Local Man Honored by New York-New Jersey Trail Conference for Exemplary Service to Trail Maintenance, Management, and/or Trail Land Protection

Robert Fuller of Old Bridge, NJ is the West of Hudson Trail Supervisor for the Appalachian Mountain Club-New York/North Jersey chapter for the past seven years, Bob Fuller has been a key liaison between the Trail Conference and our biggest member club. He was awarded the Ken Lloyd Award which recognizes members of Trail Conference member clubs or member clubs, who have demonstrated exemplary service to trail maintenance, management, and/or trail land protection. In this role, he oversees the maintenance of 37 miles of trails at Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park by AMC trail volunteers. Bob got an early start with the Trail Conference. At age 10, he helped out on Litter Day cleanup outings with Elizabeth Levers. Soon thereafter, he got involved with trail building and maintenance under Mike Warren, who was the Trail Conference trails chair at the time. It seems he never left us. An individual member since 1980, Bob has helped field-check data for publications such as the New York Walk Book, volunteered on various trail building and relocation projects, and maintain trails in Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park. After Hurricane Irene and Lee wreaked havoc throughout Harriman-Bear Mountain, Bob was out weekend after weekend, with and without other volunteers, clearing trees and branches. He even trained two new maintainers during this demanding time. Without Bob’s help during that challenging time, we would not have gotten the eastern section of the park’s trails open and clear as soon as we did. - Andrew Argeski, Trail Supervisor Bear Mountain- Harriman NE and Marci Layton, AMC

Awards were given out at the NYNJTC’s Annual Meeting held on October 20th at Camp Ocawasin in West Milford, NJ.

Since 1920, New York-New Jersey Trail Conference has partnered with parks to create, protect, and maintain a network of 1,800 miles of trails in the New York-New Jersey region. The Trail Conference is a volunteer driven not-for-profit organization with a membership of 10,000 individuals and more than 100 organizational members representing 120,000 hikers and outdoor enthusiasts.