On October 19, 2022, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in Fall River, Massachusetts, to officially open the 20-mile Bioreserve Loop Trail. The event celebrated the new trail, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Bioreserve itself, and highlighted the city's commitment to outdoor recreation and conservation. Mike Labasia, a key figure in the project, welcomed attendees, including Representative Fiola and Paul Ferlin, Head of the Department of Community Utilities, who spoke about the importance of the Bioreserve for both economic development and resident well-being, noting that over 50% of Fall River is protected forest and water. The development of the trail was a collaborative effort, involving numerous volunteers and organizations such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, Trustees of Reservations, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Funding support came from the Mass Trails Grant program, which had previously aided the city in producing a unified trail map and acquiring a maintenance vehicle. The trail features distinctive blue rectangular markers, following the Appalachian Mountain Club's style, to guide hikers. The ceremony also touched upon the concept of "Half Earth Day," celebrated six months after Earth Day, emphasizing the global call to protect half of the planet's land and sea. During the event, a resident named James shared his experience of completing the 20-mile trail in seven and a half hours, prompting discussions about trail safety and future workshops to prepare people for long-distance hiking. The ceremony concluded with Mike Labasia, the Mayor, and other officials cutting a blue ribbon, officially dedicating the Bioreserve Loop Trail for public use.
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Council
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it's another um great day out in the reservation in the city of Fall River uh God blessed us with a beautiful beautiful weather day for a beautiful beautiful Trail we're going to unveil um tons and tons of volunteers help put this together the Appalachian Mountain Club was one of the outside groups that helped us but it was mostly our in-house people Mike labasia Paul Ferlin the people that are responsible for this
0:25lovely lovely uh stretch of woods out here on one of our interns from UMass Dartmouth who helped us with the logo for the trail and of course it's not even done yet but we're going to celebrate the opening of its use for all of our residents to come out hike run I was just talking to one of my old running buddies he's running out here now and that's what we want in Fall
0:47River Recreation people have to understand that this is part of our city and you can come out and use it whenever you want take a walk watch watch the world go by in a much more peaceful setting and enjoy some free time for yourself it's really really important the 20-mile trail we're talking about today has been dedicated at the same time the bio Reserve hits 20 years so it's great to have that kind of
1:15a combination together with the bio Reserve idea for 20 years a 20-mile trail and a number of places for people to come out and enjoy it and I think anybody that sees the weather out here today would really appreciate taking a walk we are joined today by um a couple of our other local elected officials Maureen Estes Flanagan is here from Senator roderick's office and we always appreci appreciate the center's support
1:40and I'm going to also turn the mic over right now to one of my partners in government I think this is her District way out here I don't know if you come this far out Carol Schmidt out here but she's found her way to the woods to join us today representative Fiola okay thank you wow you couldn't have ordered a better day I only regret I'm the only one in heels today that is not going to
2:03be joining you today on a hike or a walk but uh it's breathtaking and thank you all for your passion and commitment and I really want to thank Mike labasia and his team Mike has been a constant force for the last 20 years and uh you're all shaking your heads because you know that's true and we have a lot more work to do Mike Mike is not shy about asking for what he needs and rightfully so
2:30um this fire reserve it's really heartwarming to think came together with a transfer of property that allowed for economic development and growth in the city of Fall River while offering incredible recreational opportunity to the residents of Fall River and I would just like to say please anybody listening to this go to the city of Fall River website look for the bio Reserve link and that's
2:59where you're going to see the trails that's where you're going to see what's happening and that's where you're going to see where you can go and park and and enjoy the beauty of this bio reserve it connects all our neighboring communities including another part of my district Freetown and Dartmouth and Westport and all of that so please come on down 20 years goes by fast still more to do than
3:22what a treasure thank you all thank you mayor good afternoon thank you and um and welcome to everyone I would um I would love to give um Paul Ferlin who's uh head of the Department of Community utilities on opportunity at the mic as well because um uh Paul Paul endures and indulges a lot of my uh effort here and um this is an effort of of love you know love love
3:54for the city love for nature uh love for this community and uh we'll say more about it but the city of Fall River being half forest and water and half protected forest and water it's um we almost can't get enough of that and so um Paul I'd just like to see if you uh speak a few minutes excellent thank you very much Mike you know again thank you everybody for coming out today
