Mountain Watch Program Tracks Environmental Trends With Aid of Citizen Scientists

Does it seem winters just aren’t winters anymore? Or that this past summer was warmer than usual? Or colder? Have you noticed the tulips in the dooryard popping up earlier or later lately? And how about fall foliage? Does the season’s peak appear to be earlier or later than you seem to recall in past years?

The weather, and the shape of our gardens, forests, and, even, mountaintops, are frequent topics of conversation hereabouts, and nearly everyone has an opinion on whether these annual phenomena are “normal” or not.

But a way to gain a better understanding of such phenomena, and to rely more on factual information than on opinion or guesswork, is to document trends over time.

Farmers do it—recording dates of planting and harvest, and keeping meticulous weather reports. Birdwatchers, as well, keep track of the dates on which migratory birds return to a given area from year to year.

In an effort to document such seasonal events as the blooming of alpine flowers and the onset of fall leaf coloration in the higher elevations, the Appalachian Mountain Club has designed a program to track such trends, and hikers are contributing to that research.

It’s called Mountain Watch, and its AMC’s new “citizen science” program, an effort to engage hikers and other outdoors enthusiasts in tracking seasonal trends and contributing that information to a data base that will help provide information on the health of mountain environments over the long term.

A key component of Mountain Watch is the Visibility Volunteers program. Participants track air quality and scenic views by using simple tools such as digital cameras. The observations of Viz Vols, as these participants are known, will be combined with weather data and entered into a long-term database. Viz Vols also use ozone detector cards while hiking to record ground-level ozone conditions. The cards contain a material that changes color in the presence of ozone. These findings will also be combined with weather data by AMC researchers.

AMC Viz Vols have been collecting air quality data throughout the region, and AMC chapter members from Maine to Washington, D.C., are participants. Visitors to AMC destinations in New Hampshire also participate in data collection.

Air quality is of concern to hikers because dirty air blown into the region, largely from industrial areas to the west and south, obscures scenic views. Regional haze can cut 90-mile views to 40 miles or less, according to AMC research. In addition, elevated levels of ozone in the mountains has been shown to impact lung function.

Another component of Mountain Watch is the observation of seasonal plant behavior. Mountain Watch volunteers observe and record such phenomena as the budding of trees in spring and the onset of leaf coloration in the fall.

Data collection is standardized by using specific trees in specific places, year after year. Participants characterize their observations by comparing them with photographs in Mountain Watch field guides created for this purpose. Relating annual events, such as autumn leaf color change, to climate is known as plant phenology, according to the Mountain Watch field guide. The phenology component of Mountain Watch is based in the White Mountains.

A fledgling program last year, Mountain Watch picked up real steam in 2004. More than 100 reports were submitted by Visibility Volunteers alone, and more than 400 hikers participated in hikes with Viz Vols this year.

The program was developed by AMC Staff Scientist Georgia Murray and Senior Interpretive Naturalist Nancy Ritger, with assistance from AMC researcher, Doug Weirauch.

“The AMC has been studying air quality and mountain ecology since the mid-1980s, and Mountain Watch is a natural outgrowth of that commitment to scientific research,” said AMC Staff Scientist Georgia Murray. “Over time, we hope to document environmental trends with the help of Mountain Watch volunteers who contribute data from their time in the field. These efforts will help augment the scientific research performed by AMC staff, and, more importantly, it gets outdoors enthusiasts involved in ‘citizen science’ in a hands-on, personal way.”

Ritger emphasized the importance of Mountain Watch to the club’s educational efforts. “When we take people into the outdoors to learn about the mountain environment, we encourage them to really open their eyes,” Ritger said. “As they begin to see new things and learn new things, they become eager to learn more. Mountain Watch provides a great opportunity for people to get involved in issues such as weather, climate change and air quality. As they make their observations in the field, and contribute to the database, we find they become more aware of, and make a deeper connection with, the mountain environment.”

Changes in weather, climate, or plant growth over the course of a year or two won’t necessarily be indicative of any environmental trends, Ritger and Murray noted. The real value will come over several years, or decades. And anyone with an interest in the mountain environment can get involved with Mountain Watch and contribute to that long-term data set.

Mountain Watch data will be posted on the AMC’s website, and available to everyone. Murray expects to have this season’s data compiled and posted by mid-December. In the meantime, more information on Mountain Watch is available on the website at www.outdoors.org/research/mountainwatch.cfm.

We may be in the midst of the fall foliage season, but Murray and Ritger are already looking forward to next spring, when they and other Mountain Watch enthusiasts will use the tools they have developed to monitor the blooming of alpine plants above treeline in the Presidential Range.

- Rob Burbank is the Public Affairs Director for the Appalachian Mountain Club.