It is wrong when it tends otherwise. Today, on the high summits of the Adirondack Mountains, his words remain true as we work to preserve a living museum of our natural history. The Summit Steward Program helps preserve alpine vegetation in the Adirondacks. The hiking boom in the late 1960s brought thousands of people to the summits who were unaware of the fragile nature of these ecosystems. Hikers walked and camped on the tundra meadows unaware of the damage they were causing.
Alpine plants are incredibly sensitive to footsteps because of the environment they live in.
Over a growing season, a plant is able to produce only enough energy to carry out its basic life cycle. They can not compensate for root damages caused by trampling, and are therefore easily killed by it. When the plants die and their roots are lost, soil that took more than ten thousand years to accumulate is easily eroded by wind and water. It can take centuries for a damaged alpine meadow to recover. As a response to this problem, the Summit Steward Program began in 1990 as a cooperative effort of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, the Adirondack Mountain Club, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.