Minutes 4/5/2007

DRAFT Minutes
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference
Trails Council
April 5, 2007

1. The Council was called to order at 6:30 PM.  Attending were:

   Estelle Anderson, Jill Arbuckle, John Blenninger, Bob Boysen, Jim Canfield, Chris Connolly, Ellen Cronan, Jack Driller, Jakob Franke, Jim Gebhard, Joe Gindoff, Ed Goodell, Suzan Gordon, Gary Haugland, Pete Heckler, Bob Jonas, Ron Luna, John Mack, Bob Marshall, John Moran, Gail Neffinger, Glenn Oleksak, Sandy Parr, Trudy Schneider, Brian Sniatkowski,  Peter Tilgner, Denise Vitale, Larry Wheelock, Hank Zulauf

   The minutes of the February 1, 2007 meeting were adopted without any changes.

   1          The Council approved unanimously a short trail called the Sweet Gum which crosses route 9W to             connect via a tunnel under the Palisades Parkway, the Lost Brook Preserve to the Long Path in the             Palisades Interstate Park.

   2          The West Hudson South Trails Committee will prepare and present to the Harriman S. P. management a proposal to extend the Hillburn Torne Sebago west from it’s terminus at the Ramapo Torne, on blazed road traces, (known as the Old Red Trail) to the junction with a road trace near the park boundary, and continue north on that to join at the Seven Hills trail. A discussion centered around two points of interest. One was that the Park has a history of refusing to consider the adoption of these trails because of their concern for hikers going off Park land and a historical conflict between the Park and the neighbors, (a quarry company), and their wish to avoid further problems with them. The other point of discussion had to do with the advantages of adopting this route. These being that since people are already using the route extensively that adopting and maintaining the trail would reduce the likelihood of hikers loosing their way and that if the trail is properly blazed hikers would be less likely to go past the park boundary. There have already been at least two hiker "confusion" incidents during the past yea. The Council agreed unanimously that this proposal should be prepared.

   3          After a brief discussion the Council agreed unanimously to a short relocation of a section of the Long             Path to cross on a bridge over the Minekill Creek in the Catskills.

    

   4          A proposal was made to improve with some minor re-locations the Wyanokie Circular Trail between Blue Mine and the Wyanokie High Point to avoid some wet areas. The proposal was approved unanimously.

   5          A proposal to extend the Castle Point Trail in Ramapo Mountain State Forest, to run parallel and just             south of Skyline Drive, to the junction with the Schuber and Hoeferlin Memorial Trails was approved             unanimously. The new connector is intended to provide an easy alternative on a mainly level route           to avoid the Hoeferlin east of      Skyline. Coincidentally, the extension now also provides easy access to     the Castle Point Trailhead, without a roadwalk from the parking

    

   6          There was considerable discussion about the proposal to seek approval for the official establishment of the Bockey Swamp Trail, an approximately 2 mile trail running between the Menomine and the Red Cross Trails, in Harriman S. P. While some felt that this marked, cleared and well known trail should be made official others felt that, since the Park has already shown an unwillingness to approve this route, we would be pushing our luck to ask them when we had already decided to request the above mentioned “Old Red Trail” approval which has also been denied approval in the past.   As a result it was proposed that the Bockey Swamp Trail be presented for restoration to the PIPC management at an appropriate time. The proposal was carried with a vote of 6 for, 3 against and 2 abstaining.

   7              A proposal to establish the first leg of a route for the Highlands Trail to cross route 15 in New Jersey was presented. The route would take the trail from its current location in Mahlon Dickerson County Reservation, south along a ridge above Camp Jefferson; skirt the western edge of the Camp Jefferson Lake and onto Weldon Road for a crossing of Route 15 on an overpass with a sidewalk, at the Weldon Road/Route 181 interchange area. The Council approved unanimously.

   8          A proposal was made that the Council send to the Board a request for the approval of the adoption of the West Brook Park, a recreational area owned by the Municipality of West Milford, New Jersey. Approximately 3 miles of wilderness type trails that in the near future can hopefully be connected to the trails in Norvin Green, and a 1 mile loop of a family oriented trail in this new system to be adopted by the Central Jersey Trails Committee. bob Jonas indicated that there would be little problem getting local residents to adopt the trails. The Council agreed unanimously to request the Board of Directors agree to adopt these trails.  

   9          The balance of the meeting was devoted to completing the Council participation in the Board directed strategic planning process. A prioritized list of suggested “objectives” was the result.

   Trails Council
   Long Range Objectives
   Trails Council Generated List and Ratings Summary
   April 5, 2007

   Volunteers

   Votes	Objective
   12	Volunteer trail maintainer and management vacancy levels will be maintained at 5% or less overall
   7	There will be a 10% increase in the net number of volunteers recruited.
   4	50% of all active trail crew members will live within a ½ hour drive of their work area
   4	There will be a perceived improvement of the Trail Conference’s Board and Staff operations by the Trails Council
   3	Fill 90% of all needed maintainers and trail crews in outlying regions (West Jersey, Catskills, SRT, East of Hudson (Taconics)

    
   Volunteer Support and Management

   Votes	Objective
   10	Implement a redesigned volunteer database with limited online access
   7	Create a Trails Operations Review Committee, update Trail Policy and Trail Management Guide
   7	Convenient and adequate training for chainsaw safety, CPR/First aid, etc will be available and become mandatory for all volunteers
   4	Staff four field representatives assigned to trail committees for East of Hudson, West of Hudson South, West of Hudson North and New Jersey. Realign staff specialists to work with the field reps to serve trail committee needs (i.e. cartography, land acquisition, fundraising, communications, etc.)
   4	Each trail committee has its own tool cache.
   3	Implement a triage, (“fire fighting”, trouble shooting) system to screen incoming problems and redirect to the appropriate management.
   1	All new Trails Council members will receive leadership orientation.

   Public partnerships

   Votes	Objective
   12	Each agency partner will receive an annual report of Trail Conference activities
   10	Trail Chairs, Crew Chiefs and Supervisors will have at least 2 meetings with trail partners a year.
   3	A full set of trail standards will be established with the assistance of other major trail user groups.
   3	The Trail Conference will improve it’s capacity to respond to requests for trail assistance.
   3	The Trail Conference will develop a list of “preferred” partners to work with

   Member organizations

   Votes	Objective
   7	Survey our member organizations on a regular basis
   7	Trail Conference representatives will make presentations to a select 10% of our member orgs per year
   6	Monthly press releases will be provided to all member clubs and sister orgs detailing training opportunities, hiking articles of special interest, and TC activities.
   6	Engage 33% of member organizations in a Trail Conference activity that directly supports our mission.
   3	Trail Conference representatives will visit 33% of member organizations per year and report back to the TC.
   1	80% of trail heads comply with minimum singage and parking standards.

    

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