Dedham has been awarded a state recreational trails grant to establish a ``water trail'' that will take paddlers on a 3-hour loop along the Charles River and a connecting waterway.
With the $33,835 grant from the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the town will be able to create a Dedham water trail and provide more access to the Charles. The town will provide additional funding for the project, which is to be completed by 2011.
View Dedham Water Trail in a larger map
Dedham's environmental coordinator, Virginia LeClair, said the Charles ``is one of our most valuable resources, and there's very few access points to the river, whether it's for passive or active recreation.''
The town will construct a ``car-top boat launch'' for canoes and kayaks at a site somewhere along the Charles. LeClair said she has two sites in mind. If the state does not approve the first option, Dedham will switch to the second.
At the to-be-determined site, the town would clear out invasive species and brush, put up signs, and create some permeable paver parking spots. Instead of having water run off asphalt, as usual, the newfangled spots would allow water to seep through gravel, sand, and a brick-like substance and flow back into the groundwater, LeClair said.
She added that while the state has awarded Dedham the money, the Department of Conservation and Recreation is reviewing the grant to make sure no endangered species or archeological sites will be harmed by the project.
The water trail would follow the Charles River as it courses through Dedham, passing through spots such as Motley Pond and Cow Island Pond. Long Ditch, which runs through Cutler Park, would complete the loop between the two segments of the Charles. (For a map of the proposed water trail, see www.dailynewstranscript.com.)
The park is owned by the state, which will help the town maintain Long Ditch, LeClair said.
The town will create waterproof, tear-resistant maps that will show historic and ecological points of interest along the Charles. Signs will also be put along the river to highlight those points for paddlers, such as the Powder House, Ames Street Bridge, Noble and Greenough's castle, and Moseley's on the Charles, which LeClair said is one of the oldest surviving dance halls in the country.
Visitors would also be presented with facts about the birds, fish and trees around them.
``There's some very old trees that when you go paddling you wouldn't really see anywhere else in Dedham, but they're still there along the Charles,'' LeClair said.
The result would be a three-hour continuous loop for canoers and kayakers that would be much like a hiking trail, but on water.
One main hope of the trail ``is it will not only get people out on the water to enjoy the natural resources of Dedham, but also attract people to Dedham,'' said LeClair., adding that visitors could stop into Dedham Square to pick up a waterproof map and sandwiches or provisions before beginning their journey.
LeClair said the grant funds have to be spent by 2011, so the Charles signs, boat launch site, and maps would need to be created by then.
``I think it would probably happen sooner than that, but that's the grant timeline,'' she said.
Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
