This past summer, I was a fellow with Champlain Area Trails (CATs), a non-profit organization based in Westport, NY, in the Champlain Valley region of the Adirondacks. Their mission is to save local land, create and maintain trails, promote local economic vitality, and connect people to nature. I helped maintain the approximately 100 miles of trails under CAT’s management, connected with local community members, and came to intimately understand the ecosystem in the Essex Quarry Nature Preserve. Through this experience, I helped to make nature accessible to people who may not have the time or the money to access the nearby High Peaks, spoke with children about how rewarding working in the environment is, and fought back against the threat of a buckthorn monoculture.
Champlain Area Trails was founded in 2009 with the original intention for there to be safe, beautiful nature paths where one could get from town to town. Since then, the vision has broadened to the four missions mentioned before. Not only does CATs buy land and create trails for public enjoyment, but land owners also come to CATs in search of an easement on their property. An easement protects land from development in any way they want, from building actual structures to the number of large animals allowed to be intentionally kept on the property.
They last for however long stipulated, so if the land is sold to someone else, the buyers are aware of the easement and must respect it. I also got to participate in some of the outreach that CATs does, such as talking to middle schoolers and leading volunteer days. Getting people involved in the environment felt like I was making a difference in how people thought about nature.
Though most days I was maintaining the trails within the CATs system, at least once each week I focused on the Essex Quarry Nature Preserve. The mornings were spent with a volunteer group, Adirondack Garden Club (AGC), that work to remove invasive plants and plant in their place natives. In the afternoon, I would index plant species in the Quarry, or work on the brochure I made outlining what the collaboration between CATs, AGC, and the Upstate Institute was working towards. The brochure went through the invasive species present at the quarry and
their removal methods, as well as some charismatic native species within the quarry, some of which the AGC was actively planting. This summer was the third and final year of the partnership between CATs and AGC, so this brochure was a way to summarize all they had achieved.
This fellowship solidified my drive in finding a career without ecological preservation and education. I am an Environmental Biology and Computer Science double major, and want to build my career around conservancy. Through Champlain Area Trails, I learned how these two majors can fit together through GIS and be incredibly helpful in educating the community about their local ecosystems. I wanted to be a Field School Fellow so I could fully immerse myself in a community, and gain an understanding of what value a land trust has to a farming area such as the one around the Champlain Valley. I got to know how well loved the Essex Quarry Nature
Preserve is, some even calling it the “central park” of Essex. Seeing kids get excited at the prospect of seeing frogs, flowers, and birds gave me huge satisfaction with the work I did. I hope to work with a non-profit organization like CATs after graduation, and continue to connect people with their environment.