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Stewart’s Shops and the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) are partnering this summer and fall to educate visitors on backcountry preparedness. As part of the Love Your ADK campaign, there will be messages aired at Stewart’s Shops locations about using the restroom before heading out to the trailhead and making sure adequate supplies are packed.
“The uptick in outdoor recreation is noticeable across the Adirondacks in every activity,” said Savannah Doviak, ROOST’s Special Project Manager. “Education is a great way to spread awareness in a meaningful way. We are excited to be working with Stewart’s Shops on this project to educate hikers and outdoor enthusiasts on preparedness, waste in the backcountry, and where restroom facilities are located.”
Backcountry preparedness is the main focus of ROOST’s Love Your ADK campaign. Love Your ADK was launched in April of 2020 in partnership between the Adirondack Mountain Club, Adirondack Council, New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and ROOST. The goal of the program is to create unified and up-to-date information that will help travelers and recreationists learn how to best prepare for their outdoor adventures.
‘Go Before You Go’
The “Go Before You Go” campaign will run through the summer and fall, from July through October, during the peak season for outdoor enthusiasts traveling to the Adirondacks. Video displays inside Stewart’s Shops locations will air two different videos with “Go Before You Go” messaging and other important hiking preparedness tips. Outdoors at fuel pump stations, similar messaging will also air in an audio ad.
“Stewart’s Shops has always been that quick stop on your way to the trailhead to stock up on snacks and drinks. We encourage everyone to do their part and ‘Go Before You Go’ and preserve the beauty of the Adirondack Park,” said Erica Komoroske, Stewart’s Shops Director of Public Affairs.
In addition to audio and video messaging, digital and print content was created for this campaign. On the Waste 101 page of the Love Your ADK website, ROOST has added a map that includes Stewart’s Shops, other public restrooms, and visitor centers. Rack cards will also be available at visitor center locations and other high-traffic locations with relevant information and a QR code that directs to the online map.
The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism is the destination marketing and management organization for Hamilton and Essex counties, along with the communities of Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake, all located within the Adirondacks in New York State. ROOST is also a Community Member of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.
Stewart’s Shops is an employee- and family-owned and operated convenience store chain with over 345 locations in New York and southern Vermont.
View Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
View Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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The education focus really needs to be “How to Go in the Woods.”
It is not rocket science…
Still, that’s not really an option in places that see thousands of visitors per year. Case in point, some of the trailsides and roadsides in the Adirondacks, or most rural roadsides in central Africa. The only difference is that your average Adirondack hiker has one thousand times more money and access to indoor plumbing aplenty…But you wouldn’t know that based on the situation on the ground. We have too much of an abundance of resources to be turning our forests into damn minefields.
Catholes should be a last resort. ROOST/NYS knows this and are trying to inform people politely. There are plenty of pollutants which we excrete that do not belong in our environment: microplastics, PCBs, PFAS, plasticizers, pharmaceuticals, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, human pathogens, etc. Some of these can persist indefinitely. This kind of pollution is so widespread and impactful that there are researchers who specialize just in measuring it.
IF you can ‘go’ before you go that is fine. But even so, reality is that on a long hike you may have to ‘go’ again.
Great idea! Always liked Stewart’s.
Stewarts needs to buy the convenience store in Lyon Mountain, the place is a joke and its time for an upgrade. Stewarts may have the best stores of its kind in the entire USA.
Partnering the respect of the ADK wilderness while boosting sales for last minute items before hitting the trails…..
Kudos to the Stewarts marketing team for promoting a clever campaign!
Wow, we need videos and campaigns now to tell people to poop before they go off on a hike. Along with election and vaccine denial this adds to the evidence that the the country is losing intelligence rapidly.
My, my~ aren’t you a pocket-full of ADK sunshine today? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed, did ya? I sure hope this isn’t your everyday demeanor, so I shall assume the former and you are just having a bad day.
All you need to do is walk any popular trail to see that common sense/knowledge/consideration if not actually intelligence is definitely lacking when it comes to proper woods procedures. There has always the occasional poop on the trail but it seems to be getting worse.
