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Trails Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteer ProgramsADK's Volunteer Trails Program, Summit Steward Program and Adopt-a-Lean-to Program provide rewarding work and great fun in the Adirondacks and Catskills, while helping to maintain the greatest wilderness areas in the Northeast.

See how you can get involved!
To view volunteer trails projects, please click here.

Many members of ADK volunteer in a variety of ways to maintain our public lands. Some recent changes in ADK volunteer programs and in New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) procedures have been designed both to expand the opportunities for volunteer efforts and to facilitate those efforts.

ADK has expanded its Adopt-a-Wildland program (originally called Adopt-a-Wilderness). This program was created by the Conservation Committee to provide the club with a reservoir of members acquainted with Forest Preserve Wilderness Areas, particularly with features not seen from maintained trails. Often a chapter added to its adoption by taking responsibility for physical work as trail and lean-to maintainers under the ADK Trail Steward and Adopt-a-Lean-to programs, which provide training in the skills needed.

Now the Adopt-a-Wildland program has been revised to include any wild land under the management of DEC or the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. With the flexibility of the expanded program, ADK chapters or individual members can adopt nearly any state-owned natural area of any size that has attracted their interest, from a large wilderness area to a small local state park.

At the same time that ADK is encouraging members to turn their hands to the care of our state-owned lands and waters, the New York State Legislature has made it easier to do so. In 1995, the legislature directed the DEC to create a procedure for a group or an individual to become steward(s) of a natural resource. The resulting program, now in place, is called Adopt-a-Natural Resource. It provides authorization for individuals or groups to carry out physical work on the land. Working with the responsible state employee (in the case of ADK adopters, usually a forester), the steward contracts to carry out specified maintenance over a specified period of time up to five years.

ADK adoptions of trails and lean-tos in the Forest Preserve, which come under this program, continue to be handled through the club's Trail Steward and Adopt-a-Lean-to committees. ADK's standard instructions for maintenance of trails and lean-tos form the basis of the stewardship agreements, which are handled by the chairs of those committees. Adoptions involving only exploration and information gathering do not require stewardship agreements.

The possibilities offered by these new programs are wide. In central New York State, a number of state forests receive only modest funding for recreational development and could use volunteer help. In the Forest Preserve, it is now possible to adopt a small area with special problems. For example, Mason Lake in the Jessup River Wild Forest is a beautiful piece of water, with a bog area, nesting loons and easily accessible fishing. Its north shore is being heavily used by campers without adequate waste disposal. It needs some friends.

It is the job of the chairs of the committees listed below to help interested members of ADK get started by providing information, paperwork and the appropriate contacts. If stewardship fits in your life, please contact us.

Trail Steward Coordinator
Herbert Coles
730 West Broadway #5J
Long Beach, NY 11561
Steward@adk.org

Adopt-a-Lean-to
John Schneider
6 Nonchalant Drive
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Leanto@adk.org

Adopt-a-Wildland
Jack Freeman
814 Goggins Road
Lake George, NY 12845
Wildland@adk.org