The leaves on the trees are starting to show their colors and the last of this season’s White Snakeroot is still in blossom along the trail, which means our work season for this year will be over fairly soon.
And since it’s been a while since the last update, so we thought this was good time to let everyone know what’s been happening out “On the Meadows Trail”.
The weather played a big part in our regular management of the trail this year. There were too many weekends when it would rain and we weren’t able to do our regular mowing and trimming to make sure it was enjoy able and safe for everyone. We expect to be able to mow the grassy sections of the trail at least once more before winter as we do the annual cutting of non-native invasive plants in the trailside areas.
We have a bit more work to do on the new trail entrance that we built last year and we’re nearly done with construction of the new observation platform. The new entrance will get some non-skid material applied to its surface – a weather dependent task – and the path to the observation platform needs some work. Both these projects were funded throughhe National Recreational Trails grant that was awarded to the Boro in 2016.
Once our work for this year completed we’ll be looking ahead to getting underway again in the Spring. Next year will be another busy one. There’ll be a major effort to manage the non-native invasive plant populations in the Meadows; we’ll be putting in an order for some new trees and other native plants for planting in April; and a new section of trail will be built leading from the main trail to the upper part of the Bike Path. We wanted to work on this new trail section during 2018 but have had to wait until PSE&G stakes out the outline of the solar farm that will be built on the upper portion of the Meadows. We’ll have more to report on this as the project progresses.
We hope everyone who’s used the trail has enjoyed the experience. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, or would like to become a member of the Meadows Trail Crew, let us know. We’re out working on the trail every Sunday morning (weather permitting), or you can get in touch with us through the Environmental Commission web site.
Steve Barnes
Environmental Commission
