www.nynjtc.org Connecting People with Nature since 1920 July/August 2008 New York-New Jersey Trail Conference — Maintaining 1,683 Miles of Foot Trails In this issue: National Trails Day...pg 3 • Remembering Jenny Lane...pg 6 • Learn to Like Liverworts...pg 7 • Book Roundup...pg 11 TC Work Honored at National Trails Day Event articipants at a National Trails Day beyond what anyone would have expected. event sponsored by the Trail This has included researching tax maps, PConference in the southern Shawan - meeting with landowners, assembling vol - gunks had two reasons to celebrate: cleanup unteers, and undertaking the cleanup of of 150 acres of preserved open space and a some of the more significant properties in surprise announcement by special guest this outstanding assemblage. Your persist - Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) ence is a testament to the strength of our that he had that week introduced legislation partnership.” in Congress to support a feasibility study Also attending the event were: Paula of designating the Long Path a National Medley , President, Shawangunk Ridge Scenic Trail. The Trail Conference has been Coalition & Basha Kill Area Association; working for several years to achieve Nation - al Scenic Trail study status for the Long Path (LP), a portion of which traverses the “Your persistence Shawangunk Ridge via the Shawangunk Ridge Trail. is a testament Hinchey’s bill, the Long Path Trail Study Act of 2008, would authorize project-based funding and technical assistance via the to the strength of National Park Service in order to explore alternative routes for connecting existing our partnership” sections of the trail. (Please turn to page 3 to read Congressman Hinchey’s remarks in Trail Conference Executive Director Ed Goodell, center, accepts the DEC Partnership Award full and learn more about how a National on behalf of the Trail Conference from DEC Region 3 Director Willie Janeway (left) and Aileen Gunther , Assemblywoman, 98th Scenic Trail study might benefit the LP.) Congressman Maurice Hinchey (right), at a National Trails Day event in Summitville on June 7. District; Seth Goldman , Executive Direc - The main focus of the June 7 event, tor, Neversink Valley Area Museum; Ethan however, was celebration of the cleanup of gunks. Trail Conference volunteers, DEC Grannis, Region 3 Director Janeway pre - Winter , NY Conservation Manager, Land a 150-acre property preserved by the Trail officials including Region 3 Director sented the Trail Conference with its Trust Alliance NE office; Neil Zimmer - Conference and due to be turned over to Willie Janeway, and area residents helped Partnership Award. Citing the Trail Confer - man , Chair, Friends of the Shawangunks; NYS Dept. of Environmental Conserva - pick up remaining trash, reviewed maps ence’s work in “protecting critical natural Valerie Freer , Sullivan Audubon Society; tion (DEC) and added to Wurtsboro depicting the area’s trail networks and resources and providing for outstanding Dave Colavito , Sullivan Alliance for Ridge State Forest. The land offers the weak links in terms of protected lands, and outdoor recreational opportunities along Sustainable Development; and 40 volun - opportunity to link the Shawangunk marked completion of a major step in the Shawangunk Ridge,” Commissioner teers, members, and area residents. Ridge Trail to a network of rail and canal readying the site for transfer to the state. Grannis noted: “Many of these properties See photos from other National Trails trails in the area of the southern Shawan - On behalf of DEC Commissioner Pete required a level of commitment well Day events on page 3. Do You Hike the Hudson Highlands? Volunteer Profile Summitville in order the make the site eligi - By Maria Leiter ble for transfer to the NYS DEC. (See story Andy Garrison: Trash above.) (“LaFarge” refers to the cement com - Just north of Cold Spring, NY, Committee applied to the Hudson Valley Bash Super Hero pany of the same name that once occupied along the Hudson River in Greenway to add the Hudson Fjord the site.) The Trail Conference purchased Hudson Highlands State Park, Hike/Bike Trail—the section of road Excavators are not usually part of a trail vol - the land in 2005 in order to provide a link are some of the most popular between Little Stony Point and Breakneck unteer’s tool inventory, but for a full week in for the Shawangunk Ridge Trail with the hiking trails in the country; so Ridge—to its list of Greenway Trails, they May, Andy Garrison, a trail maintainer and O&W rail trail and D&H Canal trail in the are some of the most difficult, received only provisional approval. Says crew member in the Shawangunks, was in valley below. It will become part of the adja - even treacherous trailheads. Committee Chair (and Trail Conference control of one on the Trail