The Androscoggin Land Trust, through its LA Trails program, has secured grant funding from the Environmental Funders Network’s Quality of Place Initiative to expand on the planning for an Androscoggin Greenway, a continuous land and water based trail network through Lewiston and Auburn.

With support from both cities and the National Park Service, ALT has leveraged its grant funding to hire Wright-Pierce, an engineering consulting firm, to complete the technical components of this planning.

The first phase, now complete, was an inventory of all existing trails, open spaces and public lands along the river corridor from Gulf Island Pond south towards the Maine Turnpike overpass of the Androscoggin.

The next step, for assessing walking and biking routes along the Androscoggin Greenway, is to host walking assessments of a series of loops that serve to connect key neighborhoods or business centers in the heart of the community to the river corridor. This is where ALT needs your help!

ALT has a schedule four of these walking assessments in the downtown area. ALT urges residents to attend at least one and to consider sharing this schedule with colleagues or other individuals or organizations who are interested in walking and biking routes that connect the community’s most significant natural resource, the Androscoggin River.

The schedule is:

Friday, November 4. Noon to 1:30 p.m. Walking Route B1: A loop beginning at the B Street Community Center to the riverfront at Gas Light Park.

Monday, November 7. Noon to 1:30 p.m. Walking Route B2: A loop from Central Maine Medical Center to the Mill District/Riverfront Island.

Wednesday, November 9. Noon to 1:30 p.m. Walking Route C: A loop from the Hilton Garden Inn, along the Auburn Riverfront.

The maps for each loop can be found online at: http://androscogginlandtrust.org/news/17-androscoggin-greenway-walking-assessments-schedule.

To ensure that ALT will have the appropriate amount of materials for all walkers, please RSVP to attend a walk by calling 782-2302 or email info@latrails.org.

For more information, contact Jonathan P. LaBonté, executive director of the Androscoggin Land Trust at 782-2302 or www.androscogginlandtrust.org.