Now completing our 20th year, the SMC continues as a steward of and advocate for the Reservation. While the County does basic maintenance, supports our major programs, and funds large projects through its Open Space Trust Fund, the volunteer-driven Conservancy does the planning and hands-on work that improves the park for all users: maintaining and expanding the 50-mile trail system; restoring native plants in the 14-acre Preserve and other forest regeneration sites; curating the Wildflower Sculpture Park; developing  maps and signage; and identifying long-term infrastructure and ecological needs.

From left: Hikers on Rahway Low Extension; 2019 Mayapple Trail Runners; Bio-Blitz registration

To do all this, we rely on dedicated Board members and Program Coordinators along with dozens of hardworking volunteers for: Hiking, Trailkeepers, Forest Regeneration, Trail Work, Sculpture Park, Chainsaw Gang, Trash Tacklers, and Citizen Science/Bio-Blitz, Mayapple Trail Run, and SMR Family Campout. This year we took a big step forward in program planning, marketing and logistics by engaging a part-time Operations Director, former Board member Lori LaBorde.

In 2019, we continued to make a difference to the SMR and community by:

  • Leading 60+ free hikes year-round for close to a thousand participants.
  • Advocating for a more transparent process and need for a master plan by the County in its expansion of the zoo footprint and associated parking.
  • Monitoring 50 miles of trails through the Trailkeepers and removing dozens of fallen trees that blocked trails by the Chainsaw Gang.
  • Managing the joint SMC-County Bio-Blitz in June, the first in 11 years, that brought dozens of experts to assess the ecological diversity of the Reservation.
  • Selecting, installing, and holding an opening event for the increasingly sophisticated annual Wildflower Sculpture Park exhibit with the help of an advisory committee and support from the County.
  • Organizing a spring Mayapple Trail Runs for 95 runners on courses of 10 to 62 miles (the 2020 race will be May 16th).
  • Hosting in collaboration with the County a record 193 people at the SMR Family Campout in October, an award-winning, nature-intensive experience for families with young children to get kids to appreciate the out of doors.
  • Overseeing the design and installation by the County of sign posts for key locations along Crest Drive and at Painter’s Point and Dogwood Hillside.
  • Keeping the numerous public contributions to the Rahway Fairy Trail in check.
  • Completing with our monthly Trail Work Crew the connector for the now red-blazed Swampy-Summit Trails, and half of the 0.8-mile Dogwood Trail (to be finished in July 2020).
  • Redesigning the kiosk map (to be installed spring 2020) and expanding the mini-map system at a cost of $4,000.
  • Sponsoring two part-time interns to help restore the ecosystem and develop a zone assessment of the 14-acre Preserve to supplement the monthly Forest Regeneration Corps volunteers.
  • Repairing fencing at three forest regeneration sites, long neglected by the County, through SMC and Eagle Scout efforts.
  • Monitoring forest health through Citizen Science programs.
  • Coordinating the cleaning of picnic areas by community groups through the Trash Tacklers.
  • Working with the County to: enlarge the parking facility at Locust Grove ($350k in Green Acres and Open Space Funds have tentatively been approved); increase the locations for portable toilets; remove dangerous trees limbs at the Rahway Fairy Trail; expand annual deer management; and (soon) repair the trail washout on the Openwood Trail.

Without membership support the Reservation would not be the same. It would not have a stalwart steward and  committed advocate for its ecology and infrastructure, and could not pay our operations director and interns.  If you think the Reservation and our programs are special, become a member and one of the special people who helps keep them that way. (To become a member for 12 months, click HERE.)