Carey Kish to Speak at the Maine Chapter Annual Gathering

Carey Kish, freelance outdoor writer and outdoor enthusiast, will be presenting his talk, The Wonder of Maine’s Conservation Movement: A Hiker and Writer’s Perspective, at the Maine Chapter Annual Gathering on October 28-29 at Camp Wavus in Jefferson.

Maine is recognized as a national leader in conservation, not only in acreage preserved but in the number of land trusts and conservation organizations, which now total more than 80. Over the last 40 years, millions of acres in the state have been preserved. Carey Kish, a veteran hiker and longtime outdoors writer, will share his perspective about Maine’s incredible conservation movement and take us to some of the wonderful places around the state that have been protected and made available for public recreation and enjoyment.

Until the early 1970s, conservation lands in Maine were few and far between. Baxter State Park, Acadia National Park, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, national wildlife refuges at Moosehorn and Rachel Carson, the White Mountain National Forest, and two dozen state parks accounted for just 1 percent of the Maine’s landscape. Today, an estimated 22.4 percent of Maine’s land area—an eye-popping 4,431,000 acres—is under some form of conservation protection, either owned outright in fee and in conservation easement, This includes 2,685,000 acres of land trust land and 1,746,000 acres of government (local, state, and federal) land. AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative is part of this movement. Beginning with a 37,000-acre purchase in 2003, AMC now owns and manages 130,000 acres in the heart of the 100-Mile Wilderness.

Carey Kish has many thousands of hiking miles under his boots, including the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine (twice) and the 2,654-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. He plans to attempt the 3,000-mile Continental Divide Trail in 2024. Carey is the author of Beer Hiking New England, AMC’s Best Day Hikes Along the Maine Coast, and the AMC Maine Mountain Guide. His hiking column has been a regular in the Maine Sunday Telegram Outdoors section for more than two decades, and his columns, stories, essays and photographs have appeared in a wide variety of other print and online publications. He lives on Mount Desert Island with his wife, Fran, and a mountain of well-used outdoor gear.

To find out more information about the Maine Chapter Annual Gathering, and to register, please click here.