Cherry Hill Environmental Board members and volunteers gathered recently before making trail improvements at Croft Farm parklands.
For 32 years, the American Hiking Society has held its annual National Trails Day across the country as a day of service for community pathways by participants who use and appreciate them and to promote conservation and hiking.
Though the day is usually acknowledged on the first Saturday of June, the Cherry Hill Environmental Board moved its event to the afternoon of the first Sunday so as not to interfere with anyone’s weekend religious services.
Lewis Gorman is a member of the board.
“To have trails, you need to have trails made, improved and maintained,” he said. “And that’s one of the functions of National Trails Day. Another is to promote trails like, ‘Hey, they’re out there.’ Many people don’t know.”
Gorman also explained that one of the main reasons for township trails is to help users connect with pathways for which they are more likely to care.
“Our work is more than just managing the trail, it’s managing the habitats,” he noted. “Because we’re the environmental board and we’re interested in preserving the entire environment.”
The board has hosted volunteers at the Croft Farm parklands to participate in projects that maintain trail quality and the surrounding ecosystem. They include trail erosion control; trash pickup; and improvements like sign replacement, promotion of vegetation growth and invasive species control.
The volunteers at Croft Farm on June 1 were split into three groups led by members of the board. Gorman led one of them as they replaced broken and damaged trail signage and spread compost around the banks of a fishing pier recently built on the lake. The compost would stimulate native plant growth along the lake banks and the trail; much of the natural vegetation was lost when the pier was built.
Gorman showed the group how to load wheelbarrows with compost by laying them on their side against the pile and sweeping the compost in, saving time and labor. He also emphasized that since people who use the trails feel connected to them, the crew sent to clean up trash instead headed to nearby roads to keep trash from blowing onto the pathways.
“If you maintain the trail, you’ll care about it …” Gorman maintained. “So that’s what this is, to try to develop a core of volunteers that care about trails and nature, and by getting your hands dirty, you have a piece of that action.”
The third crew was sent to repair areas of the trails that had eroded from rain and exposed tree roots.
“People don’t want to walk on roots, and so they walk in further,” Gorman pointed out. “And then, the trail grows from 4 feet to 5 feet to 6 feet to 10 feet to 12 feet … We want them to be sustainable, and that’s part of sustainability. Otherwise, we’ve destroyed an extra 6 feet of nature that we didn’t need to because they’re walking on it. Once you walk on it, then it kills the vegetation.”
The trails at Croft Farm were lined with timbers secured in place with pieces of rebar. They were filled with fine stone and tamped in place, then topped with a material called stone dust to create a smooth walking surface. Other volunteer projects included clearing downed trees from the paths and removing invasive species like English ivy, a type of vine that climbs up trees and renders them unable to breathe, causing their death.
“There’s some habitat management going on, some invasive species removal,” Gorman concluded. “Sign, directional and surface improvement. So that’s the kind of things we do to maintain the trail areas and all the natural areas.”
