NeighborSpace is honored to have been awarded a $275,880 grant from the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Recreational Trails program. This grant will fund construction of the next phase of the Bear Creek Heritage Trail, which runs along the Bear Creek waterfront on an easement that NeighborSpace obtained in 2016.

The Bear Creek Heritage Trail is a multi-year project to build a long-missing connection between the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail, North Point State Battlefield, Battle Acre Park, and the Bear Creek waterfront in Dundalk. It will allow Baltimore County residents and visitors to engage with the surrounding landscape and its history through a walking trail, water access locations for education and recreation, and interpretive signage commemorating the Battle of North Point. Its location near the Bear Creek shoreline will support the stewardship and protection of local wetlands. More background information on the project can be found on the project page and in past newsletter articles. 

Thanks to a $250,000 grant received from Baltimore County in the spring of 2022, design of Phases 1 and 2 has been completed and construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of November 2023. These first two phases will take trail users from North Point State Battlefield along Battle Acre Park to the alley that runs in between the townhomes on Wallford Drive and Battle Acre Park.

In addition, in September 2021 NeighborSpace received a $110,454 Battlefield Protection Grant from the National Park Service to fund historical research that will be used to interpret the trail and provide guidance for its design. The research team has collected a wealth of data on the Dundalk society in the early 1800s (see The Preceptor Issue 1 and Issue 2) and is currently working on its final report and an exhibition, to be completed by December 2023.

The 3rd phase of the Bear Creek Heritage Trail will connect Battle Acre Park to the Bear Creek waterfront. Trail users will continue along the alley to Wallford Drive. On the other side of Wallford Drive, the trail will follow an easement that NeighborSpace procured in 2016, in between Charlesmont Apartments and a small tributary of Bear Creek. Planned improvements along the segment of the trail in the alley include trail markers, landscaping, and potentially a new sidewalk. Along the easement, an 8ft wide and 650ft long trail will be installed. There is an opportunity for streambank restoration and invasive plant removal here, to minimize erosion and pollution and enhance the aesthetics of the tributary, which NeighborSpace plans to take advantage of in a later phase.