******************* Darlington Schoolhouse: We Own It! See page 3. ******************* www.nynjtc.org Connecting People with Nature since 1920 January/February 2008 New York-New Jersey Trail Conference — Maintaining 1,688 Miles of Foot Trails In this issue: New Gunks Map Set...pg 3 • Boots vs. Shoes....pg 6 • Skinks on the Loose!...pg 7 • TC Annual Awards...pg 11 $100,000 TC Volunteers Haul Tons of Trash Challenge Grant To Help Save Future State Forest Land Helps Launch By Brenda Holzinger TC Community n Sunday, November 11 and SaTurday, ipaTed Trash Bash II in early December. As The properTy Through The sTaTe foresT and December 8, inTrepid bands of volun - one volunTeer puT iT, “I had a greaT day, souTh To RT. 17, nearly connecTing wiTh The Trails Initiative OTeers and a few TC sTaff members alThough ThaT sounds insane.” Trail Bash III main rouTe of The Shawangunk Ridge Trail. Teamed up To consolidaTe more Than nine Tons of will be scheduled in The spring. The now abandoned PorT Jervis branch of A $100,000 challenge granT To The Trail Trash locaTed on 150 acres of Trail Conference The Trail Conference purchased The The OnTario & WesTern Railway also runs Conference from Dr. Lucy R. WaleTzky properTy in SummiTville, NY. During Trash SummiTville properTy from LaFarge NorTh direcTly Through The LaFarge properTy. was maTched in The amounT of $30,000 by Bash I , The group collecTed 379 Tires America Inc. in December 2005 wiTh The UnforTunaTely, This greaT locaTion has also The WesTchesTer CommuniTy FoundaTion (approximaTely 3 3/4 Tons) and as much as goal of creaTing a wesTern branch of The made The properTy exTremely convenienT To help fund improved public access To Twice The equivalenT in household Trash, Shawangunk Ridge Trail. The land lies for dumping household Trash, consTrucTion WesTchesTer CounTy open space and more including major appliances like a washer adjacenT To The D & H Canal and The maTerials, and even a couple of pickup opporTuniTies for recreaTional walking and dryer, a refrigeraTor, and a chesT freez - WurTsboro Ridge STaTe ForesT in The Town Trucks and an old boaT. along greenways. er. Even more amazing Than moving an of MamakaTing. IT includes an abandoned Before iT became a Trash magneT, The By providing The firsT maTch To Dr. average of almosT 2/3 of a Ton each, The railroad bed ThaT runs for abouT 3 1/2 miles properTy housed a cemenT facTory owned WaleTzky’s overall challenge, The WesTch - crew enjoyed Themselves and eagerly anTic - from RT. 209 in The norThwesT corner of by LaFarge NorTh America, and prior To esTer CommuniTy FoundaTion kicks off The ThaT iT was a quarry. During The laTe 19Th new EasT Hudson CommuniTy Trails Pro - cenTury, This locaTion was adjacenT To The gram, which is designed To expand The Trail very busy SummiTville Train depoT, consid - Conference’s capaciTy To provide assisTance ered The “Grand CenTral of The CaTskills” aT To local Trail programs in WesTchesTer and The Time. UnforTunaTely, since LaFarge PuTnam CounTies. ceased iTs operaTions, The properTy has The Trail Conference plans To hire an become a haven for unwanTed Trash EasT of Hudson Field CoordinaTor early in because iT has easy road access and lacks 2008. The field coordinaTor, wiTh supporT regular sTewards. The siTe is also exTremely from exisTing professional sTaff, will Tailor popular among local ATV riders and TargeT and deliver a range of Trails-relaTed services shooTers. The DEC Rangers and The police in WesTchesTer and PuTnam CounTies help To deTer unlawful use, buT The proper - according To local needs. Ty needs caring sTewards and regular Trail Conference ExecuTive DirecTor supervision To proTecT iT from misuse. Edward Goodell noTes ThaT The Communi - The Trail Conference will sell The prop - Ty Trails Program builds on TC’s nearly 90 erTy To The New York STaTe DepT. of years of experience in working primarily in ConservaTion so iT can be added To The regional park sysTems, such as Bear Moun - 1000-acre WurTsboro Ridge STaTe ForesT. Tain and Harriman STaTe Parks, and on However, The NYS DEC will noT finalize long-disTance fooTpaThs such as The TC land in the Gunks must be cleared of trash before the state will buy it. continued on page 11 Appalachian Trail and Long PaTh. “With the explosion of John Myers Receives John has been a pioneer in assembling prop - What were some of the obstacles erTies and permissions To creaTe new Trail you had to overcome in your early development in our region, TC Leo Rothschild corridors—more Than 300 miles of Them. days with NY-NJ TC? open space preservation Including his prior work aT The TrusT for AT ThaT Time, There was no sTaTe land acqui - Conservation Award Public Land (TPL), since 1986 John has siTion money in New York. So all I could do has become a priority helped To proTecT over 20,000 acres of open was ask landowners for revocable permission If you have ever sTepped onTo one of The space. In recogniTion of his Tremendous To puT a hiking Trail on Their land. Many said for many.” “big four” major Trails in our area— body of work over The lasT 17 years for The no, buT a surprising number agreed To leT us Appalachian Trail, Long PaTh, Highlands Trail Conference, John was awarded The Leo do This. This was in The days before online “In recenT years we’ve seen an increase in Trail, and Shawangunk Ridge Trail—and RoThschild ConservaTion Award aT The Trail maps and daTabases, so I had To go To each requesTs for our services from local munic - wondered, “Who puT This Trail here?” Conference’s annual meeTing lasT OcTober. counTy To gaTher paper maps and landown - ipaliTies and non-profiT land owners,” he chances are ThaT John Myers, Trail Confer - The following is a brief Q&A inTerview er addresses. IT was a process ThaT worked, noTes. “WiTh The explosion of developmenT ence Land AcquisiTion DirecTor from 1991 Bill O’Hearn recenTly conducTed wiTh buT was much slower Than Today. in our region, open space preservaTion has To 2007, had someThing To do wiTh iT. John. (See page 11 for all of This year’s become a prioriTy for many. Since well Since sTarTing wiTh The Trail Conference, award winners.) How did you develop your methods designed and consTrucTed fooT Trails are The for implementing trail corridors? mosT economical and environmenTally sen - How did you get started in land Every deal required a differenT problem- siTive ways To provide public access To open preservation? What was your solving approach. Some landowners were space,” he says, “many agencies have con - educational and professional very easy To deal wiTh and supporTed our TacTed The Trail Conference for advice and background at the time? efforTs. OThers simply wanTed money, and help. This generous granT from The WesTch - My college background in anThropology if The price was righT They would sell. OTh - esTer CommuniTy FoundaTion will enable and psychology had liTTle To do wiTh land, ers poinTed a shoTgun aT my head and Told us To develop The capaciTy To respond To buT has been useful in dealing wiTh all me To Take a hike. more of These requesTs and To make iT pos - kinds of differenT people. I jumped inTo The sible for more people To geT ouT and field by working for a few years aT TPL, Please provide highlights that connecT wiTh naTure close To home.” learning how To do land deals and deal wiTh come to mind from your work on Brenda BaTes, Senior CuraTor for Ward public agencies. the Big 4 trails – AT, HT, LP, SRT. Pound Ridge ReservaTion of WesTchesTer In 1993 we decided To apply whaT we had CounTy Parks, The counTy’s largesT park How and when did you start learned on The Gunks ridge Trail and To wiTh 35 miles of Trails, has been working working for the Trail Conference? continued on page 7 continued on page 3 In 1991, Then-ExecuTive DirecTor JoAnn VOLUME XXXV, N UMBER 1 ISSN 0749-1352 Dolan hired me To be Trail Lands ConsulT - Non-Profit anT. My firsT projecT was working wiTh The US Postage Paid Permit No. 1239 NaTional Park Service To creaTe The new Bellmawr, N.J. Shawangunk Ridge Trail. My Task was To Take The vision and Try To make iT inTo a realiTy on The ground. I probably conTacTed Hikers can thank John Myers, above, over 75 landowners and finally goT permis - for his work in helping to secure sions from abouT 35. Then The volunTeers 300 miles of trails in our region. wenT ouT and builT The Trail. Page 2 January/February 2008 From the Chair VOLUME XXXV, NO.1 JANUARY /F EBRUARY 2008 Greetings GEORGETTE WEIR EDITOR LOUIS LEONARDIS GRAPHIC DESIGNER LeT me inTroduce was road bicycling, and I was presidenT of My firsT impressions are ThaT afTer a peri - The TRAIL WALKER (USPS PermiT #1239) myself. My name is The “WesTern Jersey Wheelmen” for 12 od of very rapid expansion, we may need To (ISSN 0749-1352) is published bi-monThly by The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference as a Bob Boysen and I years. I swiTched To hiking when I reTired re-focus and re-dedicaTe ourselves To our benefiT of membership. SubscripTions are have succeeded Jane seven years ago, and joined The Trail main mission—The creaTion and mainTe - available To libraries only aT $15.00 a year. Daniels as Chair of Conference abouT ThaT Time. nance of hiking Trails—buT wiThouT Periodical posTage paid aT Mahwah, N.J., and The Trail Conference Seemingly as regular as clockwork, I vol - neglecTing our acTiviTies in supporT of ThaT addiTional offices.