Local forest stewards will get trained this summer on how to help hikers enjoy Mount Major more – without leaving as much behind.
The popular hiking spot in the Lakes Region was one of fewer than 20 hiking spots chosen nationwide to be the focus of training from the Leave No Trace program.
The organization’s principles include carrying out everything you carry in to a hiking area, cleaning up after dogs, and being generally courteous to other hikers.
Managing forester Wendy Weisiger of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests says their staff and volunteers will be trained this June in how to communicate those principles to the more than 80,000 people who scale Mount Major every year.
“People think that they can throw a banana peel or apple core, and they don't realize the cumulative effect that that has when you have thousands of people going somewhere,” Weisiger says.