Our Initiatives: Trails

 Natural & Cultural Resources Along the Appalachian Trail

The 250,000-acre corridor of the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) and its surrounding landscape are rich in natural and cultural resources. Running primarily along the Appalachian highlands, Trail lands protect headwater streams for major East Coast watersheds. The Western MA A.T. Management Committee runs a robust program to catalog, monitor, and manage natural and cultural resources on A.T. trail lands in Massachusetts.

 Pit Privy Replacements

Improper disposal of human waste at heavily-used overnight sites causes pollution of soil, groundwater and surface water and degrades the experience of backcountry users. Our chapter's trail management committees are working to improve waste disposal facilities on the trail systems we oversee by replacing environmentally-unfriendly pit privies with moldering privies.

 Protection Strategies for the NET

The New England National Scenic Trail (NET) was established as part of the National Park Service's (NPS) National Trails System (NTS) in 2009 through an amendment to the National Trails System Act (NTSA) which establishes the nation's National Scenic and Historic Trails (NSHTs). The NET is a 235-mile trail that traverses southern New England from Long Island Sound in Connecticut to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border.

 Sustainability in the Tyringham Valley

The A.T. Committee's Tyringham Valley Project will foster the AMC's goal of adapting to climate change while protecting the wide variety of local plant life, including several rare plant species and a key species threatened by an invasive insect, and minimizing our impact on the wildlife that inhabit the area. We will be doing all this while still providing public access to the remaining wild places in our region, including adding handicapped access to a scenic open area and wetland.