FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2006
GREENVILLE, Maine— The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) will be managing Chairback Mountain Camps near Greenville to provide guests with backcountry recreational opportunities at this traditional sporting camp in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness region.
AMC plans to open the camps to members as well as the general public. The operating season has not yet been finalized.
The AMC has reached an agreement with current leaseholders to manage Chairback Mountain Camps as a sporting camp open to the general public. The current leaseholders will continue to have access to the camps for a period of time as part of the agreement. AMC will operate the camps, located on Long Pond on the AMC’s Katahdin Iron Works property, as a destination for fly-fishing, paddling, snowshoeing and skiing as part of its broader Maine Woods Initiative.
The Maine Woods Initiative is a strategy for land conservation in the 100-Mile Wilderness region that combines outdoor recreation, resource protection, sustainable forestry, and community partnerships. Over time, the AMC plans to work with partners to build trails linking sporting camps in the region.
The camps were originally known as York’s Long Pond Camps, a commercial sporting camp. In recent years, the property has been operated as a private camp. The camps lie on the original route of the Appalachian Trail through Maine.
“We see the re-opening of Chairback Camps to the public as another step in offering a broad range of nature-based recreational opportunities in the region,” said Walter Graff, deputy director of the AMC. “Chairback offers some exciting possibilities for camp-to-camp skiing, dog-sledding and hiking, and is a spectacular destination in its own right.”
Chairback is the third sporting camp to come under AMC management in the past three years. In 2003, the club purchased Little Lyford Pond Camps, and last month, it purchased Medawisla Wilderness Camps. All are open to the public.
The AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative seeks to address the ecological and economic needs of the Maine Woods region by supporting local forest products jobs and traditional recreation, creating new multi-day recreational experiences for visitors, and attracting new nature-based tourism to the region.
The AMC’s 37,000-acre Katahdin Iron Works property continues to be open for use by the public year ’round as part of the KI Jo-Mary Multiple-Use Forest. Local residents and guests are welcome to hike, paddle, hunt and fish on the property as they have for generations.
More information on the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Woods Initiative is available at www.outdoors.org/mwi.
Founded in 1876, the Appalachian Mountain Club is the nation’s oldest conservation and recreation organization. With 90,000 members, including 3,600 members in Maine, the AMC promotes the protection, enjoyment, and wise use of the mountains, rivers, and trails of the Appalachian region.
The AMC has a long history of operating recreational facilities in Maine. The organization operates Echo Lake Camp on Mt. Desert Island, as well as Beal Island and Knubble Bay camps in Georgetown.
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