From left, Bonnie and Warren Peascoe, Dave Johnson and Pat and Janice Kelly explore the accessibility of the Middle Creek Trail at the Washington Works Nature Trails. Johnson is a volunteer who maintains the trails. Peascoe and Kelly are members of the Mid-Ohio Valley Post-Polio Support Group of the Wood County Society. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)

PARKERSBURG — To commemorate World Polio Month in October, the Mid-Ohio Valley Post-Polio Support Group of the Wood County Society tested the handicap trails at the Washington Works Nature Trails.

Dave Johnson, a Dupont Washington Works retiree active in the Washington Works Nature’s Environmental Support Team, gave two polio survivors, Warren Peascoe, in a power chair, and Pat Kelly in a manual chair, and their wives, Judy and Janice, a tour of the accessible trails for about two hours.

The Peascoes were accompanied by their dog, Bonnie, a Humane Society of Parkersburg adoptee.

During the tour, Johnson explained the site, currently under the administration of Chemours Co., was opened to the public in 1992 with two trails. More trails have been added starting in 2010. The site is maintained and improved by Washington Works employees and retirees, community members, and the efforts of Cub and Boy Scouts. A dozen Boy Scouts have used the site for their Boy Scout Eagle Community Service Projects to improve habitats, and promote accessibility and outdoor education.

The trails go through meadow, wetland, pond, forest edge, and creek habitats. In addition to improving the trails, volunteers have installed viewing platforms, benches, a bridge across the wetland, artificial nesting boxes for songbirds, owls, ducks and bats, an insect hotel, coverboards for viewing snakes and insects, information kiosks that show maps and education materials and identification tags on plants. The area is attractive to birding enthusiasts.

A map of the wheelchair accessible trails in the lower area of the Washington Works Nature Trails. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)

Johnson said the Merci Oak seedlings were donated by the Wood County Parks Department and grown from acorns of the original oaks donated by France as a thank you to West Virginia after World War II.

Classes and youth groups are welcome. In the past the Memorial Good Shepherd Episcopal Church has brought the students in its summer reading program to the site on field trips.

The Nature Trails at 7849 Dupont Road are open to the public.