Capital Campaign Exceeds $2.5M Goal

The Trail Conference is proud to announce that the Connecting People With Nature campaign has raised more than $3.1 million in just over two years,
allowing us to declare victory as of December 31, 2005.

A recent announcement by the Morris County Open Space Preservation Trust of a $500,000 grant, coupled with a matching grant of $500,000 from the New Jersey Green Acres program, put us over the top (helped our hiker reach the summit!). With these most recent grants, we will make our second New Jersey acquisition—a 74-acre assemblage in Washington Township that will accommodate the co-aligned Highlands Trail and Patriots’ Path.

2005 was a big year for the Trail Conference. We made major progress on the ambitious plans we had laid out for our future when, in late 2004, we announced the Connecting People With Nature campaign. Our goal was to raise $2.5 million in order to:

1. Improve the connectivity of our region’s trail system;
2. Increase our recruitment and training of volunteers for trail crews by rebuilding the historic Bear Mountain trails;
3. Convert all of our hiking maps to digital format.

The contributions to the campaign are being put to work and are producing impressive results.

• More than 2,000 acres have been protected, including portions of the Highlands Trail, the Long Path, and the Shawangunk Ridge Trail. These lands also provide for side trails connecting with local communities.
• We have redesigned the hiking trails on historic Bear Mountain, NY, including the original and most heavily used section of the Appalachian Trail. This multiyear project will commence next spring as a “Trail University” designed to recruit and train a new generation of volunteers prepared to build and maintain trails in the region’s burgeoning open space.
• Our staff cartographer is working with volunteers to convert all hiking maps to digital format, so they can be more accurately and easily updated. Four of our 10 map sets are now digital, and our goal is to complete the another five in the next two years.

The generosity and commitment of our members and partners makes it possible for the Trail Conference to achieve the vision of creating and safeguarding high quality hiking opportunities for future generations. For the inside story on this generosity, please see Ed Goodell’s column on page 3 of the Trail Walker which also has a list of the many donors.

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