The Park District’s new Kubota tractor made its trail-building debut this week, rolled out to construct a 100-foot path at Shel Chelb Park.
The Kubota was funded in part by a $25,000 grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation, to both speed and ease trail construction projects that have largely relied on big crews and hand labor. The early reports: a grant well spent.
“You could just have one person basically build the whole trail,” says Sean Smith Sell, Trails Program manager for the Park District, between stints at the Kubota controls. “You can do anything – clear brush, grade the trail, dig out whatever you need to out of the trail, fill in the low spots, take down the high spots. You might need someone to bring gravel.”
The new trail followed this script, the two-person Park District crew clearing the way through a tangled thicket, filling and grading the path, and finishing with a sheen of gravel. Work started Monday afternoon; by Thursday morning, trail.
The trail runs along the pocket park’s south boundary next to Point White Drive. The trail completes a loop around the park, and links up with the longer Shel Chelb trail to Baker Hill Road and the Gazzam Lake trail network beyond.
The trail project was identified by the Park District and City of Bainbridge Island as an opportunity to shift pedestrians away from the roadway, for the brief stretch along the park’s south boundary, without making major shoulder improvements.
Expect to see the Kubota in action at more trail projects this year.