Very hard to quantify and I haven’t seen any study that shows it is a bigger problem than in the past. My own feeling is that people are much more aware of backcountry etiquette and environmental concerns than ever before. In any case, those that are too stupid to know to go before they set off on a hike and then are so unaware that they don’t do it properly are never going to be educated by a PR campaign. The way to improve the situation is to provide visitor facilities for hikers in central locations where people can “do the right things” easily. Build it and they will come!
Leave a log and grab a hot dog.
Eat more cheese!!! ?
Now we just need to get the staff at the Keene Stewart’s to take an interest in keeping ADK maps and guides in stock.
And compasses & flashlights.
And cheese!
Paper books and maps are a hard sell these days, and Stewart’s parses the profit margin of every square inch of their stores. Plus, the person who gets to Keene without a guidebook and a map is unlikely to know how to use them when needed. Readily available at the Mountaineer anyway. One thing that might help would be mounted large maps at major trailheads that could be photographed with a smartphone and referenced on the trail as needed. I’ve done that many times when hiking some park or other place that does it.
Yes, paper books and maps are a hard sell these days, but when they are available at the Keene Stewart’s they sell quite well without taking up much retail space. The workers there say that they are often asked for hiking information. Most of them apparently reply, “Do I look like a hiker?’, but the better reply should be to refer the person to the rack with the maps and guidebooks. Yes, they could have stopped at The Mountaineer, but those hikers didn’t. Still, this is their last chance to be better prepared for their hike.
Stewart’s is very community-minded, and I don’t believe it would be an issue at certain stores within the Park. However, I would think the town or county or DEC could “rent” a small shelf at Stewart’s to do just that if management was hesitant to take the risk. Don’t forget compasses and flashlights!
Tony,
Along these lines, has DEC ever tried to develop free, hand-out trail maps that don’t infringe copyrights? This would be similar to the CATs trail maps. They wouldn’t need to be accurate topographical maps, but if they showed all trails and water bodies, most people would be able to use them. There could be a series of 3-6 maps and available anywhere as hand-outs. These hand-outs could also contain local DEC regulations for that area. Various stakeholders could pay for the printing with advertising space on the back side.
“Now we just need to get the staff at the Keene Stewart’s to take an interest in keeping ADK maps and guides in stock.”
> Now if we can just get Stewarts to print out large signs in large lettering which say, “Please turn your engine off while you’re parked in our lots and you’re inside purchasing!”
Or, “Please turn your engines off when pumping gas!”
Tony Goodwin says: “paper books and maps are a hard sell these days.”
Yep! That’s what happens when a electronic device is permanently attached to your hand!
Boreas says:”Stewart’s is very community-minded…”
I go to them to buy my gas mainly because they allow you to pump without paying first, meaning I don’t have to walk through their doors twice when getting gas, which irks me. They benefit because of this policy. Everywhere else….they don’t trust you, “Pay first.” Things sure aren’t what they used to be!
And while we’re on Stewarts…Why is it that when there’s three or four employees behind the counter, or even if there’s only two, why is it only one register open when there’s two or three registers and there’s a long line? This is so common! It’s as if their employees are in La La land or something like that! Or not properly trained to serve the public. Irksome indeed.
Not denying that some employees are not paying attention, but Stewarts stores often have barely enough staff to do all the stuff that needs to be done. Behind the scenes those same people need to clean, make the coffee, unload trucks, check inventory, stock the coolers, etc., etc. I’m sure they’ll love the added burden of having to clean the restrooms more often when all the hikers react to the campaign!
I got ya Zephyr, but still….it should always be “customers first” just like them good old days when that theme just overwhelmed you no matter where you purchased. Maybe it’s not the employees as much as it is the corporation, and don’t get me wrong…I support Stewarts as I appreciate local and I most certainly appreciate being trusted at their pumps, a hint of just a little bit of the old American way still existent, but the long lines with only one register open and two or three employees in the store….not good!
Charlie,
It is mostly just staffing. When two families of 5 come in wanting ice cream sundaes, everything gets backed up because you lose a check-out person. Then there is someone else buying lottery tickets and scratching them off without backing away from the counter. It needs to be run more like the Soup Nazi’s kitchen. But they are fine with me. Only place I buy gas.