THE second Glenwood Trail Run saw 72 runners and walkers take part in the event on Wednesday, 7 November from Stella Athletic Club to Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve.
The Glenwood Trail Run is a partnership between Durban Botanic Gardens and Stella Athletic Club and forms part of the eThekwini Municipality’s plans to develop an Urban Trail Network.
Martin Clement from Durban Botanic Gardens said the Urban Trail Network has been inspired by the growth of trail running in urban public open spaces.
“Riverside Trail in Durban North for example, utilise Virginia Bush and the surrounding green spaces and beach on a weekly basis for trail runs and walks. Trail running within urban areas also highlights opportunities for sidewalks, verges and underutilised public spaces to be connected and transformed through a trail running network, hence the idea of the Urban Trail Network,” he said.
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Clement said the first phase had started with the construction of a trail between the upper area of the Durban Botanic Gardens and Currie Road Reservoir that in turn inspired potential links to several nearby parks and nature reserves. “Internationally, there has been a move towards linear parks as a means to find active connections between a city’s parks, conservation areas, heritage sites and even disused spaces that have the potential to be connected to more formal urban park systems. Linear parks, which are urban parks that are considerably longer than they are wide, work to provide green space connections for people, places of work and places of interest, serving as a means for non-motorised commuting and recreation,” said Clement.
He said the High Line in New York is one inspirational story of how a disused elevated railway line was transformed into an attractive and accessible linear park environment.
“As cities continue to grow and develop, public space and especially public green space is becoming more and more a precious community asset. Environmental psychology indicates that accessible public green space is vital for human well-being, as an ecosystem service, urban green space also helps ensure the resilience of cities,” he said.
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Last week’s trail run was in partnership with Friends of Pigeon Valley, an environmental conservation organisation made up of people who care for Pigeon Valley nature reserve. Pigeon Valley is one of the last remaining patches of original forest from before Glenwood was developed and is a birders paradise.
Crispin Hemson from Friends of Pigeon Valley, said: “We are encouraging appropriate uses of nature reserves. Obviously it is great to have people who appreciate the natural environment making greater use of it. We have to balance that with the possible disturbance to birds and mammals and we have thus had discussions with the trail runners about which routes would have the least impact on natural life. The runners have been very responsive and thoughtful in their decisions.”
Other organisations within Glenwood also on board, including UKZN and a number of schools in the area.
“The more we can meaningfully activate and connect public green spaces through various urban connections that improve urban mobility through walking, running and cycling, the more opportunity there will be to create safer and more enriching neighbourhoods. Collaboration between various public and private partners is key for an Urban Trail Network to develop, be sustained and supported,” Martin said.
The Glenwood Trail run takes place weekly on Wednesdays starting from Stella Athletic Club at 5.15pm. All welcome.
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