Lake Placid, NY — The Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program has started its 33^rd season of protecting New York’s alpine ecosystem. Summit stewards will be educating hikers on high peaks summits—namely Marcy, Algonquin, Wright, and Cascade—through Indigenous People’s Day. During this time, they will also be focused on expanding the program’s photopoint monitoring, which is key to showcasing the link between educational outreach and alpine vegetation recovery.

“We are excited to continue the important work of protecting New York’s alpine ecosystem,” said Kayla White, ADK Stewardship Manager. “The Summit Stewardship Program has been and continues to be one of the best examples we have of an outreach effort that has successfully shown people how to protect sensitive ecosystems while they enjoy them.”

Since the program’s founding in 1989, summit stewards have educated over 600,000 hikers about alpine vegetation and how to protect it. The result has been a remarkable recovery in vegetation on alpine-carrying summits in the High Peaks region, a trend that has held despite increases in visitor use over the last decade.

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