Brent Boscarino
People in West Milford have many woodland trails available for their use. Those who wish to learn more about them are invited by the West Milford Environmental Commission to attend their June 6 meeting at 7 p.m. in the municipal building meeting room to hear a presentation by Brent Boscarino, PhD, associate director of stewardship for the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.
The Trail Conference maintains over 100 miles of trails in the township, more than in any other municipality in the 25 counties it serves. Due to illegal ATV and dirt bike activity, those involved with the group see a lot of damage to forests, including soil impaction, runoff and erosion, degradation of water quality, damage to flora and fauna, noise pollution, damage to habitats and vegetation, and spread of invasive species throughout the township. Dr. Boscarino will address this and other related subjects.
He earned his PhD in natural resources from Cornell University in 2019 and then joined the Trail Conference as the invasive species citizen science program coordinator.
As a senior research associate of Poughkeepsie Day School, he ran multiple invasive species-based research projects in collaboration with Hobart and William Smith, Ithaca and Card colleges.
The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference is a member-supported 501c3 nonprofit organization powered by a small staff with 2,500 volunteers. Founded in 1920 The Trail Conference built and continues to maintain the Appalachian Trail across New York and New Jersey. They care for 2,145 miles of trails.
Dr. Boscarino leads New York’s Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management and protects native habitats from harmful invasive species, using conservation detection dogs, citizen scientists and AmeriCorps members to help in the effort.
