NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Jan Fiderio at 603.283.2107

January 19, 2011 for Immediate Release

Waterman Grant Expands Volunteer Work on Mount Monadnock

AUNE program helps people understand their impact on the crowded mountain

A program that puts stewards on Mount Monadnock's summit to remind visitors how to hike responsibly will broaden, thanks to a $4,080 grant from the Waterman Fund. The Summit Stewardship Volunteer Program is an initiative of the Monadnock Ecological Research and Education (MERE) project at Antioch University New England (AUNE).

The grant will be used to hire a coordinator to expand a volunteer program at Monadnock State Park .

Each year about 90,000 people hike to the mountain's bare-rock summit, home to several rare plant species, including mountain sandwort and Appalachian fir clubmoss. During the busiest part of the hiking season, the mountain stewards offer information to visitors about how to hike responsibly without trampling that fragile alpine vegetation. "It's a matter of communicating that humans have an impact and they have to stay on the rocks. If they are made aware of that, it has the potential to lead to behavior modification," said Professor Peter Palmiotto, director of AUNE's Conservation Biology program.

Palmiotto and his graduate students plan to expand the program beyond the summit. The volunteer coordinator will recruit and train volunteers to educate visitors in all areas of the park, something the park is now too understaffed to manage. "A lot of people want to volunteer on the mountain, but the park doesn't have a program to direct volunteers," Palmiotto said. "This will also give visitors an opportunity they wouldn't otherwise have to learn about the mountain."

According to Patrick Hummel, park manager for Monadnock State Park, the program has been very useful. "Summit stewards have been key factors in public outreach to educate visitors about negative impacts on fragile rock-crevice and alpine-bog communities in the past."

MERE was begun in 2007 by Palmiotto and graduate students in AUNE's Environmental Studies Department to foster appreciation and use of Mount Monadnock through ecological research and education. The Summit Stewardship program was started in 2009 with an initial grant from the Waterman Fund. In 2010, four stewards spent seventy-four days on the mountain summit, visiting with 2,450 hikers.

Palmiotto will give a presentation on MERE at the Waterman Fund's annual dinner April 16. For more information about the MERE program, visit http://www.antiochne.edu/mere/default.cfm.

About Antioch University New England
This is Antioch University New England's forty-seventh year as an institution of higher education. Located in Keene, New Hampshire, AUNE offers rigorous, practice-oriented, values-based master's, doctoral and certificate programs to more than one thousand students. Degrees in education, leadership and management, environmental studies and psychology reflect a dedication to activism, social justice, community service and sustainability. Antioch University New England is the oldest and largest of Antioch University's graduate campuses. For more information about Antioch University New England, visit our web site at: www.antiochne.edu.

About Antioch University
Antioch University is a five-campus university located in four states. Each campus has its own distinct academic programs, community life and regional or national identity. Antioch University is founded on principles of rigorous liberal arts education, innovative experiential learning and socially engaged citizenship. The multiple campuses of the University nurture in their students the knowledge, skills and habits of reflection to excel as lifelong learners, democratic leaders and global citizens who live lives of meaning and purpose. For more information about Antioch University's campuses, its university-wide PhD program, or the Antioch Education Abroad program, www.antioch.edu

Last Updated: 1/29/11