Politics & Government

Bloomingdale CERT Wants Hiking Trails Better Marked

Emergency planning official said hikers continue to get lost in Norvin Green State Forest.

It was about 10:30 p.m. one cold December night when the  Search and Rescue volunteers brought two lost hikers in the Norvin Green State Forest to safety. Also that week, a man, his son and their family dog from Norvin Green. The family had been hiking in the forest for more than five hours when darkness began to fall.

After being lead out of the forest, the 46-year-old man told the volunteers that they were hiking on the white trail when his son and dog began to have some trouble and they needed assistance getting out of the forest.

Deputy Emergency Planning coordinator, CERT volunteer and former councilman Bernie Vroom assisted with the recovery of the lost hikers and said many factors contributed to them getting lost, including the weather and the loss of light as the day ended. But while nothing can be done about Mother Nature when it comes to these circumstances, Vroom is certain that if the trails were better marked, situations like this may occur less.

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Better markings could also help those searching for lost hikers, he said.

"Those trails in Norvin Green are all loop trails, circular. And the trails intersect. So, for example, when I was talking to [the hikers], there were three trail heads that they could have possibly been at and we had to check out all three," said Vroom.

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The amount of time it takes to investigate the possible locations of the hikers, in addition to using maps to get the coordinates for where they may be (the Bloomingdale CERT volunteers do not use GPS, Vroom said) could make finding those who are lost more difficult. But Vroom said that using identification tags to mark the trails would make it easier to more quickly pinpoint the location of the hikers.

Vroom mentioned that the Borough of Bloomingdale should consider seeking grant money for such markers, which are also visible at night, during his Dec. 27, as well as at previous meetings. Also at the Dec. 27 meeting, the council discussed applying for a Green Acres hiking trail improvement grant, though that measure was tabled so that more information can be gathered.

Borough Administrator Ted Ehrenburg told the council that in 2004, $14,800 in grant money was awarded to the borough to assist with parking lot improvements and trailheads for the borough's portion of the forest. Vroom said a fair amount of the forest is in Bloomingdale, with it also extending into West Milford and Ringwood.

In order to access the grant money, the borough would need to match 20 percent. Ehrenburg said he would look into whether asking Passaic County for assistance would lessen the burden on the borough, but Vroom said he would like to see the borough further explore how safety can be made a priority for the trails.

"We would apply for it and then turn that money over to the [New York-New Jersey] Trail Conference to put those blazes out on the trees," Vroom said.

Vroom said he is hopeful that the council will be able to make progress on the trails grant this year. He also said he hopes the recovery efforts of the volunteers, along with an explanation of where they were, can inspire the hikers to visit Bloomingdale again.

"We want them to come back, not because they came up here and got lost, but we give them a little bit of awareness of where they were," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the man and his boy were lost in the forest when that was a separate incident earlier that week.


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