Conference cent Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest. Today, an effort is afoot to member) Michael McKee, “Safety was the LaFarge project in Summitville. In the course of seven months, Andy has design a solution that will state Greenway’s concern, and we had to Andy has been a mainstay and leader dedicated hundreds of hours to the proj - remedy access problems and rethink our proposal. We applied for a among the Trail Conference’s LaFarge Trash ect—on weekends with other volunteers enhance outdoor recreation in grant to fund a study to see what could be Bash clean-up volunteers, who have cleared and on his own after work and additional done. We described access to local trail sys - 25 tons of heavy-duty trash and debris and weekends. He has found vendors to pro - the area for hikers, bicyclists tems and the Hudson River as, ‘unsafe, hundreds of tossed tires from 150 acres in vide dumpsters and construction and other outdoor enthusiasts. unregulated and inconvenient’—and in equipment needed for the project, negoti - need of improvement.” ated discount rates for using it, and Glaciers deepened the river gorge here, and operated the equipment himself. In May, the resulting estuary has the geological A Popular Destination Andy took a week of vacation to get behind structure of a fjord. The Hudson Fjord is Spectacular views of the Hudson River and the controls of an excavator, needed to framed by Storm King, Breakneck, Crows’ Highlands, the adrenaline-and heart- knock down an old wall of what had been Nest, and Bull Hill. On the east bank, pumping thrill of climbing Breakneck the LaFarge Cement company’s plant. Route 9D parallels the river. Heading Ridge, easy, family friendly trails on Little “The wall was a lot thicker than you might north from Little Stony Point, it is magnif - Stony Point, and a dedicated stop on the have imagined,” he says. “Since this was a icently scenic and heavily used by the Metro-North rail line just for hikers, all cement factory they didn’t have to skimp.” public as a gateway to outdoor recreation. contribute to making this section of the The wall demolition was, he says, the But when the Philipstown Greenway park one of the most popular hiking spots biggest challenge of the clean-up project, in the country. The area has been voted though for him it was also a matter of being among the top ten best hiking destinations back in the saddle. Now a maintenance sec - K C O by Newsweek Magazine, and the Breakneck L tion supervisor with the New York State E E Ridge Trail currently ranks as the #1 day H Thruway Authority, Andy started his career W Y hike in the nation in an online poll R as a construction equipment operator. R A conducted by Trails.com. L continued on page 6 A walk on the trails near Breakneck VOLUME XXXV, N UMBER 4 ISSN 0749-1352 intersects with the paths of history. Henry Non-Profit Hudson paused just north of here in 1609, US Postage Paid Permit No. 1239 E waiting for weather and the tide, on his E K Bellmawr, N.J. C way back down the River. 2009 will mark M L E A the quadricentennial of his voyage. Near - H C I by, the fortress at West Point was M A greenway group seeks to improve access established as the United States Military and parking at the busy trailhead areas in Academy in 1803. Hudson Highlands State Park. continued on page 11 Page 2 July/August 2008 From the Board of Directors TC Awards; Nominees Welcome Nominating Committee Names Slate for Board (See report from Nominating VOLUME XXXV, NO.4 JULY /A UGUST 2008 Committee at left.) GEORGETTE WEIR EDITOR On May 27, 2008, the Board of Edward Saiff LOUIS LEONARDIS GRAPHIC DESIGNER Directors approved the appoint - Ed is a professor of biology at Ramapo Honorary Life Membership The TRAIL WALKER (USPS Permit #1239) ment of Ann Gruhn to the board of College, and clinical professor of patho - Conveys life member status and the (ISSN 0749-1352) is published bi-monthly by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference as a directors, to replace Anne Osborn, physiology and neurosciences at the right to vote at Delegate’s meetings. benefit of membership. Subscriptions are who has resigned to take the University of Medicine and Dentistry of Usually given after long years of available to libraries only at $15.00 a year. position of TC science consultant. New Jersey. He has served on and chaired service to the Conference. Periodical postage paid at Mahwah, N.J., and This appointment was to be submit - the Mahwah Environmental Commission, additional offices. Postmaster: Send address as well as the Mahwah Board of Education. Raymond H. Torrey Award changes to the address below. Opinions expressed ted to the Delegates for approval at He is a dedicated outdoors man and will be The Conference’s most prestigious by authors do not necessarily represent the policy the June meeting.