Expansion Project To Connect River Trail With Botanical Garden
botanical garden, cape fear river trail, fayetteville, fayetteville-cumberland parks and recreation, michael gibson, recreation, river trail,
Outdoors enthusiasts, rejoice: A project beginning in fall 2008 will connect two of the city’s most popular green gems, the Cape Fear River Trail and the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. The $2 million expansion is expected to be completed in 2010.
The trail currently consists of 3.5 miles of a 10-foot wide paved path that is used by walkers, joggers, bikers and others.
“The trail got so busy at one time that they wanted us to put a stripe down the middle of it,” says Michael Gibson, division manager for parks for Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation. “We’re really becoming a tourist destination. Our numbers are growing every year. Our membership has gone up 68 percent in the last two years. One of the goals when you create a greenway system through a community is to have destinations scattered along that system. We’re the destination for a lot of weekend outings for families, couples, cyclists and others.”
The Cape Fear River Trail is part of the East Coast Greenway, which will be the nation’s first long-distance, city-to-city urban trail. At completion, it will connect Maine to Florida. Likened to an urban Appalachian Trail, it is intended for cyclists, hikers and other non-motorized users.
The expansion project will add four more miles to the trail, linking it to the garden. Connecting these two scenic treasures is only, well, natural, says Dr. Finley Bryan, executive director of the Cape Fear Botanical Garden.
The garden, which itself has numerous trails in its urban forest, sits on 79 acres at the convergence of Cross Creek and the Cape Fear River. The garden is conducting a resource campaign with plans to build a visitors pavilion complex that will include a reception area, gift shop, education space and offices. Plans also call for bike racks to accommodate cyclists wishing to access the park by trail, Bryan says.
Seeing an increase in the number of people using the trail and garden is a welcome effect from the perspective of the parks and recreation department, Gibson says.
“Having a usage ‘problem’ is always good for parks,” Gibson says. “People come from Sanford, North Carolina to walk and run and ride on that trail. Senior groups from Rocky Mount come to use it. High schools have even run cross-country meets on it. It’s not just a Cumberland County facility; it’s a regional facility.”
And it’s no mystery why. The trail runs alongside the Cape Fear River, weaving through such terrain as marsh and wetlands that include hundreds of species of plants and trees.
“One of the big reasons the trail is so popular is it gives people the ability to be in nature and have an area where they can walk without worrying about traffic,” Gibson says. “And it’s just a nice place to be. It’s a tremendous asset to this region.”
The $2 million expansion is to be completed sometime in 2010.
Bryan lists the growth of the trail as a key factor in the continued enhancement of the quality of life in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
“One of the wonderful things about the future of Fayetteville is the expansion of this greenway system. Robert Barefoot [director of Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation] has really been the architect of this and he strongly believes there are no great cities without great greenways. It’s all about connecting our community,” Bryan says.
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Story by Kimberly Daly
Photo by Ian Curcio
