Posts Tagged ‘Summit Stewardship Program’

Friday, October 28, 2022

Front-country steward in Keene shares first-hand experiences

front country steward

Is a diminutive, soft-voiced recent college grad really the answer to the over-crowding problem in the Adirondack High Peaks?  

She might be part of it.  Naomi Hodgson is one of the new, home-grown “front country stewards” stationed at critical spots on busy hiking weekends.   Their job is to direct hikers to right-sized hikes for their experience and skill level, recommend necessary gear and preparation, and provide critical pointers and friendly advice.

“I don’t get so many flip flops here,” she said.   “Just sneakers, which is not so bad, really.  I haven’t seen a person with flip flops in a while. “

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Summit stewards see rebound in hiker numbers 

summit stewards

In its 2022 midseason report, the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program reported a modest rebound in hiker contacts between May and July. The program stated that summit stewards spoke to an average of 81 hikers per day over that time period on Marcy, Algonquin, Wright, and Cascade, the four peaks with the most coverage by stewards. By comparison, the 2021 average was 62 hikers a day.

» Continue Reading.


Thursday, April 21, 2022

The hikers are coming … but how many?

Hikers on Cascade Mountain, eastern High Peaks Wilderness

In 2020, the Adirondack trails were overwhelmed with hikers looking for Covid-safe recreation.  People were lined up long before dawn for trails in the High Peaks.  Highways turned into parking lots, and wilderness rangers into meter maids.

Then in 2021, with Covid still a presence in the Northeast, the hiker crisis evaporated.

The crazy busy hiker weekends were gone.  Keene Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson says he towed only one (ONE!) car from the Garden trailhead in 2021.    That place is usually a combat zone.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Wilderness Training to Match our Mountains

The stress of our sheer numbers on wild lands, other hikers, summit stewards, forest and assistant rangers and local communities and volunteers bordering Routes 73 and 86 this hiking season – and many before this – easily disconnects and untethers us from the historical and philosophical roots of wilderness preservation and management.

None of what gets debated weekly about the High Peaks is truly untethered from these historical roots. As Almanack contributor Ed Zahniser has written, “take courage for your own work for visitor use management in wilderness. It has a history, a history set in concern for the common good, a history stemming from the American people’s long-standing concern to protect some remnant of our public lands in their wild, natural state. “

» Continue Reading.


Monday, July 23, 2018

Adirondack Summit Stewards Help Protect Alpine Areas

mountaineer trail steward photoLocal outfitter The Mountaineer recently partnered with Patagonia to support educational and research efforts this summer atop the highest peaks through a grant to the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program.

According to an announcement sent to the press, the grant will enable the program to educate hikers about the fragile nature of the alpine vegetation and conduct research on the populations of rare, threatened and endangered plant species. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program Receives NYS Environmental Award

2016 environmental excellence awardsThe Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) and the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy have announced that the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program was awarded the New York State Environmental Excellence Award at a ceremony on November 15th at Union College.

The annual award is given by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation in recognition of outstanding, innovative and sustainable projects or programs and unique partnerships that are contributing to a healthier environment and economy and serving as models of excellence. According to the DEC, award winners are an elite group of committed organizations leading by example as serving as models of excellence within their industry and community. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, November 6, 2016

Alpine Plants on High Peaks Summits in Jeopardy

alpine floraThe growing number of hikers in the High Peaks in recent years has heightened concern for the fragile alpine vegetation found on many of the summits.

If the number continues to increase, summit stewards charged with educating hikers may find themselves overwhelmed, said Julia Goren, the Adirondack Mountain Club’s education director.

“I don’t think we’ve lost ground yet,” said Goren, who heads the summit-steward program. “But I do think it’s not hyperbolic that we’re kind of at a tipping point where there’s not much more we can take before there’s going to be some kind of loss. One summit steward can’t talk to six hundred people in a day and make sure that people are respecting every patch of alpine vegetation.” » Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 24, 2015

High Peaks Summit Stewards Mark 400k Interactions

summit_steward_ADKThe Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) has announced that Summit Stewards interacted with their 400,000th hiker last week. Summit Stewards are naturalists who work at the top of mountains in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks educating hikers in an effort to prevent them from walking on or otherwise damaging New York’s rarest plants, those of the alpine zone.

The program began in 1990 and will reach an estimated 28,000 hikers at the tops of Mt. Marcy, Algonquin, Wright, Colden, Cascade, Haystack, Giant, Gothics, Basin and Saddleback this year. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, November 13, 2014

#507 Fund Honors Ketch, Protects Summits

Ketch with diapensia trainingIn August of 1968, Edwin Ketchledge finished climbing the 46 high peaks of the Adirondacks and received his 46er number, #507. Dr. Ketchledge (“Ketch”) was no ordinary peak-bagger. He was a professor of botany at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, an active member of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), later a President of the 46ers, and a researcher very much interested in the fragile ecosystem found on the Adirondack High Peaks.

Dr. Ketchledge began experimenting ways to help the alpine ecosystem recover from trampling caused by hikers in 1967. His research began on the summits of Dix Mt. and Mt. Colden. He began by transplanting Deer’s hair sedge, one of the rare alpine species, to see if it could successfully colonize impacted areas. It could not. » Continue Reading.



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