The 120-year-old shingle and fieldstone building at the corner of Darlington Avenue and Ramapo Valley Road has been abandoned for 40 years. But the historic Darlington Schoolhouse is now another step closer to being a functional building again.
Has all this snow and indoor time left you feeling a little buggy? Well, it’s time to put that “bugginess” to good use, get outdoors, and join our all-new Invasives Strike Force Survey volunteer program: Spot the Spotted Lanternfly. The spotted lanternfly (SLF) is an invasive planthopper insect that arrived in Pennsylvania in 2014 and has since
The Trail Conference has revitalized the volunteer trail maintenance and shelter caretaker program in the Catskills. In 2018, the program was facing 63% of volunteer trail maintainers, shelter caretakers, and leadership positions as vacant. Recognizing this was not an acceptable standard, we made investments over the past year and a half by making the Catskills a priority for our
The 2020 season was not the first year that the Trail Conference used the Welch Trail Education Center, aka Harriman State Park Group Camp LT-1, to house our AmeriCorps members during their service with the Trail Conference Conservation Corps. Nor was it the first year we fixed some broken lights or windows. But two things happened in our favor this year
This is the season of hope and optimism. The promise of a fresh start and the chance of doing better in the new year. However, hope is not a strategy, and as we look to 2021, I am excited the Trail Conference has more than just hope for being a successful and impactful organization. The work we do is difficult. With more than 75 partners and new requirements put in place by each of them,
Individuals who commit to serving on the Trail Conference Board of Directors are deeply dedicated to the mission, proper governance, and long-term wellbeing of our organization. Each Board member brings a unique set of qualifications, which allow us to make informed decisions on a wide range of issues. They give freely of their time and take their
The Trail Conference entered 2020 full of ambition and excitement, ready to mark our 100th birthday and make the year one of our best ever. It is with deep gratitude to all our volunteers, members, and supporters that, despite the challenges this year has presented, we close 2020 as one of our best ever. That
In March, life as we knew it changed for the greater New York metropolitan area. The pandemic created unprecedented circumstances and challenges for the trails and our service community. As the world grappled with a new reality, we closed our headquarters and decided to put safety first, suspending all volunteer activities from March to May and delaying
On Nov. 7, I spent a very pleasant Saturday with members of the Trail Conference blazing the new reroute of the Hasenclever Iron Trail in New Jersey’s Long Pond Ironworks State Park. The idea for this unique trail and the initial layout of the trail route came to me and my fellow Long Pond volunteer Martin Deeks in
MEVO (Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization), in partnership with the Trail Conference, recruits college students to serve on a seasonal trail crew working in Northern New Jersey. This season’s MEVO Crew, emerging from uncertain times, embodied resilience. Half of the crew commuted from South Jersey, driving an hour-plus each way. They were tossed from isolation into a social
The New Jersey Park Service is revitalizing the trail network at the former Jungle Habitat in West Milford. The project will improve trail conditions and connectivity, as well as contiguous trails in Long Pond Ironworks State Park and northern Norvin Green State Forest. Project partners include the Trail Conference and the Jersey Off Road Bicycle Association (JORBA). The Trail Conference will work
Thanks to a recent land acquisition, the Trail Conference has now preserved more than 1,000 acres in total in this area of the Catskills. A forested, 50.4-acre parcel in the Town of Durham, Greene County, N.Y., was the last piece of the puzzle in the Trail Conference’s 30-year effort to completely protect this stretch of
