Hunched over an isolated patch of rock-rooted flowers, Kenneth Kimball, research director for the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), goes mostly unnoticed by summer vacationers hiking on Mount Washington, deep in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Those who stop for a closer look might wonder why Kimball is clipping flower heads and gently placing them into a small vial. The plant is Robbin’s cinquefoil (Potentilla robbinsiana), a small native perennial the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed downlisting from federally endangered species status to threatened just last year. Upon returning to the AMC research lab at the mountain’s base, Kimball will tease out hundreds of minuscule seeds from the fingernail-sized flower heads. Later, horticulturists with the New England Wild Flower Society will germinate the seeds in its Framingham, Massachusetts, greenhouse. After the seedlings mature, Kimball, accompanied by biologists from the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the New England Wild Flower Society will return to Mount Washington to transplant the rare perennials.

Because of the efforts of Kimball and others, the population of this plant--known to exist only on the western shoulder of Mount Washington--has increased more than 100 percent since it was placed on the endangered species list in 1980.

Trailblazers in conservation
Best known for maintaining 1,400 miles of trails in the Northeast, including 350 miles of the Appalachian Trail, America’s oldest conservation organization formed in 1876, when a small group of hikers dedicated to "the advancement of those who visit the mountains, whether for scientific research or summer recreation, met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. The club has since grown to 83,000 members and now maintains a series of hiking facilities, education centers, and research laboratories.

When Kimball took charge of AMC’s research unit in 1983, he transformed the eight-year-old program from one primarily focused on maintaining trails and composting human waste to a research department that conducts intensive air-quality studies, recommends environmental policies to protect area rivers and regulate car emissions, and monitors the ecological impact of human activity in the northeastern mountains. Today, AMC research on the alpine plants of these mountains is not only unlocking the plants’ survival secrets, but is also allowing scientists to study the relationship between the plant communities and the animals of the near-barren mountain peaks.

Mapping alpine plant communities
In the Northeast, alpine plants are limited to elevations above 4,000 feet. This amounts to 13 square miles concentrated mainly in the Presidential Range of New Hampshire and on Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park, Maine. At these elevations, plants such as Robbin’s cinquefoil and mountain avens (Geum peckii) thrive mainly between rocks or on ridges, protected from the sometimes hurricane-force winds.

Through aerial photography and field mapping of these alpine plant communities, AMC has gained a better understanding of these tough, yet precarious species. "After mapping the communities, we superimposed other known data, such as locations of ridges and valleys, exposure to wind and snow, and similar factors onto our maps," explains AMC ecologist Doug Weihrauch. The final goal is to develop ways of protecting plants in the face of increased use of hiking trails, as well as provide a model for managing similar alpine areas in the region.

"A better understanding of these plant communities will widen research possibilities in other fields, too," explains Weihrauch. The AMC is currently sharing information from this study to help the New Hampshire Audubon Society better understand the habits of the American pipit, the only known bird to breed in the alpine region. And, according to Weihrauch, the completed study will provide a new tool for climate research scientists, who have in the past relied mostly on fluctuations in the tree line to study regional and global climatic changes.

Hikers take note Another key AMC project is minimizing the impact of hikers on vegetation around the club’s nine huts scattered along the New England trails. The huts offer food and lodging to thousands of vacationers each year. The vegetation monitoring program originated as a requirement by the White Mountain National Forest to allow the club to maintain the huts. But AMC has taken the process a step further by focusing on the flora at greatest risk from hikers.

AMC started tracking such species as mountain avens, silver willow (Salix argyrocarpa), and tea-leaved willow (Salix planifolia) early in 1998. After data from the study is collected later this year, AMC scientists expect that defining trail boundaries more clearly and placing detailed information about sensitive plant species in strategic areas will educate hikers to exercise care around these plants. Additionally, some rare disturbance-tolerant or dependent species such as Boott’s rattlesnake-root (Prenanthes boottii), alpine brook saxifrage (Saxifraga rivularis), and northern marsh violet (Viola palustris) are being monitored to ensure their survivial.

Conservation through education
Bringing conservation to the public at the grassroots level is a vital part of AMC’s agenda. At its facilities on Mount Washington and in Boston, AMC offers many programs on topics such as geology, forest ecology, and plant identification. Staffers also visit New England schools to introduce conservation and the outdoors to children. At all AMC facilities, staffers practice recycling, composting, and use solar power to show how environmental responsibility can be a part of everyday life. Says Rob Burbank, AMC’s public affairs director, "When people learn about and become more comfortable with the outdoors, they become better stewards to the environment."

And of multi-organizational efforts such as transplanting the Robbins cinquefoil seedlings, Kimball says, "By building coalitions with other research and conservation groups, we are in a better position to protect the alpine areas, as well as the whole Appalachian region of the Northeast."