Author: Angie Sykeny

Nature Conservancy builds universally accessible trail

Construction is now underway to make the trails at the Cedar Swamp Preserve in Manchester universally accessible. Mark Zankel, state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire, which is overseeing the project, talked about the changes that are being made to the property.

Why did you choose the Cedar Swamp Preserve for this project?

We want people to be able to experience the joy of spending time in nature, and that’s not necessarily easy to do when you live in the most densely populated part of the state … so Manchester was an obvious choice … and the Cedar Swamp Preserve [was chosen] because it’s in such close proximity to downtown.

How did you determine what barriers needed to be addressed?

Manchester is the largest city … and the most diverse population in our state, so we realized we had work to do to understand what barriers people faced to access nature. We’ve spent the better part of the past year doing a number of listening sessions and engagement events with groups that haven’t always had a table with us … [like] NAACP of Greater Manchester, the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire, a number of LGBTQ+ groups and AARP, to ask them what would make this place more welcoming and inclusive and accessible. … What we learned is that the barriers are not just physical; they can also be geographical, cultural and psychological.

How are you addressing those barriers to make the trail universally accessible?

We have well-defined guidance on how to build a trail that’s accessible to individuals with physical disabilities … in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. … We’re doing a crushed stone surface … with a topcoat of more finely packed crushed stone, which creates a surface that wheelchairs can go on without sinking too deep or getting stuck. … We’re widening the trail to allow [space] for two wheelchairs and for people who may have a support animal. Then, there’s the topography; the trail system … has rocks and roots and inclines at various degrees, so we’re working on winding the trail around that hilly topography so that [no part of the trail] is too steep. … We’ve gone from having only one or two benches to six benches … and are making them visible so that people can see how far it is to the next resting spot. … A lot of people in Manchester don’t have cars, so we’ve been working with the city to put a bus stop there to help break down that transportation barrier. … We’ve also translated out interpretive materials into Spanish … which is the second most spoken language in the Manchester area.

Where are you in the construction process right now?

We’ve done the trail plan … and initial expansion. Now, [the construction crew] is out there, literally going foot by foot with their heavy equipment, moving dirt and rocks and laying down the base of the trail. … We’re hoping and planning to open the trail by mid- to late October, with some kind of ribbon-cutting ceremony.

How do you find a balance between altering nature to make it more accessible and your greater mission of preserving it?

The Nature Conservancy has a lot of background and experience in managing conservation land in a way that allows for human uses and activities but is still compatible with conservation values … and [conscious of] the reasons why we’re protecting the property in the first place. … We’re charting a pathway [that requires] as little digging and moving things around as possible. … We’re also being really careful with the fill we’re bringing in to make sure that it doesn’t have the seeds of invasive species in it. … You can’t do this with no impact, but this is a small part of the overall cedar swamp system — 100 or so acres out of 640 acres — so there’s still a vast amount of property that doesn’t have any built infrastructure, where nature can really thrive. … We feel like it’s an acceptable level of impact for the benefit of getting people out there.

Will there be more of these?

I think there’s a strong interest in making conservation areas more accessible. … The New Hampshire conservation community has been thinking hard about this and trying to take action … so I think we will see more of these going forward. We’d love to do more, but we’re going to live into this one first. … These are big projects and not easy to do … so we really want to learn more about how the property gets used and how we can ensure that the people we’re building it for are able to use it.

Featured photo: Mark Zankel. Courtesy photo.

NH Circuit Court judge recognized for innovative approach

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has named Judge David D. King, Chief Administrative Judge of the New Hampshire Circuit Court, its 2021 Innovator of the Year, an award that recognizes one judge in the U.S. who has exhibited exceptional innovation in their state’s courts. King talked about the honor and what’s next for him and the Circuit Court.

What is the Circuit Court and your role within it?

In 2011, we took three courts — the district court, the probate court and the family division — and we collapsed them into one gigantic court, which is the New Hampshire Circuit Court. It has 34 locations … and about 90 percent of the case filings in the state. As the administrative judge, I’m sort of the manager of this piece of the court system. … The Circuit Court is like a giant rowboat, and my job is to get everybody — the judges, the clerks of court, the staff of the courts — rowing in the same direction. When everybody rows in the same direction, we’re able to do a lot of great things.

How did it feel, being named Innovator of the Year?

It was a particularly special honor to receive this award coming out of a pandemic, when every court and judge in the country had to be innovative just to keep the doors open. … By giving me the award, the Council is also recognizing all of the judges … clerks and staff that I work with … so I accept it on their behalf. They’re the ones who made me look good enough to get nominated.

How has the Circuit Court demonstrated innovation?

With ever-increasing restraints on our budget, we’ve really had to think outside the box. … We’ve done a lot of things that are new and innovative [among courts] around the country. For example, we started a call center … which answers every single phone call that comes into the court. … It’s taken over 4 million calls since we started it. I think it’s still the only court call center in the country.

How did the Circuit Court handle the pandemic?

Our highest priority was children … in abuse or neglect situations and delinquency situations … and people, mostly women, who needed protective orders in domestic violence cases … whose cases couldn’t be put on the back burner. Early on in the pandemic, our filings in domestic violence cases and cases of abuse and neglect of children were down; that would seem like a good thing, but we knew it was … only because our courthouses were essentially closed, so we started a system where domestic violence petitions could be filed by email — something we hadn’t done before. Our filings went back up. We also started doing abuse and neglect hearings by telephone, which, ironically, increased the attendance, because parents who hadn’t been active in cases, probably because they couldn’t take a day off from work or didn’t have transportation, all of a sudden were able to participate because they could call into a hearing. … We did over 150,000 hearings during the pandemic, most of them either by video or telephonically. … People were, in some ways, getting better access to justice during the pandemic.

What is the Circuit Court’s biggest challenge now?

Some of the case types, like small claims and civil cases, had to be put on the back burner during the pandemic, so we have thousands of cases backed up. Trying to figure out how we’re going to attack this backlog [while] not letting the priority cases slip at all is a huge challenge. … We’re also [expecting] to get hit with a tsunami of eviction cases, so we’ve been working closely with … New Hampshire Housing and New Hampshire legal systems to make sure that, before people get to the point of being evicted, every attempt has been made for them to access the federal funds that are available to both landlords and tenants so that they can stay in their housing.

What do you find fulfilling about your work?

I enjoy the challenge of dealing with a huge volume of cases … and figuring out ways to make sure that everyone who needs access to justice has a way to get to the Circuit Court; … prioritize our resources; handle cases efficiently; and triage the most important cases so that no one waits an inordinate amount of time for a decision from a judge when there’s a very important or emergent issue before the court.

What is your next goal?

Our goal this year was to increase our judicial positions, and we did get [funding for] four more judges. … My goal in the next budget cycle … is to address the staffing issue in the Circuit Court. … The Circuit Court is authorized to have 45 full-time judges, and today we have 33. … We’re losing people [to] the private sector because they can make more money there. We even lost someone who decided to go work at Dunkin’ Donuts because it paid more. I don’t like that. … We really need to address the compensation structure of our court system.

Featured photo: Judge David D. King. Courtesy photo.