The Guy Waterman Alpine Steward Award

Don Hudson completed his undergraduate degree in French and Environmental Science at Dartmouth College and went on to get his Masters in Botany from University of Vermont, where he completed extensive field research regarding the reproductive biology of a rare alpine species found on Katahdin: Saxifraga paniculata ssp. neogaea. He often speaks of climbing and bushwacking on Katahdin (daily) during this time, to record the phenology of this rare plant, as it often grows on steep alpine cliffs and ledges.

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Don completed field work to track rare alpine species in some of the most remote and hard-to-reach places across Katahdin’s alpine and subalpine zone. He then got his PhD at Indiana University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and eventually became president of the Chewonki Foundation because of his appreciation for outdoor education and natural history. He has led countless backcountry trips and excursions into Maine’s wilderness for students across ages.

In 1989, along with Charlie Cogbill, Don helped complete the first baseline characterization of alpine vegetation on Katahdin, by completing sixteen transects across the alpine zone, from Pamola Peak to the Northwest Plateau. He prepared reports for Baxter State Park about the vegetation found in Katahdin’s alpine and subalpine zones in the 1980s and 90s that shaped the conservation and research being done on the mountain today.