| | Dear Friend,
Welcome to the Spring 2008 edition of the Appalachian Mountain Club's Maine Woods Initiative News, a newsletter designed to keep you up to date on the Appalachian Mountain Club's Maine Woods Initiative, a plan for land conservation that incorporates outdoor recreation, natural resource protection, nature-based tourism, sustainable forestry, and community partnerships in Maine's 100-Mile Wilderness region. I am very pleased to announce that thanks to the generous support of thousands of members across the country, AMC has met the fundraising goal for The Kresge Foundation Challenge Grant. These funds will provide an additional $1.5 million toward the Maine Woods Initiative. Meanwhile, we continue to seek support for our Campaign for the Maine Woods. Our sporting camps reopened on May 9, just in time for some early season fly fishing. As usual, we’ll be working with Registered Maine Guides for those new to fly fishing or looking for the best fishing spots. This year, we’re expanding our Family Adventure Camp offerings at Little Lyford Pond Camps and Medawisla Wilderness Camps in the Maine Woods. And, we're offering new five-night rates for extended stays at the camps.
As we enter the fourth year of the Maine Woods Initiative, we are continuing to provide new and exciting backcountry recreation opportunities. Read on for news on some major trail projects this summer and other exciting happenings. Whether we meet while hiking, cycling, paddling, or while relaxing around camp, I hope to see you in the Maine Woods this summer!
Walter Graff
AMC Deputy Director
Outdoor Recreation
AMC Books has just reissued J. Parker Huber’s wonderful book, The Wildest Country, which recounts the Maine Woods explorations of Henry David Thoreau. This new edition is fully updated to feature maps of the new Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail, and is further enhanced with full-color photographs by Bridget Besaw.
 | Our staff and volunteer trail crews have a busy season on tap this summer. Scheduled work includes construction of an official AT side trail from Long Pond to Chairback Ridge, with a viewpoint looking over the southern part of our KIW property; a new trail along the southern shore of Long Pond, connecting Moose Point Cabin with the Lisa and Leon Gorman Camps at Chairback Mountain (due to open late 2009), trail improvements around Medawisla Wilderness Camps; and construction of a new log shelter at Trout Pond, to be built by Meadow Mountain Shelters of Brownfield, Maine, and reassembled on site by AMC’s Maine Chapter volunteers and AMC Trail Crew. This joint project is made possible thanks to generous financial assistance from AMC’s Worcester Chapter. More shelters are on the way as we work to provide new opportunities for backpackers in the 100-Mile Wilderness region.
We continue to feature local activities, including the Great Maine Woods and Water Tour through Piscataquis County, in a “Nearby Attractions” link on the Little Lyford and Medawisla pages of Outdoors.org. We encourage local residents and visitors alike to come visit our Katahdin Iron Works property this summer. Also, check out our Maine Woods Recreation Guide.
Community Partnerships
Nature Education Day at the Brownville Elementary School was held on April 29. AMC instructors, Lindsey Watkins and Shannon LeRoy, spent the day at the school, working with pupils in all grade levels. The nature studies were designed around the school’s new nature trail, and the children learned about trees, plants, rocks, and vernal pools evident along their trail.
W e’re further along with Maine Woods Initiative accomplishments than we ever would have imagined just a few short years ago, and we continue to be committed to contributing to the culture and economy of the 100-Mile Wilderness Region. We estimate that more than $300,000 has been spent in the Greenville area by AMC guests since we kicked off the initiative. AMC has purchased lumber and supplies from local merchants for capital improvements to our property (more that $500,000 to date). In addition, we’re proud to support as many as 21 AMC employees during the peak summer season and seven year ’round in Piscataquis County. We thank a number of local partners for our successes to date in the region.
Conservation
The final report of the Governor’s Task Force Regarding the Management of Public Lands and Publicly-Held Easements was issued January 31. Recommendations included developing a vision of recreation and conservation needs over the next 50 years, securing access to Maine’s moving waters, further development of backcountry recreational opportunities, and updating of Maine’s ecological reserve system. Deputy Director Walter Graff represented AMC on the task force and is also on the planning committee for a new Conservation and Recreation Access Forum as a follow-up to the task force.
Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) continues to consider Plum Creek Timber’s concept plan for the Moosehead Lake area. Through AMC’s testimony, and that of many of our colleagues, we are hopeful that LURC and Plum Creek will decide on a project that protects what all of us feel is so special about this region. A part of the proposal is the Conservation Framework sponsored by AMC, The Nature Conservancy and the Forest Society of Maine that will protect 400,000 acres, including the Roach Pond parcel.
People
Meet Huber Resources Corporation Senior Operations Forester Ted Shina >>
AMC Special Projects Manager Gerry Whiting has been named a director of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council and was reappointed for another term on the Piscataquis Tourism Task Force, where he chairs its Nature Tourism Itinerary subcommittee. The group is working with the state to install new signs directing visitors to officially designated nature tourism sites, including Gulf Hagas and the Katahdin Iron Works.
Sustainable Forestry
Our major forestry focus on the Katahdin Iron Works property this year will be south of West Chairback Pond and Columbus Mountain south to the Ore Mountain Road. We are also considering harvesting in other areas of the property, but continuing on-site evaluation will determine final plans. Harvesting continues to be governed by our long-term forest management plan, based on sustainable harvesting methods.
MWI in the News
AMC’s Little Lyford Pond Camps were named an Editors’ Choice by Yankee magazine, which acknowledged the camps in the May/June issue for their paddling, fishing, hiking, and mountain biking opportunities and their proximity to Gulf Hagas.
Robert Earle Howells touted our three-night, camp-to-camp ski trip in the Maine Woods in a February National Geographic Adventure piece, “Ski Hut to North Woods Hut.”
Doctor’s Review of Canada in February reprinted David Caldwell’s article on winter camping, which features AMC’s Maine camps, and which originally appeared in The New York Times in January.
The “Northern Exposure” series developed by the Portland Press Herald and WMTW-TV 8 continues to provide an exceptionally comprehensive look at AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative in words, pictures, and video.
View ongoing press coverage of the Maine Woods Initiative and AMC's Maine sporting camps.
View back issues of MWI News.
Media Contact: AMC Public Affairs Director Rob Burbank at rburbank@outdoors.org or (603) 466-2721, ext. 195. Contact Rob if you have ideas for articles to be included in future issues of MWI News.
Photos: Kim Walker, AMC Trails Department,
Lori Duff, Courtesy of Ted Shina
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