WOODS & WATERS
A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE
in our own backyard
HOW THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB CREATED A FOUR-SEASON DESTINATION IN MAINE
THE MAINE WOODS INITIATIVE is an expansive, expensive project. It’s doubtful any organization without the history and experience of the Appalachian Mountain Club could pull it off. In fact, it’s fair to ask if even the AMC could accomplish it. It’s a question the organization asked itself in a just-completed 15-year assessment of progress. The short answer is, yes, mostly. Soon after the turn of the century, International Paper decided to divest a million acres of its woodland in Maine. One parcel of roughly 35,000 acres was located within a region known as the 100-Mile Wilderness — an area in Piscataquis County bisected by the Appalachian Trail, containing free-flowing rivers, undeveloped lakes and challenging peaks. About that same time, AMC was asking itself, “What’s next?” AMC was established in 1876, and it was instrumental in the creation and conservation STORY & PHOTO BY BOB DUCHESNE of the White Mountain National Forest. Over the next 120 years, it developed lodges and hut systems throughout the northeast. When the IP parcel went on the market, AMC recognized its ecological and recreational value, and bought it in 2003. That was the kickoff for the Maine Woods Initiative. Acquisition of more parcels boosted the acreage to 75,000, and AMC is currently in line to finalize an additional parcel, boosting ownership to just over its goal of 100,000 acres. MAINERS ARE Mainers are inherently distrustful of people from away taking over INHERENTLY DISTRUSTFUL any part of “their” woods. Although Maine has its own AMC Chapter with 6,500 members, the majority of AMC members live in the urban OF PEOPLE FROM AWAY... corridor between Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. AMC knew from the get-go that it would have to earn local respect and trust — THUS, AMC HIRED LOCAL. IT an uncomfortable lesson it had already learned in New Hampshire. RECRUITED MAINE RESIDENTS TO Thus, AMC hired local. It recruited Maine residents to work with towns and civic organizations to ensure the initiative would fit right WORK WITH TOWNS... TO ENSURE into the Piscataquis County community. It contracted local. It bought THE INITIATIVE WOULD FIT RIGHT local. It worked with snowmobile clubs to assure traditional trail access, while specifying non-motorized use for ecologically sensitive areas.
INTO THE PISCATAQUIS COUNTY COMMUNITY.
