Volunteers are our superheroes. Every day, we celebrate their passion, dedication, and leadership that make the trails we all love possible. Trail Conference volunteers make incredible commitments to the trails and lands they love. Our success as an organization comes from the hard work, dedication, and support of the many volunteers who selflessly share their time. On
Another mile of the Long Path has been permanently preserved, thanks to the efforts of Trail Conference volunteers and staff. This mostly forested, 149-acre parcel is located in the Town of Blenheim, Schoharie County, in New York. The parcel is adjacent to Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest, located 35 miles northwest of the Catskill Park by trail. Future plans are
Trail Conference volunteer father-daughter team Otto + Olivia are blazing the way for adventure! Together, they cut sheets of aluminum into 290 blazes for trails across North Jersey, including Ringwood State Park, Norvin Green State Forest, and Ramapo Valley County Reservation. They also snipped corners and drilled nail guide holes for each of the 290 blazes. Plus: They recently adopted a trail
The Trail Conference has been awarded a $250 grant from ExtremeTerrain’s Clean Trail Grant Program. The program provides a grant for organizations for their next trail improvement projects. The Trail Conference will use the grant to provide food and refreshments for participants at the annual National Trails Day event at Trail Conference Headquarters at the historic Darlington Schoolhouse on
When the lumber required to build this bridge needed to be quickly hauled to the worksite, the trail community responded to get the job done. Many years ago, a wonderful rustic bridge was built along the Two Brooks Trail in the Pequannock Watershed by the North Jersey Trail Crew. However, time and weather compromised the structure, and
In spring 2018, the New Jersey Appalachian Trail Committee applied for and received a grant to replace the puncheon planking on the Appalachian Trail in the two fields immediately “trail south” of Route 94 in Vernon Township. The $7,475 from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy through the L.L.Bean Grants to A.T. Clubs program funded the replacement of 1,128 linear feet of planking.
The Trail Conference Conservation Corps has been recognized for efforts to complete the most ambitious rehabilitation ever conducted on the A.T. The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference’s Bear Mountain Trails Project received a 2019 Project of the Year Award by The Corps Network at a ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 13. This national award recognizes Corps
The Long Distance Trails Crew had another successful season making the Appalachian Trail safe and sustainable. The Long Distance Trails Crew (LDTC) had another exciting and very productive year putting forth a lot of volunteer effort into two Appalachian Trail projects. Starting in March, we completed a rehabilitation and short reroute of the A.T. on West Mountain, a project that we started in
In the Town of Yorktown’s version of Monopoly, everyone gets to own Boardwalk! Well, at least the boardwalk on the Mohansic Trailway in Westchester County. It is valuable because it connects the North County Trailway with the east side of FDR State Park along a 0.4-mile former rail bed. But more importantly, during its construction it connected youth and
The Munsee-Eagle Trail was built and the Hutchinson Trail was improved this season to complete the new multi-use loop in Sterling Forest. The Trail Conference and New York State Parks held a grand opening of a 7-mile, multi-use, single-track trail loop at Sterling Forest State Park on Sept. 30. The ribbon-cutting was followed by a guided ride,
The Ramapo Trail Crew completed the construction of a stone staircase near a popular waterfall on the Vista Loop Trail in Ramapo Valley County Reservation. The backbone of the crew was Conservation Corps members Shane Caffrey, Ryan McLean, and Nicole Vargas, led by Emma Chilton. Building the Waterfall Staircase This season was many things. There were times when it felt
2018 was a successful year for battling invasive species in New York and New Jersey. The invasive programs at the Trail Conference provided almost 3,200 hours of volunteer surveying, data management, and invasive species removal, as well as nearly 5,000 hours of intern and Conservation Corps work protecting our natural areas. We continued our Invasives Strike Force surveyor program for the eighth year and
