BNRC launches ‘High Road’ vision for countywide trail network
Pittsfield — Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC) has launched a campaign to create a countywide town-to-town trail system called the Berkshire High Road.
The High Road campaign will strive to fill in the “missing pieces” in the county’s patchwork of conserved lands and create walking trails through nature linking town and village centers to each other.
To support the vision, BNRC has undertaken a $5 million capital campaign. BNRC President Tad Ames said the Council has worked quietly on the vision since early 2013 and hopes to complete the fundraising for the campaign by the end of this year in time to mark its 50th anniversary in 2017. Donors have made commitments of $4.25 million during the campaign’s “quiet phase.”
Ames observed that some 80 percent of the needed links are already in place. The Council’s goal is to help conserve the most strategic lands remaining and secure trail easements to link landmarks to each other and to towns. The Council has met with many stakeholders including public agencies, land conservation organizations, municipalities, and individuals in what Ames said will be a “hugely collaborative” effort.
“We envision a 100 percent walkable Berkshires,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we walk on every square inch; it means we want to give someone the chance to walk from Williamstown to Sandisfield with options to stop at every interesting and refreshing place along the way.”
