The Nature Conservancy Celebrates National Trails Day at Sussex County Preserve

Newton, N.J—May 9, 2005—The Nature Conservancy of New Jersey is teaming with conservation-minded volunteers in the community to celebrate National Trails Day at its Muckshaw Ponds Preserve located in Sussex County. On Saturday, June 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., volunteers and Conservancy staff will participate in a workday at the preserve to construct a hiking trail and conduct spring cleaning of an existing trail. National Trails Day, held the first Saturday in June, celebrates trails and peoples’ connections to them through events designed to raise public awareness of our fragile trail system.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for people to connect with the landscape and contribute valuable time and work on our preserves,” says Mike Van Clef, Director of Science and Stewardship for the Skylands Program. Tools, equipment and water will be provided. Please bring sun block and a bag lunch.

Muckshaw Ponds Preserve spans more than 400 acres of limestone forests, agricultural fields and wetlands in Sussex County. A number of rare plant and animal species find their home there including barred owls—which depend on relatively intact expanses of forests.

For directions, registration and further information on this special event or other Conservancy programs, please call the Skylands Program Office at 973-300-0311.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 14 million acres in the United States, and have helped preserve more than 83 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Active in the Garden State since 1955, the Conservancy established the New Jersey Chapter in 1988. Within the state, the Conservancy has protected over 56,000 acres and has completed almost 400 conservation transactions with the help of more than 25,000 individual members, as well as corporate sponsors and foundations. The Nature Conservancy of New Jersey launched a community-based program office in the Skylands in July 2001 to safeguard the globally significant Skylands, designated by the Conservancy as a Last Great Place. Visit us on the Web at nature.org/newjersey.

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