Natural Areas Conservancy Trail Design Guidelines

The Natural Areas Conservancy’s Trail Design Guidelines were developed to guide and support the work of New York City trail practitioners. These design guidelines include design details and accompanying narratives, which provide an overview of best practices in construction  of common trail structures.  

This set of Design Guidelines includes updates and more in depth information related to trail structures, as well as new details developed in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation as a continuation of the original design guidelines included in the NYC Strategic Trails Plan.

In a nutshell, this resource offers:

• A list of common trail structures used in New York City
• Surveying, site layout, and installation instructions for each structure.
• Diagrams for each structure.

How to use this resource:

• As an example of trail structures to be used in urban natural areas and instructions for how to build them.

Date published: 2024

Point of contact: Josh Otero, Trails Program Manager, Natural Areas Conservancy, josh.otero@naturalareasnyc.org

Resource is available online here.