Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates is working on a new trail that will connect a neighborhood south of Monument to the nearby, well-used Mount Herman trail network; the work has involved years of planning, reviews, assessments, and this summer the group was able to initiate construction.Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates is a nonprofit dedicated to building trails, advocating for trail access, and preserving public lands; in 2022, the group began collaboration with the Forest Lake Metro District (FLMD) and the housing development company working to build along Mesa Top Drive in Northern El Paso County to construct a trail dubbed Forest Lakes #7 (FL7) that would serve the neighborhood and surrounding areas.Following approvals from the groups listed above, Medicine Wheel set about building FL7 in 2023 and opened their initial 1.5-mile-long trail in 2024. The group says that another phase of FL7 trail construction is still underway. Learn More About the Project in the Player BelowFollowing the approvals and initial construction work on FL7, Medicine Wheel then determined that due to the trail's (and the community's) proximity to the nearby Mount Herman trail network, a connector trail should be built to join FL7 with the nearby United States Forest Service (USFS) Trail 715, which connects into the Mount Herman trail system.This proposed 1.5-mile-long trail would not only serve to connect the community to a larger trail network, but help to mitigate the appearance of detrimental 'social trails' that can crop up when people find their own ways across a piece of land.Medicine Wheel says that social trails can damage local wildlife and cause increased erosion in an area.The major hurdle is that this new, connector trail would need to cross USFS land; the work to get that done involves a federal, environmental review and planning process for the proposed trail that can often be long and costly.With the assistance of partners, Medicine Wheel was able to secure a $45,000 state grant in order to hire a natural resource firm to complete the necessary environmental review and assessments.Medicine Wheel reports that the findings from their assessments indicate that their proposed connector trail would not only generally alleviate erosion and wildlife habitat degradation, but would specifically assist in maintaining the habitat of a local, threatened species known as the Preble's meadow jumping mouse.Following the completion of the necessary environmental review and assessments, Medicine Wheel reports that USFS approved their trail connector; the nonprofit began marking and clearing the new trail in spring of 2026 and hosted its first volunteer workday to assist in the effort on September 26, National Public Lands Day.Medicine Wheel hopes, weather permitting, to complete construction on this trail, dubbed the 715 Connector by the USFS, in late Spring of 2027.Click the following links for additional information regarding Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates or the ongoing efforts being made to construct the 715 Connector._______Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching. ...read more read less