Camel’s Hump; photo credit: Matt Heller

EAST CORINTH, VT — The Waterman Fund grants program has awarded 5 grants totaling $33,014 for 2022. These grants have supported trail work, stewardship, education, and research across the alpine of Northeastern North America. The program has distributed a total of $313,021 since its inception in 2002.

Two grants went to educational infrastructure this year. The Maine Appalachian Trail Club received partial funding ($5,000) for the construction of the Maine Trail Center, the organization’s first permanent home and base-of-operations for its Trail Crew, Ridgerunner, and volunteer programs. The second grant went to the Mohonk Preserve ($2,600) for educational and wayfinding signage to promote Leave No Trace messaging on low impact climbing to protect fragile cliff-side vegetation.

The Waterman Fund is pleased to provide support for a variety of projects across the region we serve,” said Lars Botzojorns, president of the Fund’s board of directors. “In addition, we hope each project will contribute ideas and data that can be applied to alpine stewardship efforts more broadly.”

One of the grants went to supporting and sustaining alpine stewardship programs. The Green Mountain Club received $11,214 for programmatic support of their Backcountry Caretaker Program on Mount Mansfield and Camel’s Hump.

The last two grants went to research to better understand fragile alpine ecosystems, sustain long-term monitoring, and study climate change and its impacts. $7,000 went to the Appalachian Mountain Club to fund climate data analysis from the Mount Washington Observatory weather station. The second research grant went to Heather Siart of the University of Massachusetts ($7,200). The focus of the research is the White Mountain Fritillary, a butterfly endemic to the Presidential Range and an indicator species for studying the effects of climate change in alpine habitats.

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