This article appeared in the Autumn 2021 issue of Northern Woodlands.
Talking with hikers on the summit of Mount Marcy. [Photo: Seth Jones]
The hikers are visibly exhausted as they trudge the final steps toward the summit of Mt. Marcy – past the “Revegetation Area” cordoned off with string fence and the plaque commemorating the first ascent. They squeeze through a crack in the rock to stand, finally, at the state’s highest point. I give them a few minutes, let them catch their breath, take a few selfies, and get some water and snacks. Then the real work begins.
As a summit steward on this 5,344-foot-high mountain in the Adirondacks, my role is to talk with hikers and educate them about the unique flora found in the alpine zone. In the Northeast, alpine areas exist on the highest peaks of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. They are remnants of arctic tundra that covered the landscape at the end of the last ice age. As the climate warmed and the glaciers receded, the tundra was pushed further and further upslope, where it remains today – and where no other plants can survive. Total alpine area across the region is mostly small and sparse, measured in acres. The plants growing here are both hardy – evolved to live in the rugged terrain above treeline – and delicate. While the average lawn grass can tolerate hundreds of footsteps, just a handfull are enough kill some alpine plants.
Increasing numbers of hikers are ascending the mountain trails of the Northeast, a trend exacerbated last year by the flood of new users during the pandemic. Each hiker brings a pair of stomping feet that, if not placed carefully, can cause considerable damage to natural ecosystems. Alpine areas are particularly vulnerable, as crowds congregating on summits are often unaware of the literally crushing impact they can have on vegetation. Keeping hikers in check and on designated trails has become a full-time job for state agencies and nonprofit organizations such as the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), which strive to balance visitor use with protecting this ecologically unique resource.
This mixed alpine community in the Adirondacks includes diapensia (Diapensia lapponica), Lapland rosebay (Rhododenron lapponica), bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), and various sedges. [Photo: Kayla White]
Conditions on the summits are extremely harsh. Plants endure hurricane-force winds, breakage by rime ice, and an extremely short growing season, preventing all but a small subset of specially adapted species from surviving there. Common characteristics of alpine plants include a miniaturized, aerodynamic growth form which conserves heat and reduces exposure to wind and ice; additional photosynthetic pigments such as anthocyanin (dark red-purple) for creating energy in low light conditions or beneath snowpack; and altered growth and reproductive cycles, including flower buds that form years in advance, short flowering windows, or clonal growth.
The filtering effects of climate and topography also make alpine plant communities highly diverse. They harbor a “mosaic” of sedge meadows, cushion plants, heath shrubs, stunted conifers (“krummholz”), and a wide variety of mosses and lichens. Those communities in turn provide important forage and shelter for insects, birds, and mammals, including several which rely on alpine communities for critical phases of reproduction. Isolation for thousands of years as “islands in the sky” has also led to a high degree of regional endemism in alpine communities, with several species found in no other place in the world.
The adaptations that make alpine plants hardy in response to extreme weather also make them vulnerable to impacts from humans. While these plants can survive extreme cold, wind, and ice, they are not adapted to be walked on. Underfoot, they crunch and crumble, dying or becoming dislodged from the soil and washed away with the next rainfall. That newly exposed soil becomes highly compacted or lost completely, leaving in its place bare rock devoid of plant or animal life. Degradation from trampling is a major problem in alpine areas across the Northeast, accounting for significant impacts to alpine plant communities, especially on the most popular trails. It can take decades for bare ground impacted by trampling to become revegetated to a healthy alpine plant community.
The view from Mount Marcy shows alpine plant communities from sedge meadow (foreground) to heath shrub (middle) and krummholz (background). [Photo: Kayla White]
Although I’m no longer a full-time summit steward, I still try to return every year to volunteer. The role of summit steward is to protect alpine areas from visitor impacts, primarily through education. We talk to everyone who climbs the mountain on a given day and, like ecological evangelists, deliver the good word: “Do the rock walk” and stay off the plants. Stewards are trained in interpretative techniques to place visitors and their actions in context and to model Leave No Trace practices in the alpine zone. The goal is to teach, not admonish. We start with small talk and get into our spiel naturally. We point out the incredible adaptations, history, and rarity of the alpine zone to instill in visitors an appreciation for the ecosystem around them and a sense of responsibility for its continued well-being. In addition, stewards provide trail and campsite information and do basic trail work using the rocks that hikers bring up from the trailhead and deposit at the designated spot on the summit for that purpose. The rocks get packed into areas of exposed soil to prevent erosion, or they are used for scree walls, lines of rocks that act as a visual aid to hikers of where they should not step.
The resounding success of ADK’s summit steward program, which recently celebrated its 30-year anniversary, is a testament to that positive approach. Soil has begun to reaccumulate, formerly degraded areas have become revegetated, and further losses have been stemmed. Most importantly, though, the message is getting out. Very often, hikers already know about the alpine plants and have spread the word to their family and friends. The program has been emulated across the region, becoming a model of how to sustainably manage visitor use of natural areas.
The future of alpine areas in the Northeast, however, remains uncertain. Climate change is occurring most rapidly in arctic and alpine areas worldwide, and scientists believe that shifting weather patterns impact the diversity and function of alpine ecosystems. For example, a reduction in snowfall or earlier snowmelt could affect the survival of species that rely on snow for protection from spring frost. This could also initiate earlier flowering, with consequences for insect pollinators which have evolved with these plants, as well as for other animals. Further upslope encroachment of trees and shrubs now found at lower elevations could reduce the total amount of remaining alpine habitat. With those threats mounting, the presence of a summit steward has become even more important. In the Adirondacks, summit stewards are involved in scientific research, including regular monitoring of alpine plant phenology (the timing of flowering and other life stages). Tracking such long-term changes may be important in helping to guide management decisions across the region.
[Photo: Seth Jones]
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