"Birding for Everyone" Trail

Carol Hunter* an expert on trail design spoke at a Grand Valley Audubon Society monthly program about handicap accessibility.  Later she surveyed the Audubon’s owned properties, Nature Center and Ela Sanctuary and recommended that we start by making our Nature Center bird blind wheelchair accessible.

This blind is our classroom for our bird banding and outdoor education programs for local school district fifth grade students.  Some years we have almost 1,000 students on field trips taking advantage of the opportunity to get up close to nature. Both of Grand Valley Audubon Society properties are connects to the twenty-nine Riverfront Trail system via the Audubon section of the trails.

Her next suggestion was that we make a handicap accessible trail from the information kiosk at the entrance to the Ela Sanctuary from Dike Road to the Colorado River.  The ponds on the sanctuary flood seven out of ten years to allow newly hatched Razorback suckers to float into these ponds.  They remain safe from predators and grow until the next flood them swim back into the Colorado River.

The flooding created a problem for the existing trails as they were sometimes under three to five feet of water for as long as six weeks.  The first option was to build a dike along the ponds to keep water away from the trail.  The Upper Colorado Endangered Fish Recovery Program who holds an easement on this property would not allow Audubon to impede the flow of water.  The trail was elevated along the fence line three to five feet to solve the flooding problem for most years.  Five hundred feet of the trail was already out of the flood plain and only needed to cleared and leveled before the trail was constructed.

The trail construction using three inches of compacted decomposed granite, with black polypropylene edging raised two inches above the trail to serve as a kick rail for the blind.  The finished trail is five and one half feet wide and the grade meets ADA standards for wheelchairs accessibility.  The trail is 700 feet long and ends at the Colorado River with a large gathering area and a sign describing the features of a riparian habitat.

During the design phase, we discovered less than 5% of the blind use brail and we would need an audio feature for complete enjoyment the outdoor adventure.  All available motion sensor digital players require an electoral power source to operate and are quite expensive.  Our units must be weatherproof, battery operated and vandal proof.  An extensive internet search did not yield a unit that met our needs.  Jeff Beard a professional electronics expert and son-in-laws of the author developed a player that meets all this criteria.  The only limitation is that the batteries will need replaced after an unknown time.  The player has a power shut off after five minutes of playtime to increase battery life.  Message recorded on a home PC and downloaded to the player using a USB connection.  GVAS will record a description of the area and songs of birds common to the sanctuary on all four of the signs along the Birding for Everyone Trail.

2011: Bob Wilson Trail Manager and President of Grand Valley Audubon Society

*Carol Hunter, author of Accessible Outdoor Facilities and Programs Using Universal Design2002.