LOCALadk Magazine

Photopoint Monitoring 2.0 Research has suggested that vegetation recovery along trails in the Adirondack alpine zone is due in part to management actions such as outreach, education by summit stewards, trail maintenance, and signage. However, current photopoint methodologies do not provide enough information to completely confirm these links. As such, the Summit Stewardship Program began revising and updating the photopoint monitoring program in 2021 by incorporating a more rigorous sampling strategy and analysis. is was also done to make the project align with current photopoint monitoring standards, ensuring that the methods are useful, transferable, and can contribute to a photopoint monitoring standard that can be used throughout the region. Furthermore, by pursuing these changes, photopoint monitoring can become a critical tool in adaptive management strategies used by land managers. In practice, it looks like this: stewards observe damage to alpine plants and soil, solutions are suggested, management actions are implemented, recovery or further damage is measured, and success is assessed. If further steps need to be implemented to protect alpine plants, the process starts over again. In 2021, stewards retook the 59 established photopoints, reevaluated the project, and updated the methodology. New locations were also found to better represent management techniques and damaged areas in the alpine ecosystem. In 2022, stewards will continue the work of putting in these new points across the alpine zone, update the analysis, and solicit review of these changes by publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. Photopoint monitoring continues to be an essential part of the Summit Stewardship Program in its mission to protect alpine habitat. Research is a critically important part of the work summit stewards do by measuring the effectiveness of their educational outreach and trail maintenance efforts. In the past thirty years, over a hundred summit stewards have educated approximately 600,000 hikers with a simple message: when we think about where we put our feet, we can protect a beautiful place. You can help summit stewards continue this work by donating to ADK or to the program's endowments, the #507 Fund and Dr. Norton G. Miller Memorial Fund. 33 LOCALadk

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