On Saturday, Oct. 16, we celebrated our Centennial Gala, and there are still opportunities to celebrate and support a century of service. We are still head over boots and buzzing from our Centennial Gala on Saturday night. It was well worth the wait to celebrate a century of service with so many of the people who make our…
MEVO made trail improvements in Ramapo Reservation this season. This year’s trail crew from Mahwah Environmental Volunteer Organization (MEVO) continued their fantastic partnership with the Trail Conference, giving their time and effort this summer to improve trails in northern New Jersey. Between June and August, five volunteer crew members under the guidance of their MEVO crew leader…
The Adirondack Mountain Club North Jersey-Ramapo Chapter is one of 27 chapters of the ADK. The mission statement of ADK, which will be celebrating its centennial in 2022, states in part: “ADK works to protect …. wild lands and waters by promoting responsible outdoor recreation and building a ….. constituency of land stewardship advocates.” The North Jersey-Ramapo…
Dr. Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky will be honored at the Trail Conference’s Centennial Gala. On Saturday, October 16, the Trail Conference will be holding our Centennial Gala at the Bear Mountain Inn. To mark this milestone, we will be honoring Dr. Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky—philanthropist, environmentalist, and longtime Trail Conference champion. Dr. Waletzky is Chair of the New York…
The Trail Conference Conservation Corps (TCCC) creates leaders in environmental conservation while empowering people to play a deeper role in the care of their local parks and trails. By training these AmeriCorps service members to teach the public, we amplify our impact in fostering a commitment to protecting nature. This season, eight crews are working to improve…
The Cedar Brook Trail in Taconic State Park is shady, woodsy, and follows the Cedar Brook, which makes for the perfect hike for a summer day. Because of the trail’s prime location, there were parts of the trail that had become incredibly eroded to the point of being dangerous for trail users. The Bash Bish Trail Crew, led…
Over the past quarter-century of leading hikers and trail runners through the woods, I’ve come to realize that both user groups share much more in common than I had ever realized. This became apparent when I noticed large numbers of my Saturday trail runners showing up on Sunday hikes, on their active recovery days. And…
We love meeting new people on the trail. And we loved getting to show off the hard work of our volunteers and Corps members on a hike with U.S. Senator Cory Booker! On Saturday, the United States Senator from New Jersey met up with Trail Conference Executive Director Josh Howard, Chief Financial Officer Mary Perro, and…
Jersey Off Road Bicycle Association (JORBA) and the Trail Conference collaborated on an important bridge project in the Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area in Morris County, N.J., with great results. Planning for this project began pre-COVID, and its completion this summer is another step on the road to normalcy in the eyes of our trail builders. JORBA’s Norm…
Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park in New York’s Putnam County has long been a favorite destination with over 60 miles of blazed trails, many of them quiet and uncrowded. The park, like many others, has seen an enormous increase in trail usage during the pandemic. Fortunately, several projects have been underway to improve trails and park…
A new, multi-use trail system that supports healthy communities and ecotourism in the greater Lake Hopatcong region is becoming reality, thanks to private-public partnerships and a belief in the power of connecting people with nature. The Lake Hopatcong Regional Trails Plan envisions a recreational trails system covering Jefferson Township and Mount Arlington Borough in Morris…
Some say that the job of designing, building, and maintaining sustainable trails involves managing two things—people and water—and that the two are usually related. For instance, minimum impact recreation principles tell us to avoid using wet trails to prevent displacing saturated soils and hastening erosion. On the other side of the coin from user behavior,…
