Syracuse.com - Volunteers help spruce up local nature centers, parks and hiking trails for summer

[HuntingNY-News]

A volunteer group called The A-Team is "the backbone of land management and upkeep at Baltimore Woods in Marcellus," according to center's land manager.

Jeff Devine calls them "The A-Team."

Devine, lands manager at the Baltimore Woods Nature Center in Marcellus, is referring to a group of more than a half dozen volunteers, all retired men, who are "the backbone of our land management and upkeep at The Woods.

"We're building a new pavilion, including a new chimney and fireplace," he said. "They've moved around a couple of tons of cinder blocks and bags of cement, getting things ready. We have six miles of trails and they've been out this month doing trail work, removing falling trees and invasive plants, such as garlic mustard, buckthorn, bush honey suckle and Japanese barberry.

"They also mow the grass around the nature center building - whatever needs to be done."

Volunteers have been out all across Central New York this month, helping to spruce up local nature centers, parks and hiking trails. They're getting things ready for the summer season, which begins Memorial Day weekend.

Tony Rodriquez, of Syracuse, is trails chairman for the Adirondack Mountain Club's Onondaga Chapter, which has 1,600 members. He said his club maintains some 90 miles of hiking trails.

He oversees about 60 volunteer trail stewards from the club who are responsible for individual sections of the Finger Lakes Trail, the North Country Scenic Trails - in addition to a trail up and down West Mountain in the Pidgeon Lake Wilderness, near Racquette Lake. The work that needs to be done each spring, he said, is done by about 100 to 125 "real active" members.

"The stewards check out each section of trail in the early spring, making sure things will be OK when people start hiking," he said, adding that the club is not working on any major trail projects this spring.

"Most of the work is trees that have come down over the winter that have to be removed," he said.

Jim Semar, park manager at Green Lakes State Park, said 40-50 volunteers showed up May 4 to participate in the statewide "I Love My Parks Day."

"They were raking, cleaning out areas of leaves, along with painting and staining guide posts around the park," he said.

A few days before, Semar added, flowers were planted around the park office and the golf course club house by a group of volunteers from Kemper Insurance.

Over at the Montezuma Audubon Center in Savannah, volunteers this month have been out pulling garlic mustard at Howland's Island, in addition to planting trees, according to Frank Moses, the center's director.

In addition, late last month more than 50 volunteers, partly organized by Montezuma Audubon, were on the shore of Onondaga Lake - an important and vibrant birding area -- helping to plant more than 200 native plants and trees.

Volunteers Kevin Quinn, in foreground, and Tim Dudley work on the fireplace at the pavilion at Baltimore Woods. Dick Blume | [email protected] 

Wednesday morning, five members of the A-Team were out at Baltimore Woods repairing some drainage along the Valley Trai, working on the fireplace in the pavilion and doing "a lot of sprucing up" (mowing grass, picking up and sweeping the bricks, etc.) around the main building in preparation for this weekend's plant sale, an annual fundraiser.

Harold Peachey, 65, of Onondaga, has been on The A-Team for about five years.

"Volunteerism is its own reward," he said. "It gives you a nice opportunity to have social interaction with people who you might have similar thoughts and feelings about things with, and it also gives you a sense of community and of giving back."

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog