JAY – The Recreation Committee will hold a public meeting Wednesday, Dec. 10, to explain a proposed educational recreation plan for nearly 200 acres of town land behind the schools.

The meeting is also an attempt to get input from neighbors and other community members.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the middle school cafeteria

Among the ideas for future development are a 922-foot stroller trail and a 460-foot walking trail. Rob Taylor, a project organizer, previously said the recreation land is expected to be harvested of timber next year.

Selectmen have already approved Taylor’s plan to have 160 to 180 elementary school students plant four Christmas trees on a nearly one-acre parcel near a cell phone tower. Those plantings would be done next spring.

The Trees for Kids project will start with the planting of about 300 trees that the students will care for through their senior year in high school and then harvest.

After the first year of the planting, only the second-graders will need to plant trees to keep the project going, Taylor said.

High school students under Taylor’s guidance went out in teams and walked the land last summer to determine boundaries, existing trails and streams and to develop a map of the property.

Members of the high school Envirothon Team and Science Explorer Post No. 897 are part of an effort to develop the property into a sustainable forest, and outdoor education and recreation area.

Among the Recreation Committee’s goals for the property are to develop cross-country skiing, snowshoe, and mountain bike/BMX trails, a self-guided nature walk, an exercise course, a tree-cutting technique demonstration area, a wildlife observation hut, an amphitheater, improvements to the existing Project Adventure Course, as well as develop a sledding and snow tube hill and picnic areas.