2022 Northeastern Alpine Stewardship Gathering Program

October 14-16, 2022 | Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Craftsbury, Vermont

Friday, October 14, 2022

4:00 pm – Registration Opens

5:00 pm – Social Time/Poster Viewing

6:00 pm - Dinner

7:00 pm – Welcome: Michael DeBonis, GMC Executive Director; Lars Botzojorns, President of The Waterman Fund

7:30 pm – Opening Speaker: Stephen Wright – Glacial geology of northern Vermont

Saturday, October 15, 2022

7:30 am – Registration Opens/breakfast

8:45 am – Opening Remarks: Michael Snyder, FPR Commissioner

9:00 am – Plenary Session/Panel: 50 years of the modern caretaker program/mountain stewardship.

Moderator: Michael DeBonis, GMC Executive Director

  • Ken and Alice Boyd – founding of the modern program
  • Isaac Alexandre-Leach, GMC; Julia Goren, ADK
  • Rick Paradis
  • Jill Weiss

10:30 am – Networking break

11:15 am – Plenary session: Alpine research:

  • Forests on the Move: Tracking Climate Related Changes of Treelines in Montane Systems of the Northeastern United States (Jordon Tourville, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Appalachian Mountain Club)
  • Northbound: Climate change and rare plant conservation in the Appalachians (Kevin Berend, Grand Staircase Escalante Partners)
  • Non-native vascular flora of alpine areas in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, USA (Daniel D. Sperduto, USDA Forest Service, White Mountain National Forest; William F. Nichols, New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau, Division of Forests and Lands; Michael T. Jones, University of Massachusetts Amherst)
  • An update on four meta-analyses of research on flora, communities, site specific resurveys, and photographic evidence of treeline change in Northeastern alpine areas (Charles Cogbill, Harvard Forest)
  • Tracking change through photography in the Adirondacks (Tim Howard, New York Natural Heritage Program; Kayla White, Adirondack Mountain Club)

12:30 pm lunch

1:30 pm – Plenary Session: Managing use and user behavior in the alpine zone

Moderator: Keegan Tierney, GMC Director of Field Programs

  • Nat Scrimshaw, World Trails Network- Franconia Ridge Trails Stewardship
  • Cristin Bailey, USFS – Crawford path rehab
  • Keep the Whites Wild – Brian Post, Chris Magness
  • Kate Songer, GMC – Mt. Mansfield Lead Caretaker

2:30 pm Break

3:00 pm – Plenary Session - Alpine Research:

  • Alpine Plant Phenology: What have we learned in since 2004? (Georgia Murray, Appalachian Mountain Club)
  • A sky island perspective: New England alpine plant distributions across the region (Andrea Tirrell, University of Maine; Michael Cianchette, University of Maine; Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie, Colby College; Jacquelyn Gill, University of Maine)
  • Recreation and Stewardship in the Northeast: Preliminary Findings (Jill Weiss, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
  • The Manicouagan-Uapishka World Biosphere Reserve (MUWBR) (Marianne Valcourt, Manicouagan-Uapishka World Biosphere Reserve)
  • The proposed Mount Mansfield Science and Stewardship Center (Joshua Benes, University of Vermont)

4:30 pm Plenary session – reports from the field: updates on stewardship activities in the northeast

  • GMC – Nigel Bates, Field Supervisor
  • ADK – Kayla White, Stewardship Manager
  • AMC – Kyra Salancy, Outdoor Program Centers Volunteer Coordinator
  • Friends of Acadia – Stephanie Ley, Summit Steward Coordinator

5:30 pm – Social

6:00 pm – Dinner

7:00 pm – Awards – Waterman Fund President Lars Botzojorns

7:30 pm – Keynote Speaker -  Hugh and Jeanne Joudry: reflections on a half century of caretaking on Stratton Mountain

Sunday, October 16, 2022

7:30 am – Breakfast

Participants pick up bag lunch for field trips

8:30-Checkout

9:00 – Field trips depart

Field Trips:

  • Alpine vegetation - identification and management on Mt. Mansfield. Nigel Bates, Kate Songer - GMC
  • Managing increased use, climate change impacts: rebuilding of the Burrows Trail on Camel’s Hump – Keegan Tierney, Justin Towers – GMC, Kathryn Wrigley – FPR
  • Bicknell’s Thrush – research and management - Kevin Tolan, Staff Biologist, Vermont Center for Ecostudies
  • Dynamic landscape – geology tour of Smuggler’s Notch - Jon Kim, Vermont State Geologist. Bonus: Managing use and protecting resources in Smuggler’s Notch – Lorne Currier, GMC