BETHEL – A newly formed, trails-oriented group received a boost Tuesday from a Vermont nonprofit grant program.

Bethel Area Trails, a Mahoosuc Land Trust committee, was awarded a $1,500 grant from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund of Montpelier, Vt.

The committee is to use the grant to conduct a community design forum in late January to plan, design and implement a multi-village, recreational trail system.

The grant builds on the committee’s trail-user-survey project.

The committee is interested in creating a trail system that links Andover, Bethel, West Bethel village, Gilead, Hanover, Newry and Woodstock.

On Monday, Bethel selectmen endorsed the committee’s efforts and authorized them to pursue public and private grants for the project.

The New England Grassroots Environment Fund is designed to foster a broad range of local environmental initiatives in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, stated program administrator Linn Perkins Syz in a news release.

The Brunswick Pesticide Watch also received a $1,500 grant to stop the rollback of Brunswick’s aquifer protection ordinance, which would allow toxic pesticides to be sprayed on the town’s fields.