Cameras monitor wildlife along Appalachian Trail

NATE HUBBARD / News Virginian
Published: June 21, 2007

WYTHEVILLE, Va. - Keeping track of the vast wildlife activity surrounding the 2,175-mile-long Appalachian Trail is a gargantuan task.

But with the help of volunteers like Mark Stanley and Steve Hider, as well as some sophisticated camera equipment, researchers are beginning to better monitor the comings and goings of the creatures that live near the pathway.

Stanley, of Wytheville, and Hider, of Ceres, are volunteers working with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The organization began a pilot program in April using Cuddeback digital cameras to observe animal activity near the trail, particularly predator species.

According to the ATC's Web site, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Smithsonian Institute are also partners in the venture.

The pilot project, which runs through November, consists of 50 cameras dispersed across Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

The cameras use heat and motion-sensing technology, so the device automatically snaps a picture when an animal wanders by, said Laura Belleville, regional director of the Southwest and Central Virginia office of the ATC.

But nearly 100 volunteers are the key to the operation. After locations for the cameras are strategically determined using Global Positioning System technology, the cameras are manually placed about 50 to 100 feet off the footpath in the area known as the trail corridor.

In order to participate in the study, Stanley and Hider had to attend a training session in Blacksburg earlier in the year. During the class, they learned how to use the camera equipment and about the goals of the project.

"Ecology is becoming a bigger and bigger scale," said Bill McShea, a wildlife ecologist based out of Front Royal with the Smithsonian Institute and the leader of the project. "I can't be everywhere at the same time."

Stanley has been a member of the Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers for 10 years. PATH helps to maintain the hiking trails and Stanley got involved with the camera study as another way to help care for the area.

"It's a nice way to spend a day on the trail," he said.

Each camera is securely mounted a few feet off the ground to a tree and moved on a monthly basis to new coordinates. The cameras are pointed parallel or away from the hiking trail to avoid capturing images of humans or surprising unsuspecting walkers.

"The volunteers have been just phenomenal," Belleville said. "We haven't had anyone lose a camera."

Hider said he almost invalidated that claim.

"The first time that I retrieved the cameras, my GPS wasn't working and I went way beyond," he said. "I ended up retrieving both cameras in total darkness."

Even after his trek in the dark and a second trip that involved 11 miles of hiking in rough terrain, Hider said he has enjoyed being part of the project. He's captured two pictures of a black bear, as well as smaller animals such as turkeys and deer from his locations around Burke's Garden.

Nevertheless, he's still searching for an elusive mountain lion shot.

"My motivation is really to find a cougar," Hider said.

Stanley hasn't had any mishaps in finding his cameras, but he also said that the GPS has spit out some coordinates for placing the cameras that didn't account for the thick foliage at places off the trail.

"It's a little bit of beating and bumping to get them laid," he said.

Even with reports back from only 65 of the eventual 350 camera locations, McShea said the study already has yielded about 300 useable images.

After the completion of the three-state pilot, McShea said he hopes to continue the study in other sections of the trail. His ultimate goal is for the entire trail to be a Mega-Transect study, where the region is viewed as a barometer for biodiversity in the Eastern region of the United States.

"I think it has worked as well as can be expected," McShea said about the current status of the project. "Right now we're just trying to keep all the balls in the air."

Stanley said he hopes that he and the other volunteers can provide useful data to prove that lay people can be counted on for technical studies.

"There's a lot of things that citizen science can do."

Nate Hubbard writes for the Wytheville Enterprise.