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New York-New Jersey Trail Conference Honors A.T. Volunteers
In November, two Dutchess County, New York, volunteers received awards from the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference for their commitment to the Appalachian Trail. Tim Messerich was honored for more than a decade of work, including rock work, bridge and privy construction, erosion control, and trail reconstruction projects. In addition to his own work on the Trail, he puts on an annual three-day trail workfest, drawing both local volunteers and friends from out of state. Also honored was Ollie Simpson, who first set foot on the Trail about eight years ago, and now supervises a section of the Trail and its 12 regular trail workers. She has worked on building bridges and on trail relocations, become chain-saw certified, and also monitors the National Park Service corridor boundary around her Trail section.
 PATC Presents Myron Avery Award
The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) presented its Myron Avery award to Patrick Wilson at its annual meeting in November. Wilson contributed nearly 2,000 hours of work to the club in FY 2008, taking on leadership roles for many trail projects and coordinating partnerships with other groups. He helped design and teach the club’s popular workshop on traditional tools and provides information on proper tool use and safety on work trips. Wilson is the club’s co-manager for side trails in the central district of Shenandoah National Park, where he is the longtime overseer of the Buck Hollow Trail. His step-by-step trail-skills techniques can be found on PATC’s Blue and White Crew Web site.
U.S. Forest Service Personnel News
Hank Kashdan has been named associate chief for the USDA Forest Service. Kashdan will be the Forest Service's highest ranking executive after Chief Abigail Kimbell. He replaces Sally Collins, who was recently named director of the new office of ecosystem services and markets. Charles "Chuck" Myers was named to replace Kashdan as deputy chief for business operations. Myers had served as associate deputy chief for the National Forest System in Washington, D.C. since March 2008. Immediately prior to that assignment, Myers served as regional forester for the southern region of the U.S. Forest Service.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
Rebecca Harriett became superintendent of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on February 2, succeeding Don Campbell who retired last year after 29 years in that position. Harriett began her National Park Service career as a seasonal park ranger at Cape Lookout National Seashore and served most recently as superintendent of Booker T. Washington National Monument in Virginia. Her interests include hiking, backpacking, and kayaking. This year the park is commemorating the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid.
“Give Back to the Trail”
The theme of this year’s Damascus Trail Days is “Give Back to the Trail.” The annual hiker fest, which began in 1987, will take place May 15–17. The Southwestern Virginia town will recognize individual volunteers and groups and will post submissions on the Trail Days website. To nominate a group or individual, send a short paragraph describing their contribution to the Trail to rswebsites@gmail.com. Include one photo if possible, no more than 200 kilobytes, in a .jpg format.
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