in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Newfane, and Marlboro—working to provide critically important recreational opportunities for our community.  Please consider supporting these efforts by going to the Lower Section donate button on the West River Trail donate page.

Thank you and best wishes for a healthy and safe 2023,

Lower Section Steering Committee, Friends of the West River Trail

Jason Cooper, Brattleboro
Peter Doran, Brattleboro
Elia Hamilton, Newfane
Lester Humphreys, Brattleboro
Matt Mann, Brattleboro
Malcolm Moore, Marlboro
Steve Shriner, Brattleboro
Jesse Wagner, Dummerston
Mark Westa, Brattleboro
Kathleen White, Brattleboro
Alex Wilson, Dummerston

by

New Memorial Bench on the West River Trail

A new bench along the West River, just a couple of hundred yards down from The Marina on the West River Trail, is dedicated to Linda Dierks and her father, Valmore Horton Smith.

The bench on the West River, in an area Dierks loved to row, is made of stone donated by artist Dan Snow and stands on black pipe rescued from an old boiler that was pulled out of the Latchis Theatre years ago. The stone and pipe were brought together by Rich Gillis, of Mystic Metallurgy.

Read the full story, written by Bob Audette at The Brattleboro Reformer.

by

Thank You Trail Volunteers!

On a warm, beautiful Saturday afternoon, at the end of October, we had our last invasive workday of the season, pulling invasives on the Riverstone Preserve. 

Here’s Eric Reinz, one of our dedicated volunteers, holding a handful of asiatic bittersweet seedlings. 

Though we are finished for the year, we plan to be back at it as soon as we can, in the spring of 2023.

We are so grateful for all the volunteers who showed up to help with this effort this year. Together, we pulled a lot of bittersweet seedlings (and some glossy buckthorn), which is a necessary and hugely important part of the management strategy following professional treatments.

Thank you, thank you!