Dear ,

This is a long message but please read through it fully since it contains information crucial to restarting volunteer activities responsibly.

Today, May 15, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reopened statewide certain low-risk businesses, including landscaping and gardening and certain outdoor recreational activities. We will be following this lead for the resumption of our individual activities today since NYS covers a large portion of the trails we oversee.

Following the advice of national and local health experts, we have created guidelines to reopen outdoor individual volunteer activities. This includes:

• Trail maintenance
• Shelter caretaking
• GIS mapping
• Invasives surveying
• Solo garden work
• Corridor monitoring (Only once ATC lifts their suspension)

Outdoor group work and office volunteering will continue to be suspended for the time being. We are continuing to evaluate how to phase in these activities in the future. Additionally, the office remains closed. 

Guidelines for Resuming Outdoor Individual Volunteering on May 15

1. First off, there is ZERO pressure to resume volunteering and NO requirements are being made of anyone. Always consider the health of yourself and your loved ones first–the trails will still be there when you’re ready.
2. Prioritize low-risk activities such as inspection and blazing. Consider putting off activities that have a higher risk of injury, such as hand sawing, since we do not want to further burden an already strained healthcare system.
3. Check with the land manager of each park in your region to ensure that it’s open to both hikers and volunteers. For example, National Park Service units such as the Appalachian Trail and Delaware Water Gap are open to hikers but are still closed to volunteer activity. It is up to each volunteer to know the local rules and behave accordingly.
   • Trail Maintainers: Please check with your trail supervisor about your park’s status and treat them as your main contact for questions about your park. We want to limit the amount of emails and calls a park office receives from volunteers, as many of our partners are already overloaded with questions and visitors.
4. If your assignment is located in a community currently less impacted, such as in the Catskills, and you are traveling from a highly infected region, please be mindful and consider respectfully holding off on traveling to help prevent spread of the virus to those communities.
5. If you volunteer in a popular park that has been seeing overcrowding, consider only going on weekdays or waiting a few weeks until crowding subsides.
6. Maintain physical distancing at all times on the trail and at the trailhead–even if that means you are consistently the person to step off and provide space. It is highly recommended you wear a mask whenever others are present.
7. Above all, use common sense and put the safety of yourself, others, and the community as a whole first. Remember: We are all in this together and must take care of one another.
8. The reporting deadline for trail work will remain the same since activities after this season fall into next season’s report. We understand there will be fewer reports than usual.

This has been a challenging couple of months for us all and we deeply appreciate your cooperation, patience, and support.

If you have questions, reach out to [email protected].