Hikers and members of the Hopkinton Trails Club pose for a picture during the club’s 20th anniversary walk at College Rock Park. PHOTO/JOHN RITZ

Not a lot of clubs can boast about being around for 20 years. Far fewer can hold that distinction with as loose a structure as the Hopkinton Trails Club.

“I’m impressed it’s gone on this long, considering how informal we are,” said John Ritz, co-chair of the Hopkinton Trails Club. 

“It’s surprising it’s held together,” he added.

The Hopkinton Trails Club (HTC) is a group of area residents “dedicated to enjoying and enhancing the existing trails in town while promoting the creation of new trails and improving trail connections throughout the community,” according to the organization’s website.

Resident Liisa Jackson co-founded the club in 2005 with Matt Zettek and Beth Rohlfs after learning there was no entity responsible for the town’s trails. Run independently from the town, the HTC focused its early work on researching and making recommendations for governing trail use and maintenance in Hopkinton.

Eventually the group’s goals shifted, and it began to focus on bringing together residents interested in exploring and advocating for the town’s trail systems.

The HTC’s impact since its founding is impressive. Its accomplishments include developing the Center Trail, Echo Trail and the Hughes Farm Trail, donating thousands of dollars worth of trail maintenance, advising the town on trail-related matters and helping persuade the town to establish the Trails Coordination and Management Committee (also known as the Trails Committee).

Today, the group continues to hold monthly trail workdays and walks. It also provides regular recommendations to the town about the trail systems and helps organize trail walks for different organizations in town.

All of the HTC’s accomplishments have come without a defined organizational structure. Although the club is run by two co-chairs, it does not collect fees, hold regular votes or establish any committee assignments.

“There hasn’t been an overriding need to make it any more formal than it is,” Ritz said. 

The only vote in the group’s history was to determine its leadership structure after Jackson, Zettek and Rohlfs resigned as co-chairs, according to Ritz.

Ritz indicated the group considered making the group more structured in the past, but members decided against it.

“We say: ‘Why? What is it going to get us?’ ” said Ritz. “We don’t need to be collecting donations, we don’t have any expenses. … [There’s] no need for that level of formality.”

Although numbers fluctuate, Ritz says that the HTC has 6-8 recurring members who regularly attend meetings and trail events. 

These members bring experience from trails committees, land management, land trusts and forestry to their work with the club.

“We have experts we can bring out,” said Ritz.

It’s hard to measure the full value of HTC volunteers’ expertise and work on the town trails, though the club has tried to quantify it to some degree. 

In a statement Ritz gave to the Select Board on Oct. 15, he estimated that since the HTC began its monthly workdays, the club had completed almost 900 volunteer hours of trail work.

“This year alone, the value of our work is just over $13,000,” Ritz said to the Select Board, citing the current value of an hour of volunteer work in Massachusetts at $40.97.

“Since it was formed, the club’s volunteers have provided more than $42,000 worth of work to the town,” he added.

Even though the club has reached its 20-year milestone, it’s not resting on its laurels. Members continue to push for more projects and improvements in trail governance.

Regarding the recent dissolution of both the Trails Committee and the Upper Charles Trails Committee, Ritz says the HTC has provided thoughts about potential restructuring of the town’s own trails organization.

Related: Draft of new Trails Committee structure discussed at Select Board Meeting

“It’s not a bad idea to reform it,” said Ritz. “It seems like a good time to reinvigorate … maybe get some younger folks [involved].”

Ritz also reported that the club is focused on a number of potential projects in town. Seeing the Hopkinton portion of the Upper Charles Trail completed is on the group’s wish list. 

Another project is reestablishing a trail from the Chamberlain-Whalen development all the way out to Berry Acres.

“The trails have always been there,” said Ritz. “We’re going to get them reopened as formal trails.”

In the meantime, the HTC continues to advocate for greater trail connectivity and works to connect people to parts of town they might not otherwise know about.

“[We plan] to keep informing people of the trails we have in town and getting them used to using them,” Ritz said. “Continuing that advocacy is what we’re all about.”