2014 Alpine Steward Award Winner- Dr. Nancy Slack
2014 Alpine Steward Award Winner: Dr. Nancy Slack
Dr. Nancy G. Slack was awarded the 2014 Guy Waterman Alpine Steward Award for her lifetime achievements in alpine ecology, outreach, and conservation. The Waterman Fund awards this prize each year to a person or organization that has demonstrated a long-term commitment to protecting the physical and spiritual qualities of the Northeast’s mountain wilderness.
Dr. Slack is perhaps best known amongst northeastern alpine enthusiasts for a series of stunning field guides published with frequent collaborator Allison Bell, including Adirondack Alpine Summits: An Ecological Field Guide (Adirondack Mountain Club, 2007) and Field Guide to New England Alpine Summits (Appalachian Mountain Club, 2013), both representing expanded versions of classic works first published in the 1990s. Both books concisely and beautifully capture the complex alpine environment and have inspired younger generations.
Dr. Slack is also the author of G. Evelyn Hutchinson and the Invention of Modern Ecology (Yale University Press, 2010) and an editor of Bryophyte Ecology and Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2011), and has published many peer-reviewed papers on bryophytes and northeastern ecosystems.
Dr. Slack is Professor of Biology, emerita, at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY, and continues to lead studies of alpine snowbed vegetation in the Presidential Range.
The award was presented at the Waterman Fund’s annual dinner, which was held in Crawford Notch, NH on October 25, 2014.