The Appalachian Mountain Club is cranking. We recently closed on the purchase of 29,500 additional acres of land in Maine’s 100-mile Wilderness Region. This came at the end of a successful $45MM campaign to support the larger Maine Woods Initiative. Known as the Roach Ponds tract, this land abuts the 37,000 acre Katahdin Iron Works property that we already own, and extends our reach in a region that was already threatened by land development.
The vision that AMC’s leaders had more than five years ago has come to fruition much faster than anyone expected. Debbie and I got a nice update on the club’s growth when we attended a Board of Advisors meeting earlier this week in Boston. The progress with MWI has been remarkable and our club is now positioned to take advantage of our land conservation efforts. Our system of Maine Sporting Camps will expand again in 2010 with the addition of the Gorman Chairback Camps. Debbie and I haven’t been to the KIW property since our last trip to Little Lyford Pond Camps nearly six years ago. Acquiring LLPC was the first step that AMC took towards establishing our major presence in Maine.
Our trip to Boston was a quick one. Since our BOA meeting was at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, I dressed like a banker. The Fed was an interesting place to have a meeting, but as you would expect, the conference facilities were top-notch. It was somewhat ironic that we were in a city skyscraper discussing the expansion of our wilderness land holdings. AMC recently revised its mission. We are the oldest recreation and conservation organization in the country, with more than 100,000 members. With the global environment facing such challenges, AMC is uniquely positioned to make a difference and it is cool to be part of that process.
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