Landslide dumps dirt, trees on 40-foot stretch of Butler-Freeport trail

Heavy rains last weekend triggered a large landslide covering a 40-foot section of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail near the border of Buffalo and South Buffalo townships.

The slide occurred about a mile from the trail’s Laneville entrance. The 21-mile recreational trail stretches from Freeport to Butler.

“It’s a very big deal,” said Chris Ziegler, president of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail council.

The landslide started on private property about 400 feet above the trail on a steep slope, bringing down about a 5-foot-thick layer of soil and large trees onto the trail.

There was at least one other landslide nearby after heavy rains that briefly shut down part of Route 356 in Freeport on May 8, according to Tribune-Review news partner WPXI.

Although Buffalo Township’s public works department cleared a path Monday for people to pass through the slide area, Ziegler is asking trail users to avoid that portion of the trail.

The trail council is working with engineers to formulate a plan to remove the debris and assess the hillside where the slide occurred, Ziegler said.

“The plan will be not to just clear the landslide off the trail but stabilize the source of the slide and find funding,” she said.

Trail users are asked to start at the Monroe Road trailhead in Buffalo Township rather than in Freeport.

The trail’s Facebook page offers more details and shows how to keep up with trail conditions.