TIVERTON — Trail walkers and day hikers have a new way to access the natural and archaeological treasures of Tiverton’s estimated 880 acres of Weetamoo Woods and Pardon Gray Preserve.

Two new public trails have recently opened to join an extensive network of trails through “what lies beyond” in the area.

The occasion was marked on a Sunday afternoon when the last of the fall leaves were on the trees. A small gathering of about 50 visitors of all ages, including children, assembled at the south (East Road) entrance to Weetamoo Woods to witness a ribbon cutting and inaugurate the two pathways with test walks.

They were there at the invitation of Tiverton’s Open Space and Land Preservation Commission which sponsored the ceremony and whose efforts were largely responsible for building the trails.

To enhance the occasion, the Open Space group set up several learning stations along the way at trailside locations where visitors could stop and be instructed by volunteer trail stewards about the woods and its natural history. The first fifty children aged 10 and under who visited the stations won pumpkin stickers and real pumpkins donated by Ferolbink Farms.

Two trails: Orange and Meadow

“The new trails are right at the top of the list of my favorites,” said Garry Plunkett, a naturalist and member of the commission. Mr. Plunkett was one of the leaders of the group of volunteers that built the two trails. For years he has been much involved in trail stewardship and has a detailed knowledge of Weetamoo Woods.

The longer of the two new routes through the woods is called the Orange Trail. About one mile in length, it threads though the terrain and connects with other trails, creating a loop of about 2 1/4 miles.

The second new trail, called the Meadow Trail because it cuts across a grassy habitat that only a few years ago was under the plow, links with other trails forming a 1 1/4 mile loop.

Overall there are approximately 12 miles of public access trails through Weetamoo Woods and Pardon Gray Preserve, Mr. Plunkett said.

Trail building

Construction of the new trails was the work of many hands. For six months off and on during the spring and summer a group of about a dozen volunteers labored to open the way for the trails, that were over a year in their gestation and planning.

In planning the new trails, said Mr. Plunkett, the group chose “to go through the most varied habitat that people can walk through and learn from.”

The process of creating the new trails, he said, required finding the “path of least resistance,” occasionally “picking up animal trails. That’s how you make a trail.”

The new trails go through or near a grove of American beech trees, stands of oaks, stone structures from Tiverton’s early years, and open grasslands that provides habitat for ground-nesting species of birds.

“New England is one of the best regions in the world to experience a temperate forest,” he said.

Mr. Plunkett said that building the new trail wasn’t easy. At one point the dozen or so volunteers involved arranged for the removal of two mobile home trailers and a pickup truck from an old campsite in the woods. About $2,000 in labor and materials was injected into the overall project.

On the occasion of the trail opening, Ginger Lacy and Brian Janes, who serve as co-chairpersons of the Open Space Commission, credited the town council, the Tiverton Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy, and citizens of the state for partnering to create the preserves and trails that wind through them.

Weetamoo Woods

Weetamoo Woods is currently about 650 acres in size. It is named after “Weetamoo,” reportedly the last sachem or leader of the Pocasset people who formerly occupied the region, and who died nearly 400 years ago in the 17th century.

The woods is an aggregation of land acquisitions by the town made since 1990, much obtained with open space bond funding. Recently added have been the “Kirwin” property of 57 acres, and the 99-acre “Babcock” property, which is mostly grassland. The woods is managed for the town by the Tiverton Open Space Commission.

Mr. Plunkett, who has traveled every foot of all the trails, and knows the woods intimately, shared his knowledge recently.

Among the woods’ natural features, said Mr. Plunkett, is an Atlantic white cedar swamp, once common but rare now due to heavy logging of the cedars over the years. The woods, he said, is also the home of a forest of coastal oak-holly, a native broadleaf evergreen tree unique to southern New England and found in Rhode Island near the coastline. The remains of a Native American quartz quarry for making stone tools has been found in Weetamoo Woods.

Running north and south through the woods is Eight Rod Way (a common colonial road designation to indicate road width, or 132 feet, a rod being 16.5 ft.).

