On a cold Thursday morning last week, Christina Taylor, the executive director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, spread her arms wide as if to encompass one of the biggest parks in New York City, and told the gathered crowd, “This is my office.”

Taylor went on to explain that, with the help of a $57,500 grant from the Booth Ferris Foundation, her “office” would be getting a much needed makeover.

With that money, the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park (FVCP), a non-profit organization founded in 1992, has hired the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference to study trail renovation needs in the park, which at 1,146 square acres is the city’s fourth largest.

“Once we have the plan, then we can start the process of restoring the trails,” Taylor said. “A lot of work can be done with our current staff and volunteers.”

She added that the work would probably begin in the summer, when the Friends will hire 30 teens who have previously volunteered or interned with the organization with funding from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The main trail work will be done in the Northwest Forest, including The Cass Gallagher Nature Trail and the John Muir Nature Trail, which stretches from the northwest side of the park to the northeast side, ending at the Van Cortlandt Park East entrance.

Also needing attention are the south side trails of the park, including part of the John Kieran Nature Trail on the southwest side near Van Cortlandt Lake, and part of the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail on the southeast side, close to the new water filtration plant being built along Jerome Avenue.

 “I do not know how long this project will take to be completed, but when it is done the park will be greatly improved,” Taylor said. “The park will hopefully connect different communities and be a place where people can be safe and enjoy nature.”

Due to flooding, the trails, even the newest ones, have begun to deteriorate at an alarming rate, Taylor said. Each year, the park also hosts approximately 2.5 million visitors, another main cause of erosion.

When visitors come and walk the trails, their foot indentations accumulate water, which accelerates the erosion process. Also, due to erosion, the trails have begun to sink in, exposing more rocks.

“This rock looks like it has grown to me,” said Taylor, during a brief trail tour for media. “But I know it is [actually] because of erosion that the soil is going down.”

One of the ways the park is looking to sustain trail maintenance and prevent erosion is by creating a stone step system on the inclines, Taylor said.

Erosion, however, is not the only problem that the park is facing.

Litter and some unruly plants in the park also contribute to cluttered trails.

Since the park has three main highways running along or through it, litter accumulates in the park’s trails.

Some unwelcome plants, such as Mugwort, Japanese Knotweed and Wineberry also clog trails. These plants spread quickly and are a significant threat to the natural ecosystem of the forest, Taylor said.

But with a bevy of interns, grants from Booth Ferris and the EPA, and research from the NY/NJ Trail Conference, the Friends are on their way to restoring and maintaining the park’s magnificent trails.

Taylor has one last item on her wish list, however: funding to hire a trail manager to oversee the restoration.

Ed. note: If you want to help the Friends achieve their goals, visit www.vancortlandt.org or call them at (718) 601-1553.