Morris Co - Adopt a Trail meeting
Hello all,
First, Thanks to everyone for sending notes of assistance. I have about 8 people who have offered to help with work at the Tourne.
Last Thursday (4/14), I attended the formal Adopt a Trail meeting hosted by Morris Co. I learned a number of surprising things.
Morris Co has over 250 miles of trails
Morris Co Parks has its own police force (patrol, detectives, rescue, etc).
Morris Co parks has its own trail construction department
Lewis Morris is the oldest park in Morris Co.
Note: construction/rerouting of trails is a submission process with the Trail construction team doing the heavy work. We can submit detailed requests for evaluation and I expect that we would be involved in any new/rerouted trail.
I also learned about the roles and responsibilities associated with the Adopt a Trail program.
In short the role of the trail adopter is to be;
Maintenance support for Morris Co parks (pruning, clean up, drainage work, etc)
Be eyes for Morris Co parks
Provide this support Quarterly for 2 years (with option to extend)
Submit quarterly reports on the trail’s condition and work preformed
I (we) was (were) granted the above responsibility for the group of secondary trails to the far west side of the park and was requested to re-build/reroute the dead trail from Denville side parking lot to the upper playground and building.
The specific trails are the group of trails to the left (as seen on the Tourne map) of the "red" straight trail that parallels Old Boonton road. The rebuild trail is the short section from the Denville parking lot switchbacking up to the parking lots by the central park gate.
The next step is for me to walk the trails with Janet (Morris Co parks Trail coordinator) and discuss the needs of the trails.
I expect to do this at the beginning of May. After this meeting, I will be contacting everyone who has sent me a PM or email about TM dates, times and scope of work.
This is a good opportunity to continue building our MTB relationship with Morris Co. Thank you in advance for your support and I look forward to getting my hands dirty with you.
More to come.
Cheers,
“slow” Joe Schaar