Margaret Rohde, Wissahickon Trails’ conservation manager and Freya McGregor, owner and consultant of Access Birding, discuss trail accessibility featu
Wissahickon Trails is taking a closer look at its pathways and preserves in an effort to increase accessibility for trail users.
"We have been working to improve our inclusivity of our programs and our preserves,” said Wissahickon Trails Executive Director Gail Farmer. "We have this broader diversity, equity and inclusion work that we’ve been doing for several years now and … improving the accessibility of our preserves and trails is one piece of that larger body of work.”
Federal COVID-19 relief dollars have helped further the initiative, which Wissahickon Trails’ Conservation Manager Margaret Rohde said is being funded through a $75,000 grant from the Montgomery County Recovery Office.
Rohde connected with Access Birding Inc. owner Freya McGregor after attending a virtual webinar. McGregor also works as an associate researcher at Virginia Tech and traveled to Philadelphia suburbs to work as a consultant, aiding Wissahickon Trails’ accessibility efforts.
Rohde said the effort focused on signage improvements, inclusive language, increasing access to information online, and involving key stakeholders in the overall process. A Trail Accessibility Advisory Council was formed with participation including caregivers and those with disabilities.
Rohde said she hopes this work will provide more access information and ways to make the experience more comforting, approachable and accessible.
"There are a lot of people who maybe have something like anxiety, or something else going on, and they don’t even identify that way, but they are still affected by the availability of trail information and things like that,” Rohde said.
"We invest in trails because … we want people to have access to nature, and we recognize that some people, not everybody can access nature,” Farmer said. "At all of our preserves, because people have different needs to be able to use, access to trails and access preserves.”
McGregor stressed the importance of offering "information to help people make up their own minds.”
Most recently, McGregor spent three weeks in Montgomery County, helping to gather information and cultivate recommendations for the Fort Washington-based nonprofit. McGregor, Rohde and members of the council visited several Wissahickon Trails sites to gauge where specific improvements could be made.
Locations included Willow Link Farm, Armentrout and Piszek preserves, as well as sections of the Green Ribbon Trail, according to a Wissahickon Trails spokesperson. They visited spaces in Ambler, Blue Bell, Fort Washington, and North Wales.
"We met them at different trails and preserves, just to talk to them and hear their thoughts about what might be better, or what issues they encounter when they’re trying to access our trails,” Rohde said, noting that "trail surfaces” and bridges were noted as areas to focus on for future improvements.
"When we got to the bridge, to observe someone in a wheelchair trying to just get over (something) that’s like an inch high, but you wouldn’t maybe even notice,” Rohde said. "It changes your perspective when you see that something that little … might make a big difference in their experience of being on the trail.”
McGregor aimed to collect survey, data findings and feedback from the trail visits for Wissahickon Trails by the end of October, with a report of recommendations to follow.
It was an experience that appeared to leave an impact on Farmer as she leads the nature nonprofit through a more inclusive lens. She added she hopes these preliminary steps will ultimately "inform our master plan for the Green Ribbon Trail and really our trails across all 12 nature preserves.”
"We learned so much by reaching out and talking with and engaging with people who are a part of a community that we want our trails and preserves to be for everyone,” Farmer said. "So when we move forward with any of our conservation projects, our education programs, we want to be having more engagement and conversations with particular members of the community to inform our decision making, essentially our direction and decision making.
"We … are a community-based organization, but we haven’t been operating necessarily with a conf community-informed approach,” she continued. "And that’s what I think is important about this work, and how it’s going to shift all of our work moving forward.”
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