Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Explorer endorses new path for trail
National Geographic Society's Mike Fay will help refocus the AT's mission on conservation.
Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
Hikers walk through the mist on a section of the Appalachian Trail near the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. "You need to connect the dots for people to prompt reform," said Mike Fay of his planned research of the trail's environment.
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SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- The National Geographic Society's top explorer has joined the effort to convert the Appalachian Trail into an early warning system for environmental threats to the eastern United States.
In another boost for the project, actors Robert Redford and Paul Newman are considering making a movie based on the popular book "A Walk in the Woods," a humorous travelogue about two inexperienced hikers on the AT.
Both developments were discussed during a weekend symposium at the National Conservation Training Center, where scientists, land managers and volunteer leaders created an action plan in their ongoing effort to convert the AT into a "mega-transect."
A mega-transect -- a term coined by Mike Fay, National Geographic's explorer in residence -- is a scientific study over a large geographic region.
An AT mega-transect would be the world's first permanent one, and would shift the trail's mission from recreation to conservation.
Previous such scientific expeditions were one-time efforts, including Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's journey across the American West from 1803-06, and Fay's 2,000-mile walking survey across central Africa from 1999-2000.
Officials say the constant monitoring involved in a permanent mega-transect would help combat sprawl, pollution and other threats to the trail and the Eastern wilderness that provides clean air and water, recreation, biodiversity and other environmental and economic benefits to millions of Americans.
Fay, the symposium's keynote speaker, told about 250 audience members about his current research in Africa and his interest in making the Appalachian Trail and the redwood forests of Northern California his next mega-transect projects.
He tentatively plans to hike part of the AT, starting in May in the Shenandoah Valley and heading south.
Fay, a wildlife biologist and botanist, has hiked on the AT in several states, including Virginia when he visits a National Geographic wildlife photographer colleague who lives near Sugar Grove.
"I think an AT mega-transect is a perfect vehicle to motivate people toward conservation," he said.
Fay, who walks or flies a bush plane when he's doing research, uses a waterproof notebook and a GPS device to collect a wide range of data on plants, animals, landscapes and people in an effort to reveal the interdependency of nature and human beings.
"The point is to collect all this seemingly unconnected data to reveal patterns of connectivity that can be scientifically verified," he said. "You need to connect the dots for people to prompt reform."
Fay said mega-transects are similar to the journeys of 19th-century explorers except that the goal is to conserve rather than exploit natural resources.
"We're faced with a major challenge in a new era of exploration," he said. "Conservation is a more daunting task than 'conquering' the world."
Fay's latest work in Chad showed the elephant population was declining because of poachers, prompting authorities to hire more lawmen to protect that nation's wildlife.
Fay said an AT mega-transect could spur similar protection of natural resources in the eastern United States.
His research, which has prompted the creation of national parklands in Africa, is published in the general media rather than scientific journals in an effort to reach a wider audience.
Mike Soukup, associate director of the National Park Service, praised the AT mega-transect project, saying Fay's participation will prompt more Americans to get involved in preserving the East's natural resources.
Mari Omland, conservation director for the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy, said the symposium accomplished its goal of creating an action plan and enlisting support from dozens of government agencies, nonprofit groups, universities and other institutions.
The mega-transect will be phased in during a test period over the next year as current and past research on the trail's wildlife, forests, water and other issues is converted into a trailwide scientific baseline and monitoring program.
Efforts also are under way to raise funds from government, corporations and foundations and to attract more university researchers and "citizen scientists" to do field studies.
"We'll be actively experimenting and fine-tuning things as we go along," Omland said.
AT officials hope Fay's support and the Redford-Newman adaptation of "A Walk in the Woods," a 1998 best-seller, will draw national attention to the mega-transect project. No time frame has been announced for the start of filming.
"It could help this project become a part of popular culture in a significant way," Omland said.