4:16um you know I think it's great to see all the people out here and you know since covet has come on you've seen more and more people want to be able to get back to Nature be able to um go where they cannot be around other people uh places like that the buyer reserve and uh the Fall River with Tupper reservation creates that space for them uh Mike kind of stole the punch
4:38line that that I like to use to let people know that Fall River more than 50 percent of it is either water or protected Forest land a lot of people don't know that by by area so it's a pretty interesting fact everybody thinks of Fall River the inner city uh there's also this other half of Fall River out here so with the support of our state delegation our local Administration the
5:01mayor we were able to move forward with this project and uh there's going to be a lot more projects coming out here uh in this area in the uh reservation in the bio Reserve in the near future so just keep your eyes and ears open for more projects coming but that I'll turn it back to Mike thank you thank you um it's um the bio Reserve itself is a partnership
5:27so I always want to acknowledge that we work in tandem with three other partners some of whom are represented here today we work with for example the trustees of reservations Jen Klein and Winslow dresser are here thank you so much for your partnership and actually they also get a mass Trails Grant to do an accessible play area at copaco Woods not far from here so we'll be looking for uh
5:51maybe an opening there in the next six months to a year so thank you also from DCR um Steve and um Sam are here from the state forest and thank you for for coming along um I'm also going to give a just a very quick shout out to the the community preservation uh uh Committee of Fall River celebrating in November 10 years of being um the city voting to have CPA and uh
6:18CPA has been an important part of our efforts to acquire more land protect more land especially water Watershed land um and so um that's next that'll be in November that'll be acknowledged I'm sure at another time um so I'm I'm going to have a couple of more intelligence later on but the first thing I wanted to do is to um speak just a bit about half Earth Day um half everybody knows Earth Day we
6:43were so some of us were teenagers during the first Earth Day many years ago um but half Earth Day is something something a little bit new five or six years old and it's about caring for the environment and caring for human health um the idea is it's a call to protect half of the land and sea and you know that that's the official sea but the water in order to manage sufficient Habitat to
7:08reverse the species Extinction crisis and ensure long-term health of our planet it's a time for people all over the world that gets together and it's exactly six months after Earth Day so here we are October whatever it is 19 20th um and um we're celebrating half birthday and I'm hoping that it'll be a call for us to do that year after year and part of the reason for that again is to just
7:32remind us especially here who live in this community but also people in the region who visit that this is the fact this will be the third time you've heard this but Fall River being half forest and water so half Earth Day half the city of Fall River um and this is a fact borne out by mass autobahn's 2020 um losing ground report so I didn't make this half half half
7:53Fall River protected up this is a this is a real fact and um so so the idea is to recognize that our healthy ecology healthy bio diversity enhances our quality of life uh protects things that are important to us and gives us a place for for nature and to find peace um so that's that's half birthday so um which leads us to the bio Reserve loop trail during the for many during the pandemic
8:25um though the pandemic kept us apart but brought us to a new place uh when we were when we needed to limit human contact and keep socially distant this vast almost Limitless forest was here for fresh air and for exercise for some this place is an old friend I see a lot of folks here today that have been coming to the buyers area before it had the name bioreserve after all you
8:49know the white Tupper reservation's been here for over 100 years um but for others many discovered it for the first time so um I didn't bring it up but Manny right behind you if you wouldn't mind just holding up that that little display um if that's possible oh it's well can you move the tree so so this is this is an article that was in the trustees um um you know newsletter in early 2020
9:18it's called hike outside the lines and I invite anybody to have a look at it later but what it did was it called attention to you know the pandemic was just sort of getting underway and it called attention to the great places in Massachusetts where you could get out and really range on some big properties some long Trails Etc uh and it pointed out the Appalachian Mountain Trail and uh the
9:42um uh the Mid-State Trail thank you for doing that uh the the Mid-State Trail um the base circuit Trail everybody these are these are iconic names um Tully Trail which was an inspiration for me because it's about the same 20 22 Mile distant Trail Loop um and then it mentions the the Southeastern Mass buyers reserve and it talks about the tens of thousands of acres here and it talks about
10:05um there's a lot of Trail miles but it really didn't it didn't have a name it didn't have an identity um this kind of became a call to distinguish the Biore Reserve with the signature Trail um in order to do this we didn't want to create new trails because it's a Biore Reserve we're trying to protect biodiversity with no need to fragment any more than than already exists we want to protect habitat and biodiversity
