Improving Nights in the Woods

Making Overnight Sites Sustainable

Enter the ATC’ s Sustainable Overnight Sites program — or SOS for short. The program’s goals are to evaluate all overnight sites along the A.T. and then rehab, remove, or replace any that do not meet sustainability criteria. These criteria are intended to actively shift camping to a subset of sustainable campsites. These are located in areas that resist expansion and proliferation while enhancing social conditions. A core objective is to minimize the total area of camping impact, which reduces vegetation loss, soil compaction and erosion, and high-density camping. This provides greater protection of both resources and social conditions. ATC staff, land managers, volunteers, and scientists have been developing and applying the criteria since the 1990s. However, according to Sommerville, the standards came into practice near the end of finishing the A.T. shelter chain, so sites that have not benefited from them outnumber the sustainable overnight sites.

The Hawk Mountain Shelter Area in Georgia (shown here in 2009) is an example of how heavy use and visitor-created expansion causes serious environmental damage to the sites and, by extension, to the Trail corridor. The campsite has since been moved and the surrounding area is recovering. Photo by G N Bassett (CC BY-ND 2.0).

The program is largely informed by years of research Marion and his teams conducted on the A.T. and in other protected areas. “One noteworthy recent finding was that sites located in sloped terrain — more than 15 percent grade — naturally constrain both site expansion and proliferation pressures,” explains Marion. “Even better is that this results from campers interacting with the surrounding natural topography rather than from staff-intensive educational messaging, regulations, or law enforcement.”

According to Sommerville, “The ideal sites are located and built in concert with our recently completed A.T. Experience Analysis so that they preserve the most natural experience possible. When properly located, they provide more privacy than traditional overnight sites.” Marion also points out that the smaller sustainable sites are easier for managers and stewards to monitor and maintain, which is necessary for preserving natural conditions and the Trail experience.

Earthen tent pads dug into hillsides — such as Backcountry Campsite 113 (also known as the Birch Spring Gap Campsite) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park — provide hikers with designated sites to pitch their tents. Not only are they natural in appearance, but they also help to prevent site expansion. Photo by Brian Greer (Trail name: “Bandit”).

“Previous definitions of the A.T. experience were applied at a Trail-wide level with no good means for applying them at a local level,” says Sommerville. The ATC has since developed management prescriptions and criteria for an experience spectrum from primitive to urban that produces a local gap analysis between the current and desired A.T. experience. Managers and maintainers can then make appropriate decisions about the extent and type of facilities to provide. The SOS program will ensure that both local and Trail-wide needs are being met for sustainability and improved visitor experiences.

A Ticking Clock

Implementation of the SOS program needs to advance before the overnight site conditions further deteriorate, which poses increased rehabilitation and environmental costs. “Climate change is also having an impact on the Trail and its sites,” explains Marion. “The increased frequency and intensity of weather events further degrades both campsite and Trail.” For example, large campsites or clusters of sites have much larger numbers of damaged and dying trees that large storm events can bring down, endangering both campers and aging shelters.

Undertaking a project of this size and complexity requires dedicated funding far greater than what is typically needed for routine, annual upkeep and repairs. Little to no government funding is allocated for planning, design, or maintenance of overnight sites or shelters, so funds from private donors are essential.

“Donor funding is allowing us to begin the inventory and priority-setting in close cooperation with local A.T. managers in the Clubs and agencies, which sets the stage for a continuous flow of overnight site mitigation projects,” says Sommerville. The ATC also plans to investigate design and construction of group-specific overnight sites, which donor funding can help optimize. Funds would also support data acquisition that will help A.T. managers prioritize areas for work and help the ATC learn about day hikers — a population for whom there is very little data — and the negative impacts associated with the large annual bubble of thru-hikers.

Mountaineer Falls Shelter in Tennessee is an example of a sustainably built shelter along the A.T. Following Jeff Marion’s sidehill guidelines, the shelter was built in 2006 on sloped terrain. Photo courtesy of Tim Stewart (Trail name: “mountain squid”).