TOWN OF ROCKLAND, NY — Deep in the beauty of the Town of Rockland lies the Beaverkill Covered Bridge, one of the four covered bridges in Sullivan County that is still standing. The dark wood of which it is made is in stark contrast to the vibrant nature that surrounds it. Approaching it, one feels like one has stepped into a postcard. Its tranquil beauty is a testament to rural life. It’s no wonder that for countless people it serves as a popular tourist destination.
However, as people visit the area, there come the side effects. Traffic to the area results in several unintended consequences, such as litter on trails or in waterways, or even people getting lost or hurt. Fortunately, a group of volunteers is ready to face these consequences and make sure that visitors to the Catskills stay safe and keep the nature around us pristine.
Enter the Catskill Mountainkeeper Trail Steward program. Local organization Catskill Mountainkeeper, in partnership with the Catskill Center and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, has stewards at popular scenic destinations across the Catskills. For six years now, the trail stewards set up at the beautiful spots in the Catskills, including the Beaverkill Covered Bridge, Big Pond Trailhead and Alder Lake, from May to October.
“Informed and low-impact visitorship to the Catskill Park is critical to the health and sustainability of our natural environment,” the website for the program reads. “Each year, Catskill Mountainkeeper Stewards engage with visitors on how to responsibly enjoy the Park and respect our natural world.”
Austin Schneider, one of the stewards, said that he got involved with the program after he started his own trail maintenance company Catskill Trail Resources. Schneider said he enjoys the conservation-and-environmental protection side of the job.
“During the pandemic, I was living at a Tibetan retreat center and everything got shut down, so I was working on the trails there, and someone asked me to do the trails at their house, and then one of their neighbors asked me, so I started this trail maintenance company, and then in 2025, someone just sent me a link to apply for this, which is more of a conservation side of it, which I’m deeply interested in,” Schneider said. “So I applied and I got the job because I spend a lot of time in the woods, and it’s been great. Actually, it’s been really restful doing this instead of shoveling things on the side of a mountain.”
Victoria Gershik-Thompson, another trail steward, said she was an environmentalist and was looking for a way to be more involved in the area. “I worked for a farmer named Eugene, and he works for Catskill Mountainkeeper, and he was telling me about Catskill Mountainkeeper,” Gershik-Thompson said.
Gershik-Thompson did more research into the organization, then discovered the stewards program, which seemed right up her alley. She said, “When 2026 came up, I saw that they were hiring Catskill stewards, and I was like ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ I wanted to get involved somehow locally, and so I applied. I care about the environment; I care about environmental education with kids especially.”
The trail stewards have many responsibilities. In addition to keeping the area beautiful, noting damage to the trails and taking metrics of who visits the locations where they are stationed, stewards perform outreach and education about wilderness topics and how to make sure that these areas of natural beauty stay beautiful.
“One of my biggest [responsibilities] is greeting visitors. Say ‘Hi, we’re here,”’ Gershik-Thompson said. “Also sharing Leave No Trace principles, and offering information if they have any questions, like any trail questions. We have maps, and a lot of times people will say ‘I didn’t come prepared.’ So it’s good for us to have. So I would say [our responsibilities are] giving and providing information that is supportive to people’s journeys in the woods, Leave No Trace principles and greeting people.”
“It’s less of a customer service thing because we’re not selling anything other than knowledge for free,” Schneider said. “If anyone gets hurt, we’re trained for wilderness rescue medicine, wilderness first aid. We’re instructors for the Leave No Trace principles. I think [we] really set a good example and just have a presence here of someone who you know will pick up trash or answer questions or show a map or suggest other spots in the area.”
Schneider said that one of the benefits of being a trail steward was seeing everyone enjoy nature, and getting to share that experience with them.
“I was here for Fourth of July two years in a row, and it was just a huge party. You know, just the barbecue smoke was just thick in the air. It smelled so good. People feed us. Everyone’s happy.”
It’s not all barbecues in good times however. When they are called for, the stewards jump into action to help. Gershik-Thompson shared one such story, in which a woman lost her friend in the woods and couldn’t find her.
“We were closing our shift at Alder Lake, and we saw a woman walking back and forth, looking a little frantic. She had come in with a friend, and she hadn’t seen her friend for four hours,” Gershik-Thompson said. “So we’re like, ‘OK, wow, this is our job.’ We’re supposed to stop at four, but we can’t because we need to go seek help because she doesn’t know where her friend is.”
Gershik-Thompson and Schneider went to work. She traveled to Little Pond to phone the ranger and inform them of the situation. The woman who lost her friend had run back into the trails to find her missing friend.
“It was right at the end of the day,” Schneider said. “I remember I saw this guy on the trail and described the woman, the missing party, and he said he saw her way up by the fire tower, and we heard her back was hurting, and she didn’t have water, and it seemed like she went the wrong way. So that was kind of a full evening of the ranger contacting me again after I was home trying to find them.”
Schneider said that eventually the ranger found them. The friends did go camping that night, and the stewards found out they were fine, “because we saw them the next day here.”
“We had no idea what [happened], and then they just pulled up, and we were like, ‘Hey, it’s them!’ At the same time, they were pointing, ‘Hey, it’s them!’ So that was nice,” Schneider said.
Gershik-Thompson said that the job of the stewards is to be there to support, but also to “let the authorities, like the rangers, know because really they do search and rescue.”
These are important responsibilities, and ones that can always use willing people to take up. Gershik-Thompson said that if people are interested in the environment and want to get involved locally, the steward program is a great way to do that.
“We encourage people to apply, especially younger folks, to apply for the stewardship program to get involved in local environmental issues,” Gershik-Thompson said. “We would love there to be more awareness that this program exists, so that people can get involved for next year. They always need more stewards.”
For more information about the program, visit www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/catskill_stewardship.
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