& Trails Waves News from the Appalachian Mountain Club Volume 38, Issue 2 • Summer 2016 New York–North Jersey Chapter OPEN FOR BUSINESS: the new Harriman Outdoor AMC TRAILS & WAVES SUMMER 2016 NEW YORK - NORTH JERSEY CHAPTER 1 Center IN THIS ISSUE Chapter Picnic 3 The Woods Around Us 4 Our Public Lands 7 Leadership Workshop 13 Membership Chair 14 Thanks! 16 Letter to the Editor 18 Harriman FAQs 19 Fuel it Up 21 Book Review 24 Photo Contest 29 An Easy Access Wilderness? 30 Harriman Activities 34 Dunderberg Mountain 37 Message from the Chair ummer started early and outdoor This year we have also been working on a activities are going strong. We are solid Path to Leadership Program and S very excited about the opening of the Leadership Workshop. Excellence in Harriman Outdoor Center. For those of you outdoor leadership is part of the AMC who have not seen, we encourage you to join Vision 2020 and we are working with a work crew or take a tour. The camp opening Boston staff for the Workshop to be held is scheduled for July 2nd. Cabins are available September 23rd through September 25th. Our for rent, so get a group together and go! leaders are what set us apart from the many Contact [email protected] for more other groups in the area. Leaders have been information. The chapter has planned 19 polled and an agenda pulled together to offer weekend activities with programs for both advanced training and training for paddlers, hikers, cycling, trail maintainers, potential leaders. We hope many of you will leader training and much more. Sign up for the volunteer to help and attend in order to help weekend and mingle with your fellow mentor new leaders. AMCers. Check out our website amc-ny.org for the latest. We are grateful to John Judge The search for next year’s Executive and the entire Board of Directors for starting Committee is on. We have two positions that the greater NY initiative putting membership are open; one is for the Executive for dollars into our area. There has been a big Facilities and the other is the Executive for focus on growing our membership, outreach, Communications. If you are interested in Young Members, leadership, and the Youth either position or want to know more, please Opportunities Program. We are also pleased contact [email protected] . that Harriman will allow families a base camp and programs will be offered specifically for them. Cynthia Cover photo of Breakneck Pond by Suzy Allman / myharriman.com AMC TRAILS & WAVES SUMMER 2016 NEW YORK - NORTH JERSEY CHAPTER 2 NY-NoJ Chapter Picnic June 5, 2016 Despite the grim forecast, the annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic was held on June 5th at St. John's in the Wilderness. Thanks to Richard Dabal for organizing this great event and keeping us all dry. Two groups took a guided tour of the Harriman Outdoor Center, which is set to open July 2nd. Reservations are open. Photos by Rich Siegelman AMC TRAILS & WAVES SUMMER 2016 NEW YORK - NORTH JERSEY CHAPTER 3 by BONNIE HEADLEY member Conservation Committee THE WOODS AROUND US Guardians of the Waters f you are like me, you tend to appreciate the woodlands surrounding the New York City metropolitan area for the recreational opportunities and I visual beauty they offer. Walking down a trail, hiking up a rocky slope, smelling the fresh air and hearing the wind in the trees bring us joy and peace. Sharing these experiences sources. Without clean and with friends and family adequate water, human is one of the most life, indeed all life, cherished cannot thrive. A city aspects of life. the size of New These benefits York requires an alone make enormous amount working to of water. Though protect and in early times New conserve our York City’s water woodlands well came from wells worthwhile. within the city, increasing population But there is another, growth eventually made equally important reason to local wells both polluted and treasure our surrounding forest. It plays a insufficient, unable to meet the fast- critical role in protecting our water growing city’s needs. AMC TRAILS & WAVES SUMMER 2016 NEW YORK - NORTH JERSEY CHAPTER 4 Beginning in the mid-1800s, water was drawn from reservoirs outside the city, first from the Croton area east of the Hudson River, and later from largely undeveloped areas in the Catskills to the northwest. The Old Croton Aqueduct and New Croton Aqueduct were constructed between 1842 and 1890. Today water for the city comes primarily from the forested watersheds of the Delaware River drainage, flows underground in the Catskill and Delaware aqueducts, and is finally sequestered in a system of reservoirs with interconnected linkages that all combine to provide the city with its reliable water supply. Final development