10:28we want to protect Wetlands um we want it as much as possible stay on our buyers or partner lands excuse me a sec okay um we wanted to connect existing trails and fire Lanes um and they're already there we don't have to rebuild those I want to avoid utility lines and houses um we wanted to create a distinct identity and put reliable sinuses in place um this is almost six this is about 16
11:00000 acres and to get lost out here is not as simple as calling 9-1-1 so the idea of more reliable you know markers and and uh you know being able to invite people out here and reliably be able to uh uh to have a safe experience um so all of that said um we teamed up with various Partners along the way I want to thank first of all um Ren aguiar I'm not sure she made it
11:27here today um I don't see it but Ren UMass a graphic arts student who produced a lot of the signage there's the round Loop sign that you'll say she created and some other signage which isn't up yet but um I give her some I really call her out for that thank you for that um I want to thank the Appalachian Mountain Club um especially the Southeastern Mass uh chapter um I want to recognize Diane Sims and
11:56thank you for being here she's the current chair and also skip masley's here who is the trail chair thank you and we were out here on Tuesdays uh skipping the gang Charlie and um Paul yeah thank you um and we're out here Tuesdays marking Trail testing some and internet and Charlie in particular came up with the uh um with the prototype for the 20 mile which actually is available at the at the
12:26table there in paper form there's other ways you can you can um acquire it so I think um I think AMC very much we started a partnership in early 2020 AMC has been doing one and sometimes two um guided walks a month you can go on their website register for those um it's been a great partnership and I look forward to continuing with that and um I also want to acknowledge United Way
12:53who we've been teaming up with for a few years united we move event is this weekend and actually United Way kind of dubbed the whole week outdoor what does it make Uber week of action I guess we're going with yeah and um I like that and that's that's has an annual ring to it too so so Meg's here Kim's here thank you so much for for for for coming and the last three years they've actually
13:17centered the united we move events in the bio reserve on Wilson Road and and some of their fire lanes and and hiking trails walk run ride there's some information at the desk there for that as well um and lastly um and mass in motion as well been very helpful thank you for the for um for uh your work along the way uh supporting this and um I I need something my wife Sarah
13:45you have mass and motion there you go thank you Carol keeps me honest um and then um and then Mass Trails grant program itself which is which is a really terrific program it really allows communities kind of gives that extra little motivation and uh a shot in the arm with some funds this is our third Mass Trails Grant the first grant actually produced the unified trail map that um that's been available for almost
14:0820 years and a lot of the early signage um the second Grant we actually got a trail maintenance vehicle a Polaris 6x6 if you've ever seen that through Mass trails and this is this has been one they've supported our 20 mile um the 20 Mile Trail because it's into town it's um it's it's it's it's a partner and um it's it's going to be an impactful and and it's really going to
14:30put us on the map I think as far as major Trail experiences in the state so um I rattled off a lot there and I thank you all for attending um what a beautiful day so we have a ribbon cutting behind me you'll notice there's a blue ribbon actually I'm going to first of all point to that treat Manny we're all set with that thank you that blue mark on the tree
14:56is kind of the the universal um hiking trail Mark I think I can say it's the Appalachian Mountain uh way if you will it's um so that following that blue rectangle are on the 20 uh the 20 Mile Trail uh you should shouldn't steer you wrong there's um there's you'll see you'll see as we walk a little bit later sometimes there are two and if the if the uh if the upper Mark
15:24is on the right there's a turn coming to the right if the upper Mark is on the left is that you're coming to the left um so blue is kind of our theme for the day we have we have a blue ribbon to um to uh cut to signify the dedication so I'm gonna ask the mayor and the delegation if you'll join me I brought I brought hedge trimmers but I thought maybe maybe
15:46Michael what's the time you might expect to take if you come here in the morning to do the 20 miles great question you're not sleeping over yeah yeah well so the question was asked as we're as we're assembling up there how long does this take um a young man right here ran it walked it just a couple of weeks ago and um James what did how long did it take what
16:12it would have died she was she wanted to finish on time I think it took us seven and a half hours yeah um and it was wonderful it was I never I never hiked 20 miles before and it was an experience it's something that you don't normally get hiking so exactly and that said I think we're to the wise would be start low uh you know start if you haven't done long distance walking hiking
16:40don't bite off all 20 at first because 9-1-1 doesn't really work out here and it is Technical and another good point about walking sticks that's great um but as as time goes on I think we're going to have we're going to have different kind of workshops to really sort of help prepare people um there'll be some sort of minor walks that will come out uh that will sort of be suggesting you could do this on
17:05installments you don't have to do the 20 miles in one day like some enterprising younger people will do um so let's do a ribbon cutting October 19 2022 we hereby designate the 20 mile uh Biore Reserve loop trail