The southern section of the roadway extends northward into the woods from the East Road entrance (where the new Orange Trail also begins), and runs to a point where the path turns east to a sawmill. In places Eight Rod Way retains the character of a colonial cart path, with cobble paving and a slab bridge across Borden Brook.

Mr. Plunkett said several cellar holes and wells have been found along the original path of Eight Rod Way, as have abandoned farm sites denoted at points by a pattern of small stone enclosures that likely served as animal pens.

Pardon Gray Preserve

Pardon Gray Preserve is adjacent to Weetamoo Woods, and has its own network of trails that connect with those that thread Weetamoo. Pardon Gray is owned and managed by the Tiverton Land Trust. It has 230 acres of land, and includes 75 acres of former plow land that is now valuable habitat for threatened grassland nesting birds.

Shared pastoral and natural heritage

Both the woods and Pardon Gray, said Mr. Plunkett, share a pastoral heritage that included farming that yielded to pasturage as the land became depleted and less arable. Much of the land was used for wood. Stone fences, many built in the late 18th century, lace through the land and woods, vestiges that mark ancient property ownership lines and also served conveniently as disposal sites for glacial rubble that emerged on eroding land.

Besides the American holly, trees found in the woods, Mr. Plunkett said, include black oaks, scarlet oaks, white oaks, and northern red oaks. Other trees the woods include American beech, yellow birch, black birch, Canada hemlock, eastern white pine, sassafras, tupelo, black cherry, red maple, and white ash. Some of the trees are over 100 - 125 years old, he said.

Prominent understory shrubs are spicebush, blueberry, huckleberry, mountain laurel, arrowwood, nannyberry, sweet pepperbush, elderberry, and winterberry.

Mr. Plunkett said the extensive forest is valuable habitat for birds requiring “deep woods,” such as scarlet tanager, veery, Acadian flycatcher, worm-eating warbler, blue winged warbler, wood thrush and Baltimore oriole. Local raptors include barred and horned owls, and the American kestrel on the Pardon Gray grassland. White tail deer, opossum, raccoon, fox, and coyote also live in the forest, he said.

Mr. Plunkett said vernal pools, home to a unique community of amphibians and invertebrates, are scattered throughout Weetamoo Woods and Pardon Gray Preserve.

An index to trails

The trails through Weetamoo Woods include:

• Orange Trail: About one mile, starting eastward from kiosk at East Road trailhead. Passes through mature oak-holly forest, past a large granite outcropping on right, then turns north through oak-beech forest. Connects with Blue and Red Trails.

• Meadow Trail: About half mile, left off of Orange Trail. Crosses west across former plowland being converted to grassland, preserved for habitat diversity, especially for ground nesting birds. Ends at Eight Rod Way, where it connects with Yellow Trail near slab bridge over Borden Brook.

• Yellow Trail: Main north-south trail along route of historic Eight Rod Way, a colonial era right-of-way, vintage about 1681. Still identifiable as a road on its southern extremity, where it has a primitive stone roadbed. Several cellar holes and dug wells, abandoned farms sites, stone animal pens, and a huge oak tree, about 250 years old, have been found along this path.

• Blue Trail: Branches off Orange Trail, loops west, and connects to yellow trail. Passes remains of 19th century sawmill and an unusual stone arch bridge over the millrace. Passes High Rock, a massive outcrop and shear granite wall whose ridge is even with top of trees below. Skirts edge of Cedar Swamp. About a one-hour loop walk from East Road trailhead.

• Red Trail: About one mile long. Main east-west trail from Yellow Trail on west to Lake Road parking area and trailhead. Section near sawmill is an old cart path known as the “Saw Mill Trail” from Massachusetts, to Eight Rod Way, thence to Four Corners. Portions have stone bed and are deeply rutted below surrounding terrain, indicating years of cart traffic. Passes near a farm site with cellar hole and stone wall complex. A dry oak forest on east end has pure stands of Mountain Laurel.

• Green Trail: Connector trail between Red and Yellow Trails. Features a pure stand of Mountain Laurel and a branch of Borden Brook. Skirts edge of Cedar Swamp.