A proposed rail trail would stretch from Warner to Contoocook, creating a path for walking, biking and other activities along the scenic Warner River.

Longtime Warner resident and naturalist David Carroll opposes it “every inch of the way.”

“I hate to see funding from any source – federal or local government – that really leads to the implementation of a project that will have extremely severe, degrading consequences for a rather remarkable ecosystem along the Warner River,” Carroll said while testifying in front of a Senate committee last week.

After federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act fell through last year, Republican Sen. Dan Innis introduced Senate Bill 35 to snag $600,000 from the Department of Transportation. That’ll supplement other funding that’s already been secured through a federal grant.

The project, a mile-long stretch of the Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail that would stretch along Interstate-89 near Exit 8, has long been tied up in funding woes and community uproar.

At town meeting last year, residents held a lengthy debate and ultimately shot down a petition that would’ve suspended the project pending environmental review, 168-101.

Carroll said in his testimony that building a “very, very invasive” rail trail along that section of the Warner River would negatively impact biodiversity, arguing that waterways should be left intact to preserve the natural ecosystem there. He also said there’s a species of turtles in “critical decline” living along that river corridor and that any development could put them at risk.

It’s not just the infrastructure, either. It’s the continuous human presence in a remote natural area, Carroll said, that he worries could wipe out the turtle population within 10 years of the trail opening.

“There must be another way to accommodate bike riders without having to sacrifice this,” Carroll told the senators. “There is the cost of building it, but there’s the Earth cost that that will bring to bear on what we have right now, which is something that we should be very guardful of.”

Tim Blagden, who chairs the board for the Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail, said while the railroad grade still exists in much of the corridor, there isn’t much in this stretch. The majority of this section would require building a new trail bed.

“We think we can be responsible with introducing pedestrians and bicycles in this space between the north- and south-bound lanes [of I-89],” Blagden said.

Blagden and Innis said the rail trail could usher in positive economic impacts. For example, Innis said, he visited a similar trail in Loveland, Ohio, which he said used to be a “small, sleepy” town.

“When the trail came, businesses came … the type of businesses that really thrive in a place like New Hampshire: ice cream shops, restaurants, small breweries, bike rentals, retail opportunities,” Innis said. “It brought life back to the center of this town that had been left behind by time.”

Blagden argued it could also connect the town of Warner, which is essentially split into three parts by the interstate running through it. The rail trail, he said, would enable people who live in different sections to get to the village more easily.

“We’re really working hard to reunite our town, not to divide it,” Blagden said.

Carroll scoffed at that notion, telling the Monitor that it’d be too long of a walk for most people to use the trail to commute to work or make a quick trip into town.

Despite Blagden’s proposal to rejoin various parts of the town, another Warner resident, Barbara Marty, favored Carroll’s concerns over environmental protections. She also said she worries that it’ll dig too far into taxpayers’ pockets.

Federal grants – and now, perhaps the state – will fund the trail’s construction, but Marty expects long-term expenses like police, rescue, road crew, repair and environmental mitigation costs will fall to her and her neighbors.

“This project is bound to become a financial burden to the taxpayers of Warner,” Marty said in her testimony. “Most of all, why isn’t the immeasurable cost to the environment, and the rights of the citizens of Warner to make the decision to accept or reject this project, being respected?”

It might be too late to petition for a warrant article to determine the rail trail’s fate in time for this year’s town meeting, Carroll said, but he sees it as the path forward to see where residents in the town fall on the issue. After all, he said, if the project gets built there’s no going back.

“It’s not a rug that can be rolled up and put away and have the river come back to its natural state,” he said. “Once that stuff is put in place, it’s going to be there for quite some time.”

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America.