At least once a week, 30-year-old LJ Mills loads up a backpack with water sampling bottles, a laptop and wilderness supplies to take into the vast backcountry of the central Adirondacks.
The biogeochemical research support specialist isn’t planning a leisurely few hours in the woods, but an exploratory workday with precise data collection and observation. He heads out of his ranch-style rental on the southern side of the 15,000-acre Huntington Wildlife Forest, a property owned by his employer, the State University of New York’s Environmental Science and Forestry College (SUNY-ESF) to visit several sites in the area.
Mills, and others, have been checking on the forest for nearly 50 years. The Adirondack Environmental Long-Term Monitoring Program (ADK-LTM) began in the 1970s to study acid rain.
Now, the information-rich project is collecting vitals on the northern forest as the Earth experiences record-breaking temperatures. It’s one of many years-long monitoring projects in the park.
“Long-term monitoring is probably the best
