Staff report

CHAUNCEY — The Wayne National Forest hosted students and faculty from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador at the Baileys Trail System in Chauncey on July 29 in collaboration with Ohio University.
Eight students and two faculty members from OU’s Summer Training on Applied Research and Service-Learning (STARS) program conducted maintenance on the newly widened Coal Train Trail as part of a 10-day cultural exchange through the university’s Infectious and Tropical Disease Institute (ITDI).
Coal Train Trail was recently widened to increase accessibility for adaptive mountain bike users.
Students used lopping shears to trim long, overhanging branches that would be too close to riders, and smoothed out areas where machinery tracks created an uneven path.
Students also received a lesson about common tick-borne diseases from Forest Safety Officer Mike Buchanan and learned about native wildlife throughout the morning.
ITDI Director and OU microbiology professor Dr. Mario Grijalva, who frequently volunteers on the Forest, encouraged students to consider how projects like the Baileys Trail System could be implemented in their own communities, or in rural areas of Ecuador.
“Trails are an opportunity for economic development for nearby underserved communities,” Grijalva said.
The Baileys Trail System is managed by a partnership between the Forest and the Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia (ORCA).
ORCA staff facilitated the students’ activities during their visit, including a naturalist hike at the nearby Utah Ridge Pond on the Baileys, led by Joe Brehm, the chief program officer at Forest partner Rural Action.
Students also discussed acid mine drainage and clean water restoration through True Pigments, a Rural Action social enterprise that harvests iron oxide pollutants from local watersheds to create paint, then uses the revenue to help improve water quality.
Other Baileys trails that are part of the widening and drainage repair project include Gob Pile Loop Trail and Bullfrog Loop Trail for a total of 5.3 miles.
Approved for construction in 2017, the Baileys Trail System includes 55 miles of trail out of the 88 planned.
STARS is a Ohio University program where students travel from Ecuador to Ohio and vice versa to participate in community-based projects.
For more about ITDI, visit https://www.ohio.edu/medicine/itdi.