The Trail Conference salutes the 1,512 volunteers who donated 30,521 hours towards trail building and maintenance throughout New York and New Jersey during 1999.

TRAIL AND FIELD PROGRAMS

• The Trail Conference expanded its program staff by hiring its first-ever New Jersey Field Representative. This expansion reflects the Conference’s commitment to an improved presence and effectiveness in New Jersey, and to provide better assistance to our trail volunteers.
• Volunteers built about 700 linear feet of boardwalk - the eastern approach to the Appalachian Trail’s 110-foot-long Pochuck Creek bridge - over several weeks last summer. Design and Construction of the Pochuck Quagmire Bridge, A Suspension Timber Bridge, a 124-page US Forest Service/Wood In Transportation program publication, shares the design innovations and knowledge gained during the bridge’s construction.
• Conference volunteers built the new Allis Trail extension, a connecting link between the Sterling Ridge Trail and the Appalachian Trail, in Sterling Forest State Park. Now open, this off-road route eliminates a two-mile roadwalk along busy Route 17A.
• At an October 21 White House ceremony, the Conference’s Highlands Trail in New Jersey was named as New Jersey’s Millennium Legacy Trail by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The national designation identifies one trail within each state which reflects the heritage and culture of the area it traverses while uniting public and private sectors in collaborative support.
• Service awards saluting a minimum of five years of continuous trail maintenance efforts were awarded to another 61 volunteers.
• The Elizabeth Levers Memorial Fund was established with a $10,000 gift to support youth involvement in trail work. Elizabeth Levers was a past Trail Conference president and a tireless advocate for the Appalachian Trail. Grants will be awarded to groups which encourage young people to volunteer and participate in trail work, thus nurturing the next generation of trail workers.
• The Black Rock Forest Consortium honored the Trail Conference with their 6^th E.G. Stillman award, for its "substantial and long-lasting benefits to Black Rock Forest and surrounding Hudson Highlands region".

EDUCATION AND VOLUNTEER TRAINING

The Trail Conference embarked on a commitment to present a broader scope of training workshops and volunteer skills development in 1999, including:

• Our annual trail maintenance workshop, held in cooperation with the Morristown National Historical Park, successfully trained 20 more people in basic maintenance and construction field skills.
• As a result of two chainsaw training courses, eight more volunteers were certified to work on National Park Service lands, and 23 others were certified for Palisades Interstate Park lands.
• A two-day advanced skills training course in specialized winch rigging and safety techniques trained seven crew leaders in this increasingly important skill area.
• A first-ever publications workshop trained a cadre of 24 new volunteers in research, writing and field-checking skills to contribute to Conference-produced guidebooks, maps and brochures.

PUBLICATIONS

• Our first-ever hard-copy edition of our guidebook, Scenes and Walks in the Northern Shawangunks, was published.
• The Trail Conference entered the high-tech world of digital mapping as we began crafting our first digital map -- of the Sterling Forest State Park trails. This multi-phase, computerized cartography process yields a more accurate and visually-appealing product than the traditional manual cartographic methods used to produce other Conference maps.
• Revised publications: Harriman Trails - A Guide and History.

MEMBERSHIP

• Life Members grew by 38, bringing our total in this category to 766. Life Member dues are placed in our Outdoor Fund for trail lands preservation work, thus building a trail legacy for future generations.
• The Raymond H. Torrey Society grew to sixty-six members. Forty are Trail Partners with a minimum gift of $500, twenty are Trail Blazers with a minimum gift of $1,000, four are Trail Stewards with gifts in excess of $5,000, and two are Trail Champions with gifts above $10,000.

ADVOCACY

The Trail Conference and the Adirondack Mountain Club’s advocacy partnership achieved amazing triumphs in successful lobbying to benefit hiking trails and park lands in New York State, gaining the Governor’s attention for...

• the State to acquire the first parcel of land for the Long Path North’s permanent, protected route! This State acquisition - the first piece of the Huntersfield Ridge-Ginseng Ridge Long Path corridor - shows that the our advocacy partnership has convinced the Governor’s office to acquire the whole trail corridor between Route 23 and the Schoharie Reservoir in Greene County. Although acquiring land to extend the Long Path is one of 131 priority projects statewide, securing the funds to do so is a direct result of hard lobbying in a competitive statewide arena.
• the State’s purchase of Bearpen Mountain (1,185 acres) in the Catskills.
• a "hiker-friendly" year 2000 budget:
  • $74 million for state land/open space acquisition (the largest amount ever budgeted).
  • a ten-fold increase in money available to the Department of Environmental Conservation for maintaining trails, lean-tos and backcountry facilities.
  • $150,000 for hiking trail construction and rehabilitation, which funded a 1999 summer crew in the Catskills.
• The Trail Conference and the Sierra Club/ New Jersey Chapter’s advocacy partnership focused on defending state park and forest trails from motorized vehicles. Legislation requiring off-road motorcycle access to trails in New Jersey state parks and forests was introduced in an Assembly committee. The Trail Conference organized group and individual members to testify in opposition at a committee hearing, and networked with colleague organizations to ensure development of a coalition aware of and opposed to this threat. We successfully prevented this bill’s release to the full Assembly.