By Josh Bennett
The county Natural Area guides are perhaps the most visible physical presence. We have guides for Albany, Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and now Schoharie counties. The guides include trail maps and descriptions of trail systems in each county. One unique aspect of the ECOS guides is that they also often contain detailed information about the flora, fauna, or geology of the sites.
Numerous long-time local residents have told me that the guides were a constant presence on their family’s bookshelves. When I was new to the area and asked about local trails, a coworker provided photocopies of ECOS guide trail maps. I’ve personally discovered new trails based on the guides.
At this point, many of the guides are out of date. Natural areas change ownership, boundaries change, and trails can open, close, or be moved. Our oldest county guide, covering Saratoga County, was last update in 1998. From my own trail exploits, I know of seven new systems in the county created in the intervening time period, and another five among the included areas that have been significantly modified. So it’s time to evaluate updating, particularly the oldest guides.
We also recognize that in 2024, it’s unlikely that people will use the guides as orienteering tools while on a trail. There are widely available smartphone apps that fill this role, with excellent tracking features. I’m sure many are familiar with the big names: AllTrails, OnX, Gaia, Komoot, as well as software bundled with dedicated GPS units from Garmin, Wahoo, Magellan. In my own bike-centric use, I use RideWithGPS for route planning, TrailForks for on-trail wayfinding, a Wahoo unit for navigation and tracking, and Strava for recording and analysis. Our goal is to keep the ECOS nature guides relevant today.
The current trail maps are largely hand-drawn. This is a significant effort that may be unnecessary today. For a quick example, see the image below. This map shows the John Brown trails on the land recently transferred to the town of Niskayuna. The dashed line is a recent GPS track. I attempted to mimic the current ECOS guide style. While this is a crude first attempt, creating maps from GPS and basemap data appears straightforward..
I would like to hear from you. How do you use the ECOS guides? What aspects are most important? Should ECOS continue to focus on printed guidebooks, or focus on web-based presentations like the Trails for All or Natural Places list on the ECOS website?
In our effort to revise the out-of-date editions, we are starting with Saratoga county. To accomplish this task, we’re asking:
- If you are a trail steward, or just a regular user of an area in Saratoga County, we’d like to know if the current information is current.
- For any of the Saratoga County natural areas, are there points to be added to the descriptions?
- Assistance from folks with experience with cartography who are willing to help
- GPS tracks. I know many others track their hikes. Any of the apps listed above can export a gpx track file. If you’ve hiked or ridden any of the Saratoga natural areas recently, or are willing to do so, let us know.
Contact me to help in this task, or convey anything else that’s on your mind, at [email protected].