A trail plan for the Brandywine Valley portion of the First State National Historical Park is approved by the National Park Service.
The trail plan will create or improve nearly 28 miles of multi-use paths in the park. Those trails are being designed for a wide variety of users, according to Samantha Baranski with the National Park Service.
“Whether that's hiking, mountain biking, equestrian riding, walking your dog, on the leash, of course, bird watching; a lot of different recreational opportunities," she said.
Even as work on creating trails gets underway, research into the site, which encompasses over two square miles, is continuing.
“We're in the process of doing a cultural landscape inventory. So what are the significant things that we need to be paying attention to? We're in the process of doing an archaeological overview and assessment," Baranski said. "So what are the things hidden underneath the ground that we need to pay attention to?”
Baranski added that, to make the trails accessible to the widest variety of users requires a lot of planning to account for all their needs.
“The tread of a tire is going to have different impacts on a trail than the hoof of a horse. A horse is going to weigh more than the bike or person, so just thinking through different scenarios. But truly we're designing the trails to meet all of those different needs," she said.
The National Park Service will rehabilitate over eight miles of trails and create over eight additional miles. The project is expected to take about five years.
