Among the many community groups hereabout I admire, the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society stands out for its uniqueness of purpose. I was reminded of this recently with the arrival by mail of a flash drive containing a roughly 20-minute film about the society directed and narrated by its founding president, Lee Dion.
The group’s origin in the 1980s was with a small group of horse people concerned about the loss of familiar paths. It has grown since then to hundreds of members and offers more than 100 outings each year, including some relatively new ones for caregivers and children.
The Trails Preservation Society has also been active in town affairs, notably pushing for the 1985 purchase of the 500-plus-acre Grace Estate in Northwest Woods. At the time privately owned, the would-be developer planned more than 500 luxury apartments and freestanding houses, as well as a golf course, tennis courts, and a riding stable all along the shore of Northwest Harbor.
Today, the Grace Estate remains a lovely second-growth woodland with hidden ponds crossed by a handful of trails. One dirt road cuts close to what my father said was a “buffalo waller,” a muddy spot where David Gardiner’s buffalo and half buffalo-half cattle could cool off from time to time as they ran loose in the woods.
I think the most compelling thing that the trails society and the trails themselves remind us of with each footstep is that we live in a physical world. Its members know this intrinsically, both from walks and from never-ending weekly maintenance with clippers and saws. There are now more than 200 miles of trails in East Hampton Town and to a large extent, this is a direct result of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society’s community relationships, and political influence, and good, old-fashioned muscle.