Mount Washington Summit Assessment
Mount Washington State Park is one of the nation’s most well-known mountain destinations, notable for being the highest mountain peak in the Northeast. The State Park is managed by the New Hampshire Department of Natural & Cultural Resources (DNCR) with support through stakeholder partnerships brought together by the Mount Washington Commission.
Proactively seeking to balance the preservation of Mount Washington’s sensitive ecology with improving the summit facilities, DNCR engaged our firm to develop an assessment of the park’s 58.8 acres of land and various buildings and infrastructure.
Our work includes a comprehensive assessment of natural resources, facilities, infrastructure, visitor experience, and areas of environmental concern. This summer, our team has been on-site examining existing conditions and collecting data for the assessment. The purpose of this work is to establish a baseline and resource for future planning and to provide recommendations for improvements or further study in coordination with DNCR.
We are also developing a visitor experience survey in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center and DNCR. The assessment and the visitor survey efforts were outlined as action items in the Mount Washington Master Plan, which was last updated in 2023.
Mount Washington faces several environmental challenges, including pedestrian and vehicular traffic at the summit, and the effects of climate change on the ecosystem. The assessment will document existing conditions related to natural resources and the alpine ecosystem condition and integrity. The Facilities assessment will focus on the existing buildings and infrastructure, considering the needs of visitors and tenants with ways to reduce environmental impacts.
The assessment will include a meaningful public engagement process through a series of workshops; and, once the assessment is complete, the project team will develop recommendations for the DNCR, providing a roadmap to balance the needs of the stakeholders and to preserve the iconic character of Mount Washington for the foreseeable future.
