WHERE EVERY DAY IS TRAILS DAY

The Trail Conference salutes the 1,346 volunteers who donated 26,803 hours towards trail building and maintenance throughout New York and New Jersey during 1998.

Trail and Field Programs

• The Trail Conference sponsored an "ATV Enforcement Summit" meeting with state and federal park rangers, and with Vernon (NJ) Township school administrators and the municipal police department, to address the illegal ATV use on the nearby Appalachian Trail. The cooperative strategies, which included an ‘open letter' sent by the school to all high school students informing them of the problem and the enforcement actions being taken, successfully curtailed the abuse.
• The Trail Conference formed a partnership with the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club to jointly lobby and advocate in Trenton to secure the necessary budgetary appropriations for the proper management and stewardship of New Jersey state parks.
• By teaming with newspaper reporters, the Trail Conference's advocacy coalition initiative, Pride In Our Parks (now co-sponsored by New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club), helped focus public attention on the deteriorated conditions at state parks. This, in turn, helped convince Governor Whitman to commit to increasing state parks' budget for management and stewardship: her Fiscal Year 2000 budget proposes $15.9 million above this year's budget for park maintenance, staffing, and capital improvements. This proposal is almost 50% of what the Pride In Our Parks's 1998 report said was needed annually to do an adequate job of stewardship.
• Using specialized rigging and rock drilling equipment, volunteers -- over several weekends -- built a 32-foot-long pedestrian bridge over the Peters Kill in Minnewaska State Park to provide access to the new Mossy Glen and Witch's Cave trails. This Mossy Glen bridge permits hiker access to the interior hiking trail network without using multi-use trails.
• The New Jersey Trail Crew was commended by the Union County (NJ) Department of Parks for its assistance in building a 200-plus-foot boardwalk and bridge across three streams in the county's 2,000-acre Watchung Reservation.
• The Trail Conference signed an agreement with the Morris County (NJ) Park Commission to maintain all of the 25 miles of trails within their 1,400-acre Pyramid Mountain Natural Historical Area.
• The Trail Conference signed a five-year renewal of the New York Statewide Memorandum of Understanding for Appalachian Trail management with the chief representatives of the eight other land managing agencies involved in this unique cooperative management system.
• Cooperating with the National Park Service's Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Appalachian Trail Park Office, the Trail Conference administered, and helped fund, the first-ever summer trail crew in the Recreation Area, with Trail Conference crew leader Larry Wheelock at its helm. During its 10-week season, the crew worked on five trails and at five park sites, doing erosion control (drainage, water bars) and tread restoration projects.
• New hiking trails were established throughout the region, in cooperation with parks and land trusts, including the following:
  • The 3.5-mile Indian Hill Trail was built in the 500 acres adjacent to Sterling Forest in Tuxedo, NY pur- chased by Scenic Hudson and now managed by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.
  • More than four new miles of the Highlands Trail were constructed in Hunterdon County, NJ.
  • Partnering with the Open Space Institute, which acquired 500 acres on Schunemunk Mountain's northern shoulder, the Trail Conference built the Otterkill Trail, providing a new northern access to the mountain's 25 miles of hiking trails.
  • The new half-mile Duggan Trail now provides the primary access to the Black Rock Forest's trail network.
  • In Staten Island's 3,500-acre Greenbelt, volunteers rerouted almost half of the 4.4-mile Willowbrook/White Trail -- which necessitated building five bridges - after adjacent development severed the original trail route.
  • To utilize more of the 1,200-acre National Park Service Appalachian Trail corridor lands, volunteers constructed a two-mile reroute of the Appalachian Trail around Nuclear Lake's southern and eastern shores in Dutchess County, NY, which, when coupled with the former route, permits a loop hike.
• In the central Catskills, Trail Conference volunteers rebuilt the roof and floors of the Rider Hollow Lean-to, and, in cooperation with the AdirondackMountain Club, helped build the new Beaver Meadow Lean-to.
• Service awards saluting a minimum of five years of continuous trail maintenance efforts were awarded to another 47 volunteers.
• To encourage legal mountain bicycle riding in Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park, the Trail Conference paid for special bike trail tags, and Trail Conference volunteers blazed a four-mile bike trail loop centered around the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area, after several bicycling clubs backed-out of  this project.

Education and Volunteer Training

• A pilot outreach program introduced traditional front-country park users to hiking and Harriman Park's trail system, under the tutelage of experienced hikers and specially-trained leaders. The two-phase program first trained volunteers as hike leaders and naturalist/interpreters to help novices learn about hiking and how to enjoy the woodlands; then, over the summer, leaders conducted 16 outings for park visitors, introducing almost 100 people to a new recreational activity.
• National Trails Day activities included a broad-based curriculum of volunteer training workshops over the two-day weekend in early June. Skills training ranged from Basic Trail Maintenance to Mapping and Cartography to Rock Drill Techniques -- supporting our volunteer motto, "Every Day is Trails Day."
• The "Approach It Right" (AIR) workshop trained summer camp and youth group leaders in minimum-impact skills for groups backpacking on the Appalachian Trail. With the program now in its fifth year, local Trail volunteers are noticing improved skills of group users on the Trail, and more awareness by groups of the availability of training opportunities.

Publications

• Through a literary binary fission came the creation of our first New Jersey Walk Book, covering nearly 1,000 miles of New Jersey hiking trails, including our cross-state Highlands Trail.
• The sixth edition of the New York Walk Book was issued. First published in 1923, this volume has expanded greatly, thanks to many new trails and protected open space. Its coverage is now limited to trails in the State of New York.
• A revised edition of the Appalachian Trail Guide to New York and New Jersey was published this year.

Membership

• The Torrey Society inducted its first class of 65 members, who annually support our region's hiking trails through gifts of cash or stock at $500 and above annually.
• Life Members grew by 32, bringing our total in this category to 728. Life member dues are placed in our Outdoor Fund for trail lands preservation work, thus building a trail legacy for future generations.