Fundraising campaign seeks to expand Kessler Mountain trails

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — The nonprofit group building and repairing most of the soft-surface trails in the city wants to put more miles of trail at Kessler Mountain, possibly on land designated for conservation.

Ozark Off-Road Cyclists, whose volunteers have dedicated thousands of hours to maintain trails throughout Northwest Arkansas, is in the middle of a fundraising campaign to expand the trail system.

Kessler is the 620-acre natural area and park south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and west of Interstate 49. Its green space features trails for hiking and mountain biking, with soccer and baseball fields at the park side.

The group bought 40 acres southwest of the city-owned land in 2017 for $280,000, according to Washington County property records. A grant from the Walton Family Foundation made the purchase possible, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The group wants to build 3 miles of soft trail on the land it owns, and possibly another 3 just north on the city land. The city placed its portion of the mountain in a conservation easement in 2016 to protect it from urban development.

A trail plan for Kessler adopted in 2016 identified part of the land north of the cyclists' property as significant riparian habitat. The plan also says trails could be possible if an ecological study were done first.

Brannon Pack, executive director of Ozark Off-Road Cyclists, said the group wants to be a good steward of the land first and foremost. Conservationists have been out to look at the cyclists' property.

"If there's a place that the trail doesn't need to be, that's great," Pack said. "We're open to working with our partners to identify what those are, and we have."

The group owning the 40 acres protects it from development, Pack said. About a mile of...