Last week, they opened the first of three stages, an 800m sample of what they have done with very limited resources.
The project has mostly been undertaken by Karen Tweed, Rosina Russell and Alistair Emslie who have occasionally roped in friends to help reshape part of Kurow’s wilderness.
Mrs Russell said what kept the group going as they cleared out massive volumes of overgrown bush and weeds over the past 12 months was the potential the three volunteers knew the site had, and the arrival of funding for an excavator that helped make an entrance and clear an access track more quickly.
Ms Tweed agreed and said the group wanted to create a trail the whole community could use and feel safe on. The aim was a track so level a woman with a pram could stroll through.
"It was so overgrown," Ms Tweed said.
The project was supported by the Department of Conservation (Doc), Waitaki District Council and Environment Canterbury, she said. The trail is on land entirely owned by Doc.
Ms Tweed felt passionate about the project and said native flora was making a comeback and native fauna such as longfin and shortfin eels could be found on the first part of the trail, which can be entered from State Highway 82, at the edge of Kurow’s shopping area.
She said a completion date for the project was uncertain as funding still need to be obtained for more excavator hours for the main track work.
"We’d like to say we’ll have stage one finished in six months."
