NY-NJ Trail Conference...

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Distance Trail Coordinator for the Conference. Trail crews can deploy an arsenal of tools to control water flow and erosion: water bars, check dams, puncheon (a low plank bridge), and puncheon’s big brother: the much-beloved bridge.

Though erosion presents a constant challenge, many parks suffer from an even more aggressive enemy. “The biggest problem here is probably the proliferation of invasive botanical species,” says Bob Jonas, currently Co-Supervisor of Morristown National Historical Park alongside his wife, Estelle Anderson. Invasives choked the trails when they first arrived as Co-Chairs of the Central North Jersey Committee in 2008. A three-year concerted effort helped fight back the worst of it, ensuring wider trails and reduced regrowth. “They’re very prolific,” he says. “So it’s a constant job, really.”

The Conference focuses on about a dozen particularly aggressive invasive species in NJ, including barberry, Japanese stiltgrass, and multiflora rose.

Training is also a major component of the Conference’s work: they offer rigorous apprenticeship programs for their certified sawyers as well as practical training and experience for their Conservation Corps members. “We’re really training the next generation of environmental conservationists and leaders,” Nester, the Community Outreach Coordinator, says.

All of this work is accomplished in partnership with federal, state, local, and private entities, as the Trail Conference doesn’t own any land itself and must seek permission from land managers in order to service the