Volunteers clear trails at Lakeville’s Yoakum Preserve

LAKEVILLE — A hardy group of 13 volunteers gathered at the end of Reservoir Road in Lakeville on a chilly Sunday morning, April 27, and marched up into the Salisbury Land Trust’s Yoakum Preserve to do some trail work.

The land trust acquired the roughly 250 acres of undeveloped forest on the southwestern slope of Mount Riga from Alice Yoakum of Lakeville in 2020.

The boundaries are the Lakeville reservoir to the west, Mount Riga to the north and private land to the south.

The Yoakum Preserve was one of six land trust properties totaling 682 acres safeguarded as “forever-wild” through the Northeast Wilderness Trust’s Wildlands Partnership program in 2023.

The group set off on foot from the designated parking area at the end of Reservoir Road.Land Trust head John Landon drove up ahead because he had heavier equipment such as a chain saw in his car.

Landon had also been to the preserve a few days earlier to drop off additional equipment.

It’s a quick albeit uphill walk to the trailhead, and then a somewhat longer walk of 15 or 20 minutes to where the Yoakum Preserve starts. The trail is clearly marked, as are the boundaries of the reservoir land, which is mostly off-limits.

Landon divided the group in two. Group A stayed behind to rake the trail and remove any obvious obstacles, and to add or refresh blazes on trees.

Group B soldiered on another few hundred yards to where the trail starts to climb and where some heavier work was needed. This is where the chain saw came in.