VALDOSTA — The Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning to officially open the improved trails at Langdale Park off North Valdosta Road.

The trail improvement project was funded by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), with matching funds from the city and county and volunteer in-kind labor, said Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority Director Eric Hahn.

Several groups “put in a huge number of volunteer hours,” Hahn said, laying foundations and placing six new boardwalks to enable hikers and bikers to pass more easily over low lying areas. Leadership Lowndes Service Group No. 1, Moody Air Force Base personnel, Boy Scout Troop 454 and members of Valdosta Elks Lodge No. 728 helped with the project.

“This isn’t the end of the project,” Hahn said, “but it marks the official opening of the trails. We could easily end up with 10 or 15 miles of trail. There’s a lot of untapped potential here.”

Hahn said all the trails were dirt until the time of this project. There are currently about a mile and a half of trails, he said. The gently rolling paths meander through the pines and varied flora and fauna in the park, passing over the wooden boardwalks at intervals.

“It’s like this hidden treasure within the city,” said Jesse Boyd, Leadership Lowndes Group No. 1 member. “You never think when you’re traveling out North Valdosta Road that there’s this lush forest area back here.”

Group No. 1 members Trent Taylor and Robin Wetherington said inclement weather and mosquitos were two of the things that made the project more challenging. Taylor said he left at least one shoe at the project site, claimed by the forest primeval. The names of Leadership Lowndes Group No. 1 members are wood-burned into the near end of the second boardwalk. They are Jesse Boyd, Dan Deaver, Bob Goddard, Nancy Phillips, Trent Taylor, and Robin Wetherington.

“We hope this will grow into something bigger for the community that we can all enjoy,” said Timothy Oliver, ambassador with the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, call the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority at (229) 259-3507.