Amethyst Brook trail work begins this week

The Town of Amherst Conservation Department and Conservation Commission, working with the Kestrel Land Trust, announced Oct. 20 the start of multi-phase improvements at the Amethyst Brook Conservation Area at 132 Pelham Road.

Phase I begins this week and is expected to take several weeks. Vehicular access to the parking lot will be temporarily closed for certain periods during active construction. The work includes installing parking guard rails, painting parking spots, adding an accessible parking space and a crosswalk, and putting up a new double kiosk and trail wayfinding signs.

As part of this phase, the Robert Frost Trail is being permanently rerouted to follow the main trail entrance, allowing restoration of its previous route. The original section of the trail along the bank of Amethyst Brook will be permanently closed for ecological restoration. Years of foot traffic have caused erosion and compaction along that stretch, and visitors are asked to stay on designated trails so native plants can be re-established and the riverfront restored.

Phase II is set to begin in the spring and will include replacing two failing, undersized culverts at the trail entrance and a minor reconfiguration of the main trail entrance to move it out of a low-lying wetland area.

Phase III, still in the planning and funding stages, would eventually add a small accessible trail.

The town and Kestrel Land Trust are partnering to establish the conservation area as a "gateway" entrance to Kestrel's Amethyst Brook Nature Retreat, which includes the Dorie Goldman Memorial Trail and the 1,084-acre Sarah Cowls Forest at Pelham Hills, recently protected as a wild forest through a partnership of The Trustees and Kestrel Land Trust.

Questions can be directed to the Conservation Department at 413-259-3202.

Source: Town of Amherst announcement, October 21, 2026.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the original announcement.