Category: News

4 minute read The International Dark-Sky Association has granted International Dark Sky Park status to the Appalachian Mountain Club’s 75,000-acre parcel of forestland in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness. Greenville, ME May 18, 2021—The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) announced that the Appalachian Mountain Club’s (AMC) Maine Woods property has become the first International Dark Sky Park in New England. This […]

2 minute read   Andrew Norkin led AMC’s trails department since 1999, overseeing the construction and maintenance of nearly 2,000 miles of trails annually—from the Bay Circuit Trail in Massachusetts to the mighty Appalachian Trail. Norkin passed away earlier this year after battling cancer. To honor his 21 years of work in trail stewardship, AMC will dedicate a […]

4 minute read   By this fall, Appalachian Trail (A.T.) thru-hikers will have a more reliable overnight option between North Carter Mountain and Mount Moriah in the White Mountain National Forest. This field season AMC’s Campsite Program will begin restoration of Imp Shelter, which was last rebuilt in 1980 and was the last native timber shelter built in […]

3 minute read Attention storytellers! AMC is launching an exciting new initiative to amplify the voices and stories of its members, volunteers, and supporters. In conjunction with the launch of the completely redesigned outdoors.org, we’re announcing an engagement content program to draw more deeply from the well of knowledge and experience that exists within the AMC community.   In other words, we want to share your outdoor story!  We’re seeking ideas for essays, adventure narratives, […]

3 minute read   Before Ansel Adams and the Sierra Club became the face of environmentalism in the twentieth century, Vittorio Sella and the Appalachian Mountain Club were the center of outdoor art and conservation in America.  Like Adams, Sella dedicated his artistic career to landscape photography becoming renowned for his mountain landscapes. From 1893 to 1910, AMC […]

6 minute read   AMC is carefully monitoring federal guidelines and recommendations related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and determining our best courses of action to provide a safe environment for our guests staying at our backcountry huts. The staff and volunteers here at the AMC would like to thank you for your understanding, patience, and compliance as […]

2 minute read When one of us hurts, the AMC community hurts. The past few months, Asian-American members of the AMC community have been in pain. Their pain stems from an uptick in senseless and racist acts against Asian and Pacific Islander Americans across the country, culminating in the shocking murders of six women of Asian descent in […]

2 minute read   AMC’s Appalachia Journal to be hosted on Dartmouth Library’s Digital Commons Past issues of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s historic publication Appalachia will be accessible free online through the Dartmouth Digital Commons website. Boston, MA  and Hanover, NH March 16, 2021– The Winter/Spring 2021 issue of Appalachia Journal is now available in PDF form on […]

2 minute read New Guidance Removes Roadblocks to Access Conservation Funding The Appalachian Mountain Club welcomes an order from Acting Secretary of the Interior Scott de la Vega that reverses damaging actions taken by the previous Administration on the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The Acting Secretary issued Secretarial Order 3396 on February 11, 2021, to remove roadblocks […]

2 minute read National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Awards Appalachian Mountain Club Land Conservation Grant through Walmart’s Acres for America Program A $500,000 grant will support the Appalachian Mountain Club’s acquisition of a 26,740-acre parcel of forestland known as the Pleasant River Headwaters Forest in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness landscape. Greenville, ME December 10, 2020—The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) […]

< 1 minute read AMC denounces the actions taken on Wednesday by a hate-filled mob in Washington D.C. This should have been a day of hope, progress, and celebration following the election of Georgia’s first Black and Jewish Senators and the certification of a new president. Instead, we witnessed an egregious display of white supremacy. The terrorist attack on […]

7 minute read Dee Bryant sits behind the register at Bretton Woods Market and Deli. As a worker at the only convenience store and gas station in town, Bryant’s job is reliant on the success of Bretton Woods Ski Resort half-a-mile southeast on Route 302. Despite the fact that the ski mountain is her indirect benefactor of sorts, […]

2 minute read As New England ski resorts announce visitor restrictions this winter, a surge of skiers are heading to the backcountry to seek solitude and powder. With national outdoor retailers reporting that sales of backcountry ski equipment have tripled in the last year, this winter is expected to see unprecedented numbers of backcountry skiers, many trying the […]

3 minute read November 12, 2020 (Augusta, ME) — Three conservation groups have asked a federal judge to halt Central Maine Power’s (CMP) premature plans to begin construction on its controversial transmission line. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), and Sierra Club Maine filed a motion for preliminary injunction to prevent work beginning […]

6 minute read FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PLEASE CONTACT: Colin Durrant (NRCM), colin@nrcm.org, (207) 200-4412; Susan Arnold (AMC), sarnold@outdoors.org, (603) 664-2050; Becky Bartovics (Sierra Club), bbartovics@gmail.com, (207) 390-0393 Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), and Sierra Club Maine are challenging the Army Corps for failure to rigorously assess impacts of the controversial transmission corridor on […]

8 minute read   The Great American Outdoors Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation signed by President Trump on Tuesday, August 4, will provide as much as $1.9 billion annually to address the massive backlog of maintenance projects on federal public lands—including national parks, forests, and refuges—and will permanently fund a federal program that has supported outdoor conservation in […]

2 minute read AMC has partnered with Avenza Maps to make some of our maps available to download on your Android or Apple mobile device. Simply download Avenza’s free app and you’ll find AMC’s maps available for purchase. Even if you don’t have internet access or cell reception, you’ll still be able to access these maps and see […]

< 1 minute read There’s the entire history of our country to unpack from the racist violence that’s marked the past few weeks in America. I’m not qualified to do that. But I will say that at a time when the outdoors is for many of us the only refuge, the assault or murder of a jogger, a bird-watcher, […]

2 minute read Hispanics enjoy regular time outdoors at nearly twice the rate they did a decade ago—and population changes aren’t the only reason why. Moderate outdoor participation—defined as happening about once a month—occurred among 10.3 percent of self-identified Hispanics in 2018, up from 5.3 percent in 2008, according to the 2019 Outdoor Participation Report, an annual survey […]

3 minute read Every fall since 2013, Dave and Monica Metsky of Somerville, Mass., have loaded their mountain bikes onto their car and driven the nearly 200 miles to Kingdom Trails in East Burke, Vt. There, they check into a rental home and spend several days biking at what Dave calls “the mecca of New England mountain biking.” […]