Trail Work

A group of four people in a forest, two wearing yellow hard hats, engaging in a rock study or environmental activity, with one person pointing at rocks and others observing.

Summer Trail Crew

MEVO’s Summer Trail Crew Internship program is managed in partnership with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference‍ (NYNJTC) ‍and is comprised of college-aged interns. Each summer, Trail Crew Interns build, maintain, and repair low-impact hiking trails in northern New Jersey (including the Ramapo Reservation, Ramapo Mountain State Forest, Waywayanda State Forest, Norvin Green State Forest, and more) and in lower New York State. Interns are led by a MEVO Trail Crew Leader who is trained by the NYNJTC, and the crew’s work is overseen by a NYNJTC Field Manager. The Field Manager provides summer-long instruction for the crew’s trail projects, including trail building techniques and tool use, safety and maintenance.

Interested to join MEVO’s Summer Trail Crew Internship program? Learn more and apply here.

Trail Work In Action

A group of children wearing yellow safety helmets working together to clear a large crack in a large rock on a forest trail using shovels.

Why Trail Work?

When done properly, trail building can act as a powerful tool for the conservation of our forests, while offering access to the outdoors for many. As a community-based organization with a vested interest in the health of our environment and the people in it, we see the importance of keeping our trails well-built and maintained. MEVO’s Summer Trail Crew is often the only formal group that works on hiking trails in northern New Jersey parks and reservations all year long. By providing staff and interns to assist in the work of the NYNJTC, we work to ensure that everyone has access to the outdoors.

Trail Crews Through The Years

A young woman with a red bandana, green shirt, and denim overalls holding a water bottle while using a small black and white device to measure or inspect a tree trunk in a green forest.
Four young people wearing yellow safety helmets and backpacks standing on a forest trail, smiling.
Volunteers installing a stone pathway in a wooded outdoor area with trees and greenery.
Four people wearing yellow hard hats working together to move or repair large rocks on a dirt trail in a forest.
Workers with yellow helmets repairing a trail in a forest, some standing and observing, one pouring black material onto the trail.
Three people wearing safety helmets and gloves working with a sledgehammer and rocks in a forest.
Three people wearing helmets and gloves working on clearing a trail in a forest using tools.
A forest trail with large rocks and a gravel path surrounded by green trees.
Three people in a forest, one person attaching a small device to a tree while others observe.
Person wearing a yellow hard hat and green shirt crouching and drilling into the ground in a wooded area near a lake, with construction tools in the foreground.
A person wearing a yellow safety helmet, green T-shirt with 'TRAIL CREW' on the back, and gloves, using a tool to work on a tree in a dense green forest.

Upcoming Events

See all events