occurred between 1950 and 1964, and now the entire reservoir system retains 580 billion gallons of water. On April 13, 2016 the city used 940,000,000 gallons of water—in one New York’s water is among the cleanest day! The map shows the water sources in and best-tasting of any metropolitan area in use today, virtually unchanged for the past the world. In great part, we owe this to the 50 years. What magnificent forethought! forests that surround us. Located in forested hills and mountains at How do forests accomplish this impressive elevations higher than the city, gravity task? A visit to the American Museum of delivers water to 95% of the city’s Natural History gave me some insight. residents without the use of power. The many water tanks on top of tall buildings Our forests are of the seasonal mid-latitude in New York are filled up to 5 stories high temperate type. This type covers by gravity alone. Only 5% of the city’s approximately 5.6% of the earth’s surface buildings are tall enough that pumps are and is home to many species of mammals, necessary to supply adequate water fish, and birds, and (in the Western US) the pressure. Since little power is used in world’s largest and oldest trees. These providing water pressure, New York forests also are host to countless organisms City’s water bills are largely insulated we scarcely notice, most of which cannot be from fluctuating energy costs. seen with the naked eye. In one square foot of temperate forest floor there are four times AMC TRAILS & WAVES SUMMER 2016 NEW YORK - NORTH JERSEY CHAPTER 5 as many organisms as the human population As enlightened users of the forests that of the earth! surround us, we can do much to support conservation of these critical lands. In one acre of our forest, up to two TONS ● We can share our understanding and of debris accumulate each year. This appreciation of forests with friends and organic debris is made up of fallen neighbors. branches, fruits, leaves and flowers, as well ● We can invite someone to go along on our as animal feces and carcasses. Ground- next walk in the woods. AMC sponsors many dwelling arthropods, worms, and insects hikes organized by knowledgeable and shred and disperse this material. Myriad experienced trip leaders. microorganisms, bacteria, and fungi digest ● We can encourage friends and family to learn it, releasing nutrients to nurture the trees. more about the forests. The biodiversity of a natural forest ● We can share our appreciation and concern ecosystem is profoundly greater than that of with elected officials and candidates for a managed timber plantation, a farm, a office. lawn, or a golf course. The soil’s unique ● We can encourage density and infill in ability to filter and purify water is a result of development, as opposed to sprawl and the creatures, from large to microscopic, expansion into forested areas. that inhabit the forest, nurtured by the And every time we take a drink of cool, diversity within it. A natural woodland clean water, we can thank the woods around efficiently absorbs rainfall, which provides us. a self-sustaining buffer against both flood and drought. Water that reaches our Editor’s note: From the western Catskills, reservoirs after percolating through this soil the waters of the upper Delaware River is purified as only nature can do. gather in the Cannonsville, Pepacton, Neversink, and Rondout reservoirs, which The forests around us not only give us clean in turn feed the Delaware Aqueduct water and restorative recreational (completed 1945). From the northern and opportunities, they prevent erosion, filter eastern Catskills, the Schoharie and out air pollution, and produce oxygen. Ashokan reservoirs feed the Catskill Today there are many threats to these Aqueduct (completed 1916). These two forests. Logging continues for both lumber systems feed the Kensico Reservoir and and pulpwood. Agriculture remains a threat, other smaller reservoirs in southern most significantly through the widespread Westchester County. Water from the eastern use of pesticides and fertilizers that impact Hudson Highlands is collected in the New soils and water. Urban and suburban Croton Reservoir and flows to the city in the development eat up forested lands. Ever- Croton Aqueduct (completed 1890). Huge expanding roads and parking lots cover tunnels bring all this water into New York more and more land. City. This vast waterworks is truly one of the great engineering marvels of the 20th century. AMC TRAILS & WAVES SUMMER 2016 NEW YORK - NORTH JERSEY CHAPTER 6 a guide to Our Public Lands by RON GONZALEZ ere in New York State and New which areas are open to which activities, Jersey we all share a treasure and under what restrictions and/or H trove of public lands.