Cape park trail extension hits a delay

Construction of a much-anticipated Wolfe Neck trail extension in Cape Henlopen State Park could still be 18 months to two years away.

The joint project between the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Parks and Recreation and Sussex County hit a snag when significant cultural resources were found during a Phase 1 archaeological study on the proposed trail alignment, which now requires a Phase II study.

Cultural resources are any prehistoric or historic remains or indicators of past human activities, including artifacts, sites, structures, foundations or other objects of importance to a culture or community. According to historical documents and books, Native Americans came to the area as their summer hunting and fishing grounds.

DNREC spokesman Michael Globetti said the study cannot occur until the fall harvest season because crops are grown on the county's Wolfe Neck Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility spray irrigation field.

The plan is to convert the Wolfe Neck plant from traditional pivot-head spray irrigation on farmland to fixed-head ground application on a wooded area to provide for a new state park trail, a loop from the Junction and Breakwater Trail around the perimeter of the property.

The trail will have a wildlife viewing platform overlooking the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal as it loops from one area of the Junction and Breakwater Trail to another.

The county is required to contribute $1 million to the project over a five-year period. The public trail will be built by state agencies, with repairs and maintenance by state crews.

The six-mile outer loop, 40-inch-wide trail will have an all-weather surface of stone suitable for mountain bikes and pedestrians. A shorter interior trail is an existing 12-foot-wide unpaved service road that will remain open to the public.

The loop will double the length of the existing six-mile Junction and Breakwater Trail linking Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

Spray irrigation will change

In 2020, Sussex County Council approved a $60,000 contract with Whitman, Requardt and Associates for design of the fixed-head irrigation grid. 

The plan is to convert 376 acres of farmland to reforested woodlands, returning the land to a natural state and providing public access to parts of Cape Henlopen State Park that have been closed for two decades. Council approved a land swap of its 376 acres with the state so the entire trail will be on state property. 

The land will continue to be used for spraying treated wastewater, but instead of discharging onto crops, as has been done the past 20 years, the filtered effluent will irrigate hundreds of acres of trees and vegetation, to be planted with assistance from the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays.