Welcome to Our Walking Trail!

Beginning in June 2007, Fort Folly First Nation began the development of a trail system to enhance the benefit of community members health, to beautify the community and to highlight local plants to promote Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge and culture. Initially, the trail was 1.9km and has now been extended to 3.5kms, reaching the far corners of the reservation.  This in turn created employment for Aboriginal youth under the Fort Folly Habitat Recovery Program. 

The Bear and Eagle sections of the trail are now complete with interpretive panels highlighting medicinal plants that were used in traditional ways and their uses in English, French and Mi’kmaw. The Mi’kmaw interpretations and spelling were done in collaboration with a long time friend of the Fort Folly Community, Elder Gilbert Sewell from Pabineau First Nation.

In July 2016, Elder Gilbert Sewell, FFHR staff Laura Buck, Wendy Epworth, Taylor Colford, and Mount Allison University student Sarah Murphy began the process of collaborating on interpretative panels for the new Beaver section of the walking trail.

Like the Bear Trail, also known as the Medicine Trail, the Beaver section will be known as the Cultural Experiences Trail and will explore Fort Folly’s cultural ties/experiences with the land and the relationship the community has had with the environment over many generations. This final piece of the trail is 1.62 km in length, making the entire trail on the Fort Folly Reserve over 3.5 km of beautiful walking trail.

Funding was secured in April 2017 to proceed with the development and installation of interpretative panels on the Beaver section, which now consists of 8 panels describing everything from how Band Members constructed transportation vessels, to crafts such as basketry, to the construction of various types of housing. Robert Lyons from Sackville, NB is the graphics designer on this project in collaboration with Gerald Gloade from Pictou First Nation.

The panels were designed and printed, and installation was completed in 2017. Trailheads were also completed with the Medicine trailhead starting to the left of the FFHR building, and the Cultural Experiences trailhead starting in the top corner of the parking lot by the chain-link fence.

There are 3 sections that make up the trail: Eagle, Bear, and Beaver.