Naturalists enrich your visit to mountains

If you are travelling to one of the AMC's backcountry huts this summer, you can expect even more than a comfy bed, a savory meal, and a place to hang your hat (and pack): All of the seven full-service huts now have their very own hut naturalist.

AMC facilities, such as the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, have offered naturalist programs since the 1970s, and volunteer naturalists have been sharing their natural history expertise with backcountry visitors for nearly 25 years. But the AMC's hut-crew naturalist program is a recent phenomenon. Full-time hut naturalists—added to the huts in 1999—pick up where volunteer naturalists leave off. With a full-time nature guru on staff, hut visitors have the opportunity to learn about their majestic mountain surroundings and how to be good caretakers of the environment.

So, What Is That Tree Anyway?
And, you don't have to worry about missing a natural history program because you're not hiking fast enough to a hut like Zealand Falls or Greenleaf. Hut naturalists offer three programs a day: before breakfast, before dinner, and in the evening. As a program participant, you can learn the call of the sparrow during an early morning bird call identification at Lonesome Lake Hut, or spend an evening exploring the fragile alpine plant community that grows near Lakes of the Clouds Hut. The unique environments of the various huts—the boreal forest of Galehead and Mizpah Spring huts, the alpine zone of Lakes of the Clouds and Madison Spring huts, and the bog and lake near Lonesome Lake Hut—offer endless possibilities to broaden your mind. And, during the program's first year, more than 10,000 visitors to the huts did just that.

And, for the Kids ...
Youth staying at our full-service huts have the opportunity to participate in the AMC's Junior Naturalist Program. By using the Junior Naturalist Activity Book, a nifty self-directed guide chock-full of activities about nature, young people can conduct their own informal exercises on natural history, safety in the outdoors, minimum impact hiking, and natural resource protection. The activity book introduces children to the unique elements of the White Mountain ecosystem and navigates them toward a greater appreciation of the natural environment.

Approximately 2,500 kids participate in the Junior Naturalist program at our White Mountain facilities each year. Once children complete their activity book, they receive a colorful patch and a certificate in an impromptu Junior Naturalist graduation ceremony. As one 10-year-old says, "I think it is a great program for the mind and keeps Mother Nature clean and healthy." Sounds like the words of a future hut naturalist.