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Community Geographics, Kennebunk Land Trust, and the ‘Full Picture’ of Trail Accessibility
EQUITABLE OUTDOOR ACCESS
Photo credit: Kennebunk Land Trust
“This is the right time for this work. We have the capacity, we have the energy, and now we have the ability,” says Sandy Gilbreath, Executive Director of Kennebunk Land Trust.
The work? Making the 30 miles of nature trails throughout the land trust more accessible for all people, including those with disabilities and those with varying levels of outdoor experience.
Since becoming the land trust’s executive director in 2022, Gilbreath has known that the area’s trails needed work to improve their accessibility. But it wasn’t until she attended an immersive workshop with Community Geographics in 2024 that she fully understood the breadth of what this work entails.
Equipped with new knowledge and skills, Gilbreath left the workshop inspired to take action. And since then, Kennebunk Land Trust has become a shining example of the power of investing in trail accessibility.
Collaborative Learning
The small but mighty team at Kennebunk Land Trust steward the land to create better conditions for both the wildlife that call it home and the humans who engage in nature walks, educational events, and trail programs with the organization.
Community Geographics has a similar goal. The organization comprises cartographers committed to gathering data, analyzing conservation opportunities, and mapping trails throughout Maine. It also runs Maine Trail Finder, a free resource for Mainers looking for detailed information about the state’s trail systems.
But the kind of information Maine Trail Finder provides is unique and important. In addition to standard facts about each trail’s length and elevation, the system also offers details about the user experience and accessibility, information mapped and organized by outdoor accessibility specialists, Enock Glidden and Kara Wooldrik.
Glidden, Wooldrik, and the Community Geographics team assess the physical conditions of, communications about, and experiences offered by nature trails, ensuring they’re as inclusive as possible. They also host regular trail tour workshops for individuals and organizations looking to take on this work. It was one of these workshops that inspired Gilbreath to invest in this work long term at Kennebunk Land Trust.
A Broadened Understanding of Accessibility
“Most of our trails have looked the same for 20 years. They weren’t really built for people, so they get wet and overgrown and uneven,” says Gilbreath. “When I saw that Kara and Enock were running the workshop, I knew I had to go.”
In the workshop, Gilbreath learned about practical actions that can make a big difference for trail users with disabilities, such as:
- Editing trail descriptions to provide more helpful and accurate information about the trail’s accessibility and user experience
- Clearing and widening trails so that people with mobility aids can more easily maneuver them
- Providing more details online, including information about cell service, parking, map access — all of which can help empower individuals to decide whether the trail is right for them
Most of all, though, the workshop broadened Gilbreath’s understanding of accessibility: “It’s not just about making sure you can put a wheelchair on a trail. It’s about making sure people can see and understand the signage. It’s about going in depth about parking and trail conditions. There’s so much to it.”
Community Geographics helped Gilbreath see that the goal of trail accessibility is ultimately to get more people out on trails. “There are plenty of people who feel adventurous but have different capabilities, or they’re bringing their toddler out that day, or they’re not used to being outdoors,” says Gilbreath. “Having a full picture of a trail experience makes people feel a little bit more comfortable so they can say, ‘Ok, I’m going to give this a try.’”
The Work Is Just Beginning
For Gilbreath and the Kennebunk Land Trust, the work didn’t stop with Community Geographic’s workshop.
“Once I got the concept of broadening accessibility into my head, I started to see the problems everywhere on our trails,” says Gilbreath. “The workshop really catalyzed a big push in understanding and investment in accessibility in our trails.”
Motivated by the skills she learned in the workshop, Gilbreath brought ideas back to the land trust’s board, which created the momentum to advance this work even further — momentum that’s still growing today. So far, the team has:
- Brought on a high school student intern to map the entire trail system and document details about slope, conditions, human accessibility, pet accessibility, and more
- Invested in better trail signage, including weather-resistant, reflective trail markers
- Revamped wayfinding maps and made them more accessible to users
- Added trail information to kiosks to be more transparent about trail conditions
These actions represent core parts of Kara and Enock’s ethos: “It’s all about giving people the information about what they’re getting into and enabling them to choose for themselves,” says Gilbreath.
Investing in the Future of Accessibility
The next phase for the land trust: building a fully accessible trail.
With a $100,000 grant from Tom’s of Maine, Gilbreath has secured permits, worked with contractors to design the trail, and recently broken ground to begin the construction phase. She’s also partnered with Nell Anthony, a graduate student at the University of Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, to review Community Geographics’ accessibility resources to ensure the user experience on the new trail meets the highest possible standard of accessibility.
Now is the moment for Gilbreath and Anthony: “There’s a reason that I didn’t get the past grants I applied for. I didn’t really know what I was talking about,” says Gilbreath. “But now I have a much clearer vision. I have the knowledge and confidence that started from that accessibility workshop. It’s because of that workshop that it snowballed into this big work.”
Come fall 2025, Gilbreath reports, the trail should be complete. And in the subsequent months, she and Anthony will install signage, benches, kiosks, and geolocated trail markers connected to emergency services to create a best-in-class example of trail accessibility in Maine.
This kind of project is evidence that, for Kennebunk Land Trust and so many other Maine-based organizations, Community Geographics serves as an invaluable resource. As Gilbreath says, “People like Kara and Enock come in as these amazing resources and push us into a whole other stratosphere of being able to work accessibility into everything we do.”