ROCKLAND, Maine ― About 50 percent of the midcoast’s largest peat bog is located on the outskirts of Rockland, but there has been no convenient way for people to access the unique ecological area from inside city limits.
A group of city volunteers has been working to change that.
A new city-owned trail, called the Bog Overlook Trail, is currently being created and could be ready for use by late summer. City officials hope better access will uncover a hidden gem for many residents who might not know it is right in their backyard.
“We have this amazing ecological resource, feature, place that’s super cool and if you know somebody who has land near there or have someone who has shown you around, people can access it, but it’s just kind of under the radar,” Rockland City Councilor Sarah Austin said. “I would really like to see it have … some points where public access is easy to understand and easy to get to and that people can comfortably take their kids there or go for a stroll and really see the side of Rockland that isn’t just looking at the waterfront.”
The bog ― known as the Oyster River Bog or the Rockland Bog ― is the largest peat bog in the midcoast region, according to Annette Naegel, Director of Conservation for the Georges River Land Trust. The bog and its watershed cover about 5,700 acres across parts of Thomaston, Warren, Rockland and Rockport, with the bulk being in Rockland.
About 1,000 acres have been permanently conserved, Naegel said, and the land trust is currently working to purchase and preserve another 500 acres.
On Monday, the Rockland City Council passed a resolution in support of the Georges River Land Trust and formalizing the partnership between the two entities that has been growing in recent years on matters relating to land conservation and trails in the bog-area.
To make the bog more accessible from in-town Rockland, the city’s parks and recreation committee developed a vision for a “Waterfront to Wilderness Trail,” which would run across the city from east to west and connect an already established harbor trail to the bog. The land trust has been lending its expertise through to the committee on this effort as well.
The Bog Overlook Trail that is currently being developed on city-owned land on Bog Road is the first piece of bringing this vision to life. The trail will meander about a quarter-mile through a lightly wooded area to a piece of ledge that serves as an overlook where people can take in an expansive view of the bog.
“You get to the overlook and it hooks people. You’re like ‘Wow I didn’t know this was here,” said Kate Doiron, who leads the entirely volunteer sub-committee working on the Waterfront to Wilderness Trail effort.
Last fall the city’s public services department built a small parking lot where the trailhead will be located. Currently, the committee is working to submit a permit application with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection so trail work can begin, hopefully this spring. Doiron said the trail could be usable by late summer.
While the trail to the overlook is only about a quarter-mile, the committee is working to incorporate it into a slightly longer loop-style trail that would utilize a neighboring city-owned parcel.
Eventually, the hope is to connect the new trail to the existing footpath maintained by the Georges River Land Trust. That path can be accessed through trailheads in Thomaston and West Rockport, but not from within Rockland.
Like the city’s harbor trail, bringing to life the entirety of the Waterfront to Wilderness Trail will take time. But by establishing a short trail into the bog as a starting point, Austin and Doiron said they hope people will get excited about what can be discovered by finding a way to connect the city’s waterfront downtown to its rural outskirts.
“When you live in Rockland, you’ve got the harbor trail, but otherwise you’re really leaving the city to go hiking or to go to a preserve,” Doiron said. “[The overlook trail] is highly accessible to show people this natural resource that we have.”