Application Introduced to Help Public Explore County Parks

By Molly Stazzone

Friends of Westchester County Parks and FUJIFILM Holdings America Corp. introduced the nation’s first free county park mobile application on Thursday at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla.

The app, called Pocket Ranger, was funded by a FUJIFILM grant in addition to the $25,000 the Friends raised, said Joe Stout, the nonprofit organization’s executive director. FUJIFILM, which funded the project for two years to make the app, did not divulge the size of its grant.

“This app is like a search engine at the ends of your finger tips,” Stout said.

CEO Richard Dubi, of ParksbyNature Network, LLC which publishes the Pocket Ranger guides, unveiled the electronic app six months ago in Westchester during a Friends meeting in White Plains. He demonstrated how to search for hiking trails, use the GPS, make reservations for events and parties and find friends and family members, among other uses.

There is also a social media section that lets the user connect with friends through Facebook or Twitter. If the user wants to share a photo, there’s a section where they can do that and edit the picture.

Friends of Westchester County Parks Chairwoman Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson said “a walk in the park just got a lot easier.”

“We heard about this amazing mobile app that was part of state park systems across the U.S. but no county park systems have this mobile app, so we were completely sold,” she said.

FUJIFILM Environment Health and Safety Director Girish Menon, who created the Pocket Ranger app, said he hopes that this technology introduces younger users to the parks.

“I want more of a younger generation to explore the more than 18,000 acres of (Westchester County) park land accessible,” Menon said. “Everyone has a smart phone these days.”

The app also contains information such as which parks are dog friendly. Menon said as a dog owner he would have had difficulty finding that information elsewhere. In addition, there is a safety feature located in the GPS, where alerts can be sent by simply pressing a button.

“If you are lost on the trails or can’t find a child or friend, hit the alert button and the authorities can locate them,” Dubi said.

Westchester County Parks Commissioner Kathleen O’Connor said the app makes it much more convenient to use the county’s parks.

“I am extremely excited because Pocket Ranger has everything there is to know about parks and recreation,” O’Connor said. “Westchester County is so big, before you would have to search parks and trails to find the number and address, now the app has the number and address to any park. It does that for you.”

The app is available on iPhones and Androids and can be found by visiting the App Store or Google play.

Adam Stone

Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.