The Reefton Trail Collective is a new group formed by passionate locals to ‘enrich Reefton by developing, maintaining, and promoting a trail network that inspires recreation, welcomes visitors, and fosters local pride.’
In the last few months the group has finalised a volunteer agreement with the Department of Conservation to be able to help out with maintenance of tracks and trails in Reefton and has recently run volunteer induction sessions for anyone wanting to join its ‘Trail Crew’.
Vice-Chair Tara Papworth has been delivering the sessions alongside Luke McLawn, Department of Conservation Ranger Project Lead (Heritage and Visitors). “We’ve had a great turnout to our first two sessions and now have nearly twenty people in our trail crew who are trained up and keen to get started!” says Tara. “The induction sessions are mandatory for anyone wanting to join us and cover our processes, agreement with the Department of Conservation, historic track information, health and safety responsibilities, and safe tool use. It’s great to see so many people enthusiastic and passionate about looking after what we have and making our trails available for everyone to enjoy.”
The group will start working bees in January to help keep Reefton’s trails maintained over summer, and will be running more induction sessions for anyone else who’d like to join the Trail Crew.
If you’d like to know more, follow the Reefton Trail Collective on Facebook, or contact reeftontrailcollective@gmail.com.