By Curt Peterson
The Green Mountain Club (GMC) bestowed their President’s Award to Woodstock resident Preston Bristow at their June 15 annual meeting.
The non-profit organization, founded in 1910, has focused on finishing the Long Trail’s hiking route for the entire length of Vermont, “From Bolton to the Canadian Border,” Bristow said.
“Only about 3% of the trail leading to the Canadian border has not been successfully acquired and converted to National Park status yet,” Bristow told the Mountain Times. The hiking route is called the Long Trail National Park.
GMC’s strategy has been to build relationships with owners of properties through which the Long Trail passes, such as it does in Killington. Those relationships usually lead to transactions where GMC acquires an easement for Long Trail’s path, then resells that easement to the National Park Service, ensuring permanent conservation. “They absorb any administrative costs involved with the transfer,” Bristow said, “and the National Park Service pays the same price GMC paid — they are not doing this to make money.”
The organization has raised $3-$4 million to be used to expand Park ownership of the Trail. Bristow became a GMC board member, then treasurer, vice-president and, ultimately, president. He has also been fundraising committee chair — often there is matching funds to help close the purchase deals.
Some agencies and organizations, Bristow said, use strongarm tactics to convince property owners to sell — sometimes employing “condemnation” to take land from unwilling owners.
“That’s not our process,” Bristow said. “We believe in building relationships with our prospective landowners, and being prepared to execute a purchase when the seller decides it’s a ‘go.’ Slow and steady wins the race,” he said. “Most property owners think it’s a good deal, and help us progress towards GMC’s goal.”
Bristow, now 70, started hiking long distances with a friend right after they graduated from high school in Connecticut. Their explorations took them all over the White Mountains, then they began hiking the entire length of the existing Long Trail in 1972, the first long-distance trail in the U.S.
“I’ve always been an avid fan of distance-hiking,” he said. “Now my knees are showing their age, and I’m putting off replacing them as long as possible. But that precludes climbing the steep spots on the Long Trail.”
Bristow is now the planner and zoning administrator in Chester. He has also been select board administrator in Barnard and planner and zoning administrator in Killington.
