With more than 80,000 people visiting Mt. Major every year, this popular hiking spot unfortunately sees its share of excessive trash, damage to vegetation, and trail erosion. To honor Earth Day and show Mt. Major on Route 11 in Alton a little love, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is launching a training program to garner seasonal trailhead outreach volunteers on April 9th, in addition to hosting simultaneous events to tend to the property on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22nd:

• April 9, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., Volunteer Trailhead Outreach Program (VTOP) Online Info Session: The Forest Society is looking to recruit and train Volunteer Trailhead Outreach Program (VTOP) volunteers to provide trailhead outreach at Mt. Major during the busy summer and fall seasons. Volunteers interact and share information with visitors at the Mt. Major trailhead parking area under our new pavilion. Training is provided and volunteers can choose their own schedules. The next online information session on the VTOP program will be April 9 from 7-8 p.m., those interested can register through our events page here, https://www.forestsociety.org/events.

• April 22, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Trail Trash Challenge: Take the Forest Society Trail Trash Challenge by volunteering anytime during this timeframe. Registration is not required, but more information can be found at https://www.forestsociety.org/page/earth-day-2025. This cleanup will be a do-it-yourself-style cleanup, with visitors and locals invited to help pick up trash along the trails, woods, mountain top, and parking lot. Forest Society staff and volunteers will be stationed at the Mt. Major parking lot to hand out trash bags and gloves to anyone willing to pick up trash as they enjoy hiking the mountain. Trash bags will be collected at the bottom by staff and disposed of properly.

• April 22, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Trail Stewardship Workday: In the fall of 2024, the Forest Society completed a sustainable trail upgrade on the lower portion of the Main Trail (blue). This Earth Day, maintenance work will be done on that section of trail, as well as trail maintenance activities on the Brook Trail and Boulder Trail. Some of the projects the Forest Society and volunteers will undertake include removing sand from the parking lot to help protect Lake Winnipesaukee from runoff, cleaning out drainages on the Main Trail, and refreshing the trail blazes on the Boulder Trail and Brook Trail. To sign up for the Trail Stewardship Workday, visit here and filter for volunteer events, https://www.forestsociety.org/events.

“With so many annual visitors, litter remains a challenge,” states Carrie Deegan, vice president for recreation management and public engagement for the Forest Society. “We all have good intentions, but even small things – like forgetting a dog waste bag or having food wrappers blow away – can add up. We’re grateful to those who help clean up this beloved mountain, and we encourage everyone, every day, to do their part by picking up trash when they see it.”

The Forest Society is dedicated to consistently improving the visitor experience and natural resource protection at Mt. Major. Please join us in being good stewards of Mt. Major by donating today, https://www.forestsociety.org/project/mount-major-stewardship.

Thanks to our sponsor, Meredith Village Savings Bank, for supporting our 2025 Earth Day celebration at Mt. Major.

ABOUT THE FOREST SOCIETY
The Forest Society is a private, non-profit land trust and forestry organization established in 1901. The Forest Society now owns 200 protected forests constituting nearly 65,000 acres in 105 New Hampshire communities across the state. In addition, it currently holds nearly 800 conservation easements statewide permanently protecting an additional 131,000 acres of New Hampshire’s natural landscape.