Building Connections 

In and Around the North Woods

By Karen Brace, Membership Chair

If you’ve ventured to the Appalachian Mountain Club’s land in the north woods of Maine, it’s likely that you passed through Greenville. The town serves as a gateway to the 75,000 acres of forestland owned by AMC in the heart of Maine’s 100-mile wilderness. In that region of the state, AMC not only takes care of its extensive forests, waterways, trails, campsites and shelters, but it also runs three full-service wilderness lodges located in remote sections of the woods. With all this to manage, it would be easy to assume that AMC’s northern Maine activities focus solely within the boundaries of its vast conservation holdings. However, the positive impact of the organization stretches well beyond its own property lines, reaching into the area’s neighboring towns and territories. 

What you may not see when you drive through Greenville is that it’s a hub for community involvement on the part of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Based in the organization’s office at 127 Moosehead Lake Road, Jenny Ward, who serves as the Outreach and Partnerships Manager for the Maine Woods Initiative (MWI), links the Club’s support and resources to local businesses, residents, town government, the Chamber of Commerce and other regional entities. Jenny steers projects that contribute to the life of the local communities on a daily basis. 

Recently, Jenny updated me on the activities led by her office and described the synergy that exists between AMC, the towns, and various groups working in the area. 

“It’s reciprocal,” Jenny explains. “Our regional partners are central to what we do. AMC’s operations and conservation efforts receive a lot of local support, and people in town are welcoming to our guests. That’s why we want to give back. The collaboration makes the Maine Woods Initiative successful and the entire region healthier.”

Prior to our conversation, I’d been aware that Jenny was a catalyst behind MWI’s recent International Dark Sky Park designation, which was a major achievement not just for AMC, but for the whole area. The new Dark Sky Park is just one of Jenny’s ongoing projects in the busy hub of Greenville. As I learned more about the process behind the Dark Sky Park, it became apparent to me that the relationships built in the community over the past decade, along with hard work and creative thinking, had driven the success of the Dark Sky Park designation, and still do. 

Jenny Ward’s work on behalf of AMC is rooted in a strong sense of place. She has lived in Greenville since she was four years old, so she’s part of the fabric of the town. 

“This region is part of me,” Jenny says, “So you can be assured that if I’m involved in a project, I’m going to be doing it passionately for the region and for AMC. For me to be able to do community outreach, create partnerships and make connections is where I find my flow. And being able to do it here is the icing on the cake.”

Jenny shared with me her experience of sitting in the audience at a public meeting when AMC first came to Greenville, more than a decade ago. AMC was proposing a plan for protecting the landscape in a permanent way, preserving nearby acres of forestland for future generations. That evening’s presentation outlined a vision where year-round outdoor recreation, overnight lodging, conservation, sustainable forestry, outdoor education and rural community economic development could work simultaneously to support both AMC’s mission and regional economic success.

“I was the concerned local,” she says. “I wondered whether this organization — through its land acquisition — might take away our traditional lifelong access to the Maine Woods and all the activities we like to do there. But the Appalachian Mountain Club has been true to its word right from the outset… AMC’s approach has always been to ask, ‘How do we do this great conservation project and make sure that regionally we are partnering and supporting the surrounding area?’”

What’s made the difference, Jenny says, is that AMC has consistently made local and county relationships a priority. 

“When the Medawisla Lodge was built,” Jenny describes, “80% of the money to fund the project was spent within a 100-mile radius of the site.”

As residents, business people, and those working in the trades got to know AMC, trust grew between the surrounding communities and the Appalachian Mountain Club. 

While speaking with Jenny, she and I agreed that forging partnerships requires transparency, collaboration, and in this case — an understanding of the Maine way of life. 

Apparently AMC found the right combination to support the Maine Woods Initiative in Jenny Ward and her colleague Steve Tatko, Director of Maine Conservation and Land Management. As time progressed after MWI’s launch, both became more and more involved in the area. Currently, Jenny holds leadership positions with Destination Moosehead Lake (the Moosehead Lake Chamber of Commerce), the Piscataquis County Economic Development Corporation, the Greenville Planning Board, the Maine Trails Coalition, Moosehead Trails, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation, and the Moosehead Lake Economic Development Corporation. For the Maine Community Foundation, she’s a Piscataquis County Advisor. Similarly, Steve Tatko serves on the boards of the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit, Forest Heritage Days, the Piscataquis Soil and Water Conservation District, the 100-mile Wilderness Sled Dog Race, the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, Keeping Maine’s Forests, the Maine Mountain Collaborative, and the Wabanaki Conservation Commission.

With this type of local support stemming directly from AMC, “The work we do is meaningful,” Jenny says. During the pandemic, that support was especially evident. Jenny describes how local business people grappled with how to apply protocols and stay in operation. She recalls how several small businesses in the Greenville region weren’t sure how to find the resources that they needed. 

“They wondered how they could make the changes necessary for their business to be successful, and at the same time comply with all of the guidelines coming down from the state,” she says. “I was able to share some great content that had already been distilled and simplified by professional staff for AMC. This was a great gift to the community.” 

I was struck by Jenny’s anecdotal stories of the impact of AMC at the grass-roots level, due to the links that she’s created. When the MWI lodges were closed during the pandemic, the staff at the Gorman Chairback lodge made cupcakes for the students at the local schools to celebrate kids’ birthdays. AMC staff t-shirts that hadn’t been used went to local residents who were “making masks before you could find any masks.” In addition, Jenny says, “We created an avenue so that staff in the woods could connect with some of the elderly shut-ins in town via email and telephone, because neither could get out. For the staff too, it was great, because it’s a long way out there! We just tried to keep everybody’s spirits up.” 

So much good work goes on behind the scenes at AMC: good for the environment, good for the future, and good for the people of Maine. 

(then in a box – something to set this note apart)

In the next issue of Wilderness Matters, we’ll explore the “behind-the-scenes” of the creation of the International Dark Sky Park, looking into the many ways that Jenny and the AMC staff facilitated the success of the project, and how Greenville residents, businesses and town officials continue to play significant roles in the Maine Woods Initiative.