Pitch in to build a new accessible trail at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee, Vermont!

We’d like your help to provide all visitors with easier access to our outdoor environment, including families with strollers, seniors with walkers and canes, and visitors using wheelchairs for mobility. Help complete a new path that will carefully meander through Vermont woodlands, connecting visitors with the wonders of the natural world along an easily traveled smooth yet firm gravel surface.

The trail has been cleared of branches and brush, and the ground has been leveled out, however, there is plenty of work to do to firm up the treadway. To build the trail, crib stones act as the backbone of the trail and need to be placed into the ground to perch and support this hillside trail across rolling landscape. Working in small teams of two to three volunteers, you’ll be instructed how to carefully move 50 to 150 lb. rocks and fit them into place, partially buried, along the trail edge. Many of these rocks have already been moved near the trail edge and need to be fit together, others are stockpiled and need to be rolled down slope to their final destinations. Using wheelbarrows, gravel will be moved to the trail and spread with rakes to form a firm level surfacing. The gravel will be loaded into wheelbarrows by tractor bucket or may be shoveled and hauled by volunteers.

We are flexible on the dates and can accommodate people almost any weekdays starting the week of March 25th and continuing through until May. Email Chloe Viner at cviner@vinsweb.org for more information or to schedule a day to volunteer.  More information about the Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences here.