By Michele Byers, N.J. Conservation Foundation
When New Jersey was founded 350 years ago, getting around was tough.
What New Jerseyans think of as roads today didn’t exist in 1664. Most European settlements in the New World were built along rivers and bays, and waterways served as transportation routes — the watery highways of their time.
Early trails and footpaths led from boat landings to villages and from villages to outlying farms while others were portages between water routes. Some followed old Native American paths, especially at river fords, mountain passes and along high ground in swampy areas. They were only a foot or two wide, not even roomy enough for a rider on horseback.
Over the years, as New Jersey’s population grew, trails widened to allow for horses with riders or horses pulling carts and carriages. Dirt roads gave way to cobblestones, which gave way to pavement — and today there’s lots of it! Not only is New Jersey our most densely populated state, it likely leads the nation in roads.
But trails and paths still are vitally important to New Jersey’s residents, who use them for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, horseback riding and staying in tune with nature. The Garden State’s modern, extensive system of trails would have blown the minds of our early citizens!
Today’s trails, on the other hand, are very well connected. Many, like the East Coast Greenway, Patriots’ Path and Delaware & Raritan Canal towpath, traverse multiple towns in multiple counties. Some, like the Appalachian Trail, cross through many states, including New Jersey.
Trail lovers were alarmed earlier this year when they learned grants for trail construction and improvements were delayed at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Many DEP staff had been assigned to post-Superstorm Sandy buyouts of storm-damaged homes to help families impacted by the storm, temporarily putting the trails grants program on hold.
So it was great news when the DEP just announced the 2013 round of federal trail grants finally has gotten the green light, just in time for the summer construction season. The Christie administration approved 39 applications totaling $755,054 for recreational trails projects in 15 counties, plus a host of projects that cross many other county and municipal lines.
Here are some examples:
$24,000 to Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park for improvements to the 60-mile trail along the canal, which runs through Somerset, Hunterdon, Middlesex and Mercer counties.
$24,000 to the Student Conservation Association, in partnership with Liberty State Park in Jersey City, to clear an existing trail and adjacent wooded area of overgrowth and invasive species, repair the trail surface and replant areas with native plants.
Funding for the trails grants comes from the Federal Highway Trust Fund, representing part of the gasoline tax. Since the trails program began in 1993, more than $17 million has been awarded to state, county and local government agencies and nonprofits in New Jersey.
Now that warmer weather is upon us, it’s time to get out and enjoy New Jersey’s trails and imagine walking the trails back in time 350 years earlier!
Looking for a trail near you? Check out the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference website at www.nynjtc.org/view/parks for a list of great places to hike.
For an interactive map of New Jersey trails, go to www.njconservation.org/recreation.htm.
Michele Byers is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. For more information, contact her at [email protected] or visit NJCF’s website at www.njconservation.org.
