Positive move afoot to widen trails

Arguably the best-kept secret in Hunting Island State Park is the nearly 8-mile wooded and waterside trail system that traverses the 5,000-acre park near the southern tip of South Carolina’s Sea Islands.

On a hot summer day, these trails — soft dirt and pine underfoot and shady tree canopy and cool sea breezes above — offer an amazing recreational refuge from the heat for hikers, bikers, dog-walkers and joggers. Other times of the year, the woods are just as beautiful and the lagoon-side trail makes fishing, shrimping or just strolling a joy.

For most, they are perfect; for others, they could be better.

That's why Friends of Hunting Island is stepping in. The group, which boasts a 700-family membership, is working to win a federal grant that would match a $110,000 Beaufort County allocation to upgrade nearly 3 miles of the trails.

The group specifically is targeting the lagoon recreational trail and the boardwalk crossing trail — about 2.7 miles. The idea is to make the trail more user-friendly for everyone — including the disabled.

The trails are narrow and overgrown with tall grass and roots — fine for the sure-footed but not so for small kids, seniors and others with special needs.

The plan is to widen the trails to 6 feet, making them compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, cover them with hard shell, fix muddy ruts and add benches and vegetative buffers.

Other trails would be left alone for hikers preferring more natural paths.

Kudos should be given to the county for doling out $110,000 last year for the cause, but more money is needed to do the job right, and Friends of Hunting Island is on the mark.

The group hopes to hear by summer whether it will receive the grants and, if so, the trail rehab would get underway in October. If not, the trails plan would be scaled back.

Particular praise should be heaped upon Friends of Hunting Island for taking the measure into its own hands and continuing its efforts to better the park. As it stands, more than 1 million people each year visit the park, which includes two beaches, a lighthouse, campground, fishing lagoon and pier, interpretive centers, boardwalks and cabins, and gate receipts eclipse $2 million yearly.

The nonprofit, which promotes conservation, education and protection of the park and its resources, helps polish what's been called "the crown jewel" of the state park system, and without it, there would be no expansion of the trails either with county help or federal tax dollars.