Walkers now have an alternate route to take as they travel the Salt Creek Trail.

A new trail spur, about a half-mile long, was cut through the unused wetlands behind the Brown County YMCA in late spring, said Kim Robinson, executive director of the Y. The mowed, sometimes muddy path intersects the Salt Creek Trail at five spots, allowing walkers to move between the wildflower-lined path and the paved path as they please.

Volunteers from Cummins Engine Co. did the “installation” of the unpaved YMCA Wetland Meadow Trail.

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Fourteen signs point out things you could see or should watch out for in and along the dense brush: animal tracks, foliage, birds, ticks and more. The signs were purchased with a $2,057 grant from the Brown County Community Foundation.

It took more than a year to get the project done, Robinson said.

Children who attended summer day camp at the YMCA spent time on the Salt Creek Trail, on the YMCA Wetland Meadow Trail, and on the small play space near them which was installed with another BCCF grant a couple years ago, she said.

The wetland trail provides a new avenue of education for home-schooled children and others who visit the Y, she said. Master Gardener Kenny Holsclaw has worked with some of them on planting, and a new beehive tended by Steve Grubbs has become a learning experience as well, with children watching him take out honey and check on the bees, she said.

The wetland trail also is near a children’s garden which was installed behind the Y several years ago, and a chicken coop which is currently uninhabited. (The chickens moved to a “retirement center,” Robinson said.)

“We’re hoping even the elementary school kids and the fifth- and sixth-graders can come over and take a walk, make an afternoon out of it,” Robinson said.