Good morning AT friends!

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy works with local Trail clubs to help monitor the AT corridor boundary lines on both sides of the AT. Groups of people physically "Walk The Line" looking for encroachment upon our land, illegal timber harvest, trash dumping, 4wd use, trespassing, etc...basically anything that encroaches upon the corridor that protects the AT from abutting landowners. Sometimes due to land ownership, the border is very close to the AT and you may have noticed these yellow blazes and aluminum survey markers very near our Trail.

It is VERY interesting work and volunteers are always needed and welcome to participate in finding and updating monument boundary marker locations. There is a little Hi-Tech work with recording the monument markers but mostly the work is lopping brush, repainting boundary markers and flagging the line. In the old days, landowners would "walk the boundaries" of land they owned to accomplish exactly the same thing we need to do to protect and preserve our AT property.

My goal here is to outreach to as many AT groups as possible and try and find people interested in doing this work and maintaining contact so we can arrange work parties to help serve our Trail. What I am seeing is that individual Trail clubs are lacking the active memberships, the existing members are aging and hey, people are busy. It takes a special kind of person that is willing to do this work as it is somewhat strenuous. Hiking the AT is MUCH easier than "walking the boundary lines" as we will be in the woods where people haven't walked in years.

Typically, we park at an AT trailhead, walk the AT for a bit and then "bushwhack" into the forest until we locate our boundary and start the process. Check out the ATC website, the Appalachian Long Distance Hiking Association (ALDHA.ORG) or the American Hiking Society (AHS) for more information and for other states volunteer opportunities but this post is specifically seeking individuals interested in serving our Trail in Massachusetts.

Drop me a line with your contact information and we can go from there. I will answer any questions you may have and hopefully we can work together for our Trail soon.