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Contact: Dan McCarthy
WELLFLEET, Mass. – Cape Cod National Seashore’s Beech Forest Trail in Provincetown will undergo repair and replacement of its elevated boardwalk beginning Monday, July 11. During these repairs, a portion of the trail will be inaccessible to visitors. The project is expected to last up to eight weeks.
The first phase of the project will entail demolishing the existing wooden structure and removing the materials. The second phase will involve constructing the replacement boardwalk. This project is the first part of a multi-year Beech Forest trail project.
There will be signage and barricades posted to indicate closure locations. During construction, about 0.5 miles of the eastern entrance of the trail will be inaccessible. At that point, the trail will no longer be a loop trail and will temporarily be accessed as an out-and-back trail from the western entrance. Once the project is complete, the trail will resume as a loop trail.
Conservation principles will be put into practice as part of the project. Cedar tree trunks, recovered through the park’s fire management program, will be used to replace rotted boardwalk support pilings, where possible. The boardwalk will be replaced with polyforce recycled material, known for its structural integrity and its environmental compatibility. This is the same material used in the reconstruction of the Red Maple Swamp trail boardwalk in Eastham in 2018 and the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp trail boardwalk in Wellfleet in 2020. Sawdust will be captured and removed from the project site, so it does not enter the wetlands. There will be no new holes dug for this project - all existing posts will be replaced in old post holes.
The Beech Forest trail is a one-mile loop trail that wraps around the shallow Beech Forest Pond in Provincetown. The trail connects to the Province Lands Bike Trail and is known as a popular bird-watching destination.
Last updated: July 11, 2022