11-1SG Mad River Path Association

Grant Round:

2011 February

Grant Program:

Small Grants

Grant Type:

Other Grants

Grant amount requested:

2,500.00

Grant amount awarded:

$1,000.00

Attachments

Please provide a brief description of the project for which you seek funding.

In the fall of 2010, MRPA partnered with the UVM Local Initiatives service learning course. The purpose of this partnership was to work with UVM students to address a local issue of concern for a Mad River Valley grassroots organization. The Mad River Path Association submitted a project proposal to develop interpretive materials that would both inform Mad River Path users about the local cultural and ecological wealth of the Valley, while also increasing volunteer engagement and interest for conservation and growth of the Mad River Path, ecpecially among Youth in the Valley. In December, the UVM students gave an incredible presentation to the Mad River Valley community detailing the fascinating cultural and ecological information they gathered about the Mad River Valley. They presented the MRPA with draft interpretive signs for several sections of the Mad River Path, which they felt would reach out to Path users and help to foster a sense of place and an appreciation for conserved land and paths, as well as a desire to continue to conserve land toward MRPA's goal of connecting all the Towns in the Mad River Valley through public pathways. The response to the UVM students presentation was overwhelming. Citizens have contacted MRPA if we plan to create and use the work the students provided. That is exactly what we seek to do. We are seeking funds to create interpretive materials that will tell the story of place in the Mad River Valley. The Mad River Path winds its way through the Mad River Valley landscape, passing through towns, farms, forests and passing over and along streams and the Mad River. We seek to create materials that will help Path users to better understand the natural and cultural history of the Valley and how that history has affected the community that exists today, as well as what it might look like in the future. The ultimate goal is to foster a greater appreciation for and a greater desire to conserve the natural and cultural wealth of the Valley. These interpretive materials would discuss land use history, natural changes, cultural shifts as with the ski industry and tourism, as well as modern changes that are happening now such as the increased use of solar arrays. These issues will be placed in the context of the landscape because that is the venue of the Mad River Path. As you walk along the Path, the goal is to explain how the landscape has shaped the community and how the community has affected the landscape historically, currently and how it might change in the future. The format for these materials will be weather resistant signs designed for placement along the various sections of the Path, a design for a Kiosk to be built at a central point on the Path, and a series of Podcasts about the natural and cultural history, narrated by local people, which will be downloadable from the MRPA web site to use as you walk, ski or bike along the Path.

Primary Issue Area:

Land & Water

Please break-down/categorize the program expenses:

Whom does your group need to make this project happen?

Please explain how your group will engage members from your community in this project.

We plan to work with other local groups, such as Friends of the Mad River, the Mad River Valley Planning District; the Mad River Valley Recreation District; the Vermont Land Trust; the LocalVolts; the Localvores; the Mad River Valley Historical Society, and others to collect additional information to that provided by the UVM students, which will enhance the draft materials they have created. We will have representatives from many of these organizations that have and will continue to participate as an information resource, as well as be one of the voices for our Podcasts. The interpretive signs and Podcasts will focus on different characteristics that are accessed while walking along the Path. Those Podcasts will include information about local food systems and the history of farming in the Valley; the history of energy in the Valley and the shift toward renewable energy; the history of the Tourism industry and how it hashaped the community and the landscape to name a few. We plan to use local businesses and local volunteers to create all of these materials. We also plan to partner with several teachers at Harwood Middle and High School to have their students create a Podcast for the Path on a topic of their choice in relation to the cultural and natural history of the Valley. The creation and distribution of these materials will be a community effort that will inspire even greater community participation in supporting the Path and in valuing the richness of the Mad River Valley‐both culturally and ecologically.

If your group receives a NEGEF Grow grant, how do you plan to pay for remaining expenses?

Please list these materials or services

Please describe what changes will occur in your community and its environment when your group's project is successful.

The purpose of this project is to foster a sense of place among citizens and visitors to the Mad River Valley, and thus creating a greater desire and appreciation for the conservation of the open spaces and public pathways that make up much of the landscape and history of the Valley. MRPA wants to see greater support of our mission to conserve land and provide a public pathway that connects all the communities of the Valley. We would measure this by increased support through memberships and support of the conservation reserve funds in the local towns, which are often used to leverage conservation and public access easements in each of the Valley towns. We are eager to create a medium for our interpretive materials that will be used by younger generations as well, thus our goal to create Podcasts that can be downloaded from our website. We plan to track the use of these materials through our web counter. We also do a lot of work within the local schools and we want to increase their knowledge and support of the Path, so we will measure the effectiveness of our materials and outreach by keeping track of youth involvement in our events, such as the Sugarbush Triathlon, the Mad Dash 5K race, as well as seasonal walks and events on the Path, and in response to our recruitment for summer interns and volunteers on our trail work crews . The greatest measure will be the number of new easements and agreements we are able to secure with new landowners willing to host new sections of the Mad River Path, so that we can make even greater progress toward our mission.

Please list how many people in your community your group expects to actively engage in this project.

100

What relevant skills does the group need (but does not currently have access to) to help move the initiative forward?

MRPA is in need of financial assistance to create the interpretive signs. We are in need of technical assistance to create the interpretive signs and Podcasts, and have identified sources for which we could garner these services. While we know people in the community with the relevant skills, the core members of our Board have never created interpretive signs or produced Podcasts before, so we need to work with others who have these skills.

What relevant skills do current members of the group have to help move the initiative forward?

The relevant skills of our members, which will move this project forward are web design skills, sign making skills, historical knowledge of the area and expertise in specific topics such as energy, food systems, river ecology, and conservation. We also have members who are willing to help us produce the Podcasts. The MRPA has many members and volunteers who are willing to lend their graphic design skills, their event planning skills, their audio and recording skills and resources to this effort. Most importantly we are building from a body of work produced by our collboration with UVM's Mad River Valley Local Initiatives service learning course. The students in this course also created partnerships and collaborated with local citizens to obtain their research and complete their draft materials on behalf of the MRPA. We are building on these relationships and connections.