partnering with Kennett Trails Alliance

This summer, Natural Lands had the opportunity to collaborate on a program that introduced interns from Kennett Trails Alliance (KTA) to our preserve network, land stewardship practices, and other conservation-related career pathways.  

Kennett Trails Alliance is a non-profit operating within the Square Roots Collective, a collection of non-profit and for-profit entities working to build a community where a diverse group of people both want to and can live. Other entities under this umbrella include The Creamery (beer garden and community gathering space), Voices Underground (promoting nationally significant history of the Underground Railroad in the local region), and Square Roots Property Management (investing in rental properties to provide opportunities for a broad range of people to live in Kennett). KTA’s current focus is connecting and trail building along the 14-mile Kennett Greenway, which will provide residents with myriad options for getting out into nature along a non-vehicular, multi-use trail.  

This summer, KTA piloted an internship program which had three major focuses: 1) supporting the Bike Kennett Program by teaching interns how to restore bikes that have been donated so they can be deployed for no cost into the community; 2) trail maintenance, invasive species removal, and planting efforts on several sites along the Kennett Greenway; and 3) advocating to the Kennet School Board to initiate movement on a public use project that includes a covered outdoor classroom/gathering space and an interpretive boardwalk trail around a pocket of wetlands adjacent to the high school athletic fields. (See article: Building a new legacy along the Kennett Greenway | Chester County Press) 

Natural Lands staffers Aimee Alvarenga and Erin Smith worked with KTA’s Kymm Bontrager (Youth Development Program Manager) and Anita Davidson (Director of Trails Development, and a Natural Lands Force of Nature volunteer!) to support the interns as they learned trail maintenance practices, invasive plant ID and removal strategies, and other general land management practices. Aimee was integral in providing translations of programming into Spanish throughout the partnership, and collaborated with Erin and Kristen Bower on a bi-lingual “About Natural Lands and Land Stewardship Overview” introductory presentation. Aimee is especially passionate about creating meaningful outdoor experiences for youth of color and low-income youth; she did an extraordinary job connecting with the KTA interns. 

photo: Erin Smith

Aimee and Erin visited the KTA Headquarters at the onset of the program, reviewed the introductory PowerPoint, and then walked the trails around the headquarters and Cypress Beach Park, KTA’s recently completed 33,000 square-foot pocket park and outdoor gathering space. This was an opportunity to introduce the interns to invasive species; practice invasive removal, learn how to properly prune and maintain trees (along the trail and within the new planting at Cypress Beach Park); and use hand tools like pruners, loppers, and hand saws. Over the course of the summer, the interns visited Willisbrook, Sadsbury Woods, and ChesLen Preserves. At Willisbrook they learned about the Serpentine Barrens and worked on cutting down green briar ladder fuels in one of the fire management units. At Sadsbury Woods, the group learned about the important interior woodland habitat and helped install a series of new interpretive signs. At ChesLen, David Castaneda offered the interns a hay-wagon ride and showed them some of the stewardship projects the ChesLen Team is working on, and Claudia Winters worked with the group to build American Kestrel boxes that will be installed throughout the preserve system this fall and winter.  

Photo: Erin Smith

When asked about their experience this summer, one of the interns said, “I loved the sound of nature; it was so relaxing. The flowers, the plants… they were so pretty. I really enjoyed the hiking trip at Sadsbury Woods and installing the new interpretive signs.” Another said, “I loved seeing the fame flower and learning about the Serpentine Barrens at Willisbrook. It was fun to learn how to use the different tools, and I most enjoyed building the kestrel boxes.”  

Overall, this program was a super collaboration, and staff will look forward to more opportunities like this in the future.