Q&A with Al French

A Conversation with Andover Trails Committee Founder & Visionary - Part I
by Sally Lincoln Vogel

The name Al French comes up so frequently when people involved in trails and land conservation get together, a newbie to this world might ask: “Who is this guy everyone talks about so frequently?” 

I  had a chance this week to finally meet and talk to Mr. French, age 94,  at his home in Andover - a home surrounded by woods, with a porch filled with pots of geraniums waiting to be set out in the warming May sun. He greeted me at the door of the house, a 1960s copy of a colonial dwelling - complete with lowish ceilings.  He shared this house with his wife, Mary French, beloved in Andover for her own leadership in town affairs and as a teacher. (The Mary French Reservation honors her. She died in 2011.) 

Leading me to a cozy room, he offered me a choice of chairs surrounding the fireplace, except the one he claimed as his own - an Adirondack chair he said he’d hauled down from the upstairs deck because it’s so comfortable.. Across it he placed a slab wood writing surface a friend had made for him, and piled it up many maps and papers about his work: conserving land and making trails. Just as those trails weave not just across Andover, but also make a long swath as the Bay Circuit Trail around Boston, Mr. French has created a rich network of connections with land preservationists and outdoors folks throughout much of New England. 

Among his myriad accomplishments, besides founding the Bay Circuit, is his luanching of the Andover Trails Committee (now Andover Trails), which is still going strong after many years. 

“If I were saying what do I want to leave when I die, it’s this example and need of volunteerism and cooperation, with the willingness to spend time, to give time,” he said. 

The key, he added, is involving people in what they value, in caring for things they moved to Andover for, in finding a match between their abilities and their desires. Most people move to Andover for two things: the schools and the open space, he said. The goal in creating a Trails Committee was to attach Trails to the Conservation Commission. 

As much as he himself loves to walk and advocates for trails, the thrust of much of his efforts leans toward trying to continue to preserve open space itself. As the years have gone by, there is decreasing emphasis on preserving open space in Andover,  he said. Three forces work to promote land protection, he said: taking advantage of  state Community Preservation Act funds available to towns for this purpose, consistently replenishing town funds for land protection, and having a Conservation Commission proactive about land management. 

“‘We don’t need any more,” is the phrase he has often heard people use when discussing open space preservation,  he said. Failure to advance the use of state money to preserve land, as well as not replenishing land protection funds, reflects this attitude, he said. On the national and state level, availability of funds for land protection has been low for the last two years, he added. 

As for trails themselves, he said, the current concept is all about multi-use, which includes biking, mountain bikes and e-bikes. In general (not just in Andover) few trails are limited to walking only, mainly because alternative uses are supported by commerce, he said. (The Appalachian trail is the only national trail that is for hiking only and locally the Andover Village Improvement Society trails [A.V.I.S] also limit bike use, he said.)

At age 94, Mr. French does not sit back on his laurels, but continues to participate in trail and land conservation work, particularly putting his energies outside Andover, such as with the Mystic Link, which is an on-going effort to create a trail linking the top of Holt Hill in the Trustee’s of Reservation’s Ward Reservation, with Constitution Wharf  in Boston,  and new effort to create another spoke in the Bay Circuit Trail, starting in the town of Hansen. At meetings, he listens, observes. 

“And also, because of my nature, I speak up,” he said.