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Northeast Trailworks

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Humans have been making trails for millennia, but it's really only the past several years that a science behind sustainable trail building has arisen.  And here at Northeast Trailworks, LLP, we've taken our decades of experiences from being on both well-designed trails and no-so-well designed trails and have developed a good understanding of what works and where.  This experience, plus practice-affirming courses highlighting the tenets of sustainable trail design have positioned us to be ready to help with just about any trails project--from large to small, from planning to building, to maintenance or repairs. Contact us to learn more.
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Accessible Trails

Not everyone can use rugged trails, but people with different forms of mobility should still be able to get all of the benefits that trails can provide. Here are some accessibility resources: Trail Accessibility Hub - American Trails   The Trail Accessibility Hub offers comprehensive resources for planning, constructing, and maintaining accessible trails.  Mass Audubon All Persons Trails United States Department of Agriculture PDF   or as a  Web Page Accessibility Guidebook for Outdoor Recreation and Trails Soils Stabilizers on Universally Accessible Trails (USDA) Trails and Accessibility (AllTrails) United States Access Board Trails Section Trails For All - Massachusetts Office of Outdoor Recreation Accessible trails benefit more than just people who use wheelchairs. They can provide safe, equitable access for seniors, people with various disabilities or mobilities considerations, small children and their caregivers, people recovering from injury or illness, and peo...
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Trails are Medicine

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Trails are awesome. And that's not just opinion, it's been proven time and again by multiple scientific studies, a few of which are collected below. Having a library of this information could be good ammunition if anyone ever questions spending time, money, or other resources on trails. Trails are not just awesome, they're medicine. The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes. "Conclusions: Greenspace exposure is associated with numerous health benefits in intervention and observational studies. These results are indicative of a beneficial influence of greenspace on a wide range of health outcomes.  ...  Our findings should encourage practi- tioners and policymakers to give due regard to how they can create, maintain, and improve existing accessible greenspaces in deprived areas. Furthermore the development of strategies and interventions for the utilisation of such greenspaces by those who...
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Little Bridges

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Our local YMCA has a network of trails that are used during summer camps and other activities, and there were some bridges that had seen some better days. We didn't do any work on the well established trails, but per the client request we installed newer, better, in-kind bridges. And while the work itself was an easy lift, because the bridges crossed some small streams, the project was presented to the local Conservation Commission for permitting. 
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Trails Don't Build Themselves

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Trails Don't Build Themselves Wouldn’t it be interesting if road riders were gathering on weekends with steam rollers and trucks full of asphalt to patch or repair rough roads?  That doesn’t happen, but on any given weekend, anywhere across the country, mountain bikers get together with rakes, shovels, or maybe even mini excavators to create or improve the trails that we all ride on. Building trails—the right way—takes lots of work, and in many cases most of that work takes place before a shovel or hoe even scratches the dirt.
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