Since 2000, Friends of Baxter State Park’s annual membership dues, donations, and funds from generous granting organizations have helped us achieve trail restoration, skills trainings, scientific research, historic research, advocacy, publication, youth educational experiences, outreach, and more. Here is a list of recent achievements. Thank you for supporting these important projects!
Accomplishments
We fund trail restoration, reconstruction, and inventory projects in the Park, including annual work by the Maine Conservation Corps, funded by a matching Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant. We have also funded an inventory of the Baxter State Park trail system with the help of a generous grant from the Davis Conservation Fund. Two interns, armed with dataloggers, have covered many miles of trails in the Park, recording location, condition, and noted needed improvements. This valuable information provides the basis for long term planning for trail restoration/reconstruction as well as decision making about future and abandoned trails.
We sponsor training workshops including Rigging for Rescue with Mount Desert Search and Rescue providing scholarships for Park staff and members of Maine search and rescue teams. This program was made possible thanks to a major donation by a Friends member. We offer scholarships for Leave No Trace training that encourages responsible low-impact use of the Park. The Chainsaw Certification training prepares volunteers to work safely on trail maintenance projects.
We send chainsaw crews to clear blowdowns from trails early in the season to free up the Park’s trail crew for other projects.
We fund a BSP Volunteer Coordinator to work with Park staff and volunteers on projects of all sorts in the Park.
Our members participate in the Park’s National Trails Day every year to receive training to be trail stewards and volunteer on three visits to the Park during the season to perform basic maintenance like brushing, blazing, and cleaning water bars on a specific trail.
We support Science in the Park that benefits our understanding of the Park and eco-systems of the region. Current projects in the Park of special interests to Friends members include an Aquatic Plant Survey, an Alpine Survey, and Climate Change Studies. Friends supplemented a Maine Outdoor Heritage grant received by the Maine Natural Area Program to support a Vegetation Mapping Project conducted in B.S.P.
Our Maine Youth Wilderness Leadership Program, now entering its fourth year, sends ten Maine high school students into the Park for a nine-day backpacking trip in August to share a wilderness experience with trained wilderness leaders and specialists in a variety of disciplines. This program has been funded through the generous support of the Quimby Family Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation. See Program section of this website for more information.
FBSP President Barbara Bentley, and BSP Interpretive
Specialist Marcia Williamson admire the twelve
Adventure Naturalist Packs that
Friends donated to the Park.
We fund Naturalist Adventure Packs for the Park to lend to visiting families with children. These daypacks are filled with fun activities, materials, books, and supplies to help young explorers have fun and learn in the Park. This is made possible with assistance from L. L. Bean
We publish, in collaboration with the Park, Baxter State Park Calendars with photographs provided exclusively by Friends’ members and Park staff. Photographs are submitted and critically judged for inclusion, resulting in excellent quality stunning images paired with informative captions and interesting facts about the Park.
We publish and distribute a number of books and publications including:
- Our quarterly newsletter Forever Wild edited by Barbara Bentley
- Annual State of the Park Address by Baxter State Park Director Jensen Bissell
- A Wassataquoik History by member Gary McG. Boone
- Friends helped the Park acquire the rights to The Clark Guide, Katahdin: A Guide to Baxter State Park and Katahdin through the generous donation of an anonymous member of Friends. The Park can now work on updating this guide and distributing it through their store.
- Friends members John Neff and Howard Whitcomb are writing a volume for a history series entitled Baxter State Park and Katahdin, due to be released in the spring of 2012 by Arcadia Publishing.
- Howard Whitcomb's Governor Baxter's Magnificent Obsession: A Documentary History of Baxter State Park, 1931-2006was published by Friends. This popularized and condensed version of his earlier four-volume set includes new material from Governor Baxter’s death in 1969 to today including the most recent acquisition of Katahdin Lake.
- The publication of the four-volume set Percival P. Baxter’s Vision for Baxter State Park: An Annotated Compilation of Original Sources was compiled and written by member Howard Whitcomb. This research project assembles for the first time in one source the Deeds of Trust, judicial and attorneys’ general opinions, and Baxter’s voluminous speeches and correspondence associated with the Park’s creation and management. A grant from the Davis Conservation Foundation helped underwrite this project.
- Friends produces and distributes brochures such asKnow Before You Go: Tips for preparing a visit to Maine’s Wilderness that tells visitors what to expect in the Park. These and other brochures are distributed at Visitor’s Center throughout the state by the Maine Tourism Association
- Flora of Baxter State Park (Proposed)
We host and organize Walks in the Park that provide opportunities for members to meet and enjoy the Park together, sometimes with experts or special guests, staying in bunkhouses, lean-tos, or cabins. There are activities planned for all seasons. We have also hosted Walks outside the Park at the Harpswell property with a BSP forester Barrie Brusila and at the Baxter Woods in the City of Portland with Portland Parks and Forestry Manager Jeff Tarling. See Program section of this website for more info.
The Friends participates in Fairs and Festivals such as the Common Ground Fair in Unity, the Trail’s End Festival in Millinocket, the Banff Film Festival in Ellsworth and other venues through-out the state to spread the word about Baxter State Park, Percival Baxter’s Vision, and environmental stewardship practices needed to preserve and protect wilderness.
We have commissioned new Models of Katahdin Massif (in progress) to be on display at the Park Headquarters.
We have acted as an effective advocate for the vision of the Park as forever wild. We follow current news, trends, political issues, and policies that may affect Baxter State Park. We are currently monitoring the acquisition of land adjacent to BSP by Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. (E.P.I.) This land might eventually be donated to the National Park Service to create a new National Park adjacent to BSP. We are closely following debates, public meetings, and public commentary with great interest. We support conducting a federal feasibility study to look into the effects such a Park may have on BSP and the region in general. In 2011, a bill to allow hunting, ATV’s, snowmobiles and other activities in the “wilderness” area around Katahdin Lake (LD55) was defeated thanks in part to Friends’ testimony, letter writing and active opposition.
Representatives from Friends attend BSP Authority and BSP Advisory meetings and take positions on Park issues. We supported the removal of the selected Daicey Pond cabins. We supported actions taken at Sandy Stream and Stump Ponds to protect moose. We support changes in the reservation system. We urged the Park to reopen the North Peaks Trail, arguing that the reasons for its closure have diminished over time or have been mitigated. Friends has advocated and supported efforts to enhance accessibilityto the Park suggesting floating docks for improved water access at specific locations and the restoration of campsites and picnic areas. We continue to urge for and support comprehensive long range planning for trails. We support the Park’s commitment to use a formal planning process called “limits of acceptable change.” The Park is in the process of drafting a Comprehensive Management Plan. Friends Board members are reviewing this draft and submitting comments for consideration and debate. Their focus is on the effect the Management Plan may have on Percival Baxter’s vision over next few decades and for the extended future.
During the Katahdin Lake Acquisition Campaign, Friends members and Board members testified at the public hearings for Katahdin Lake before the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry. Four Friends Board Members served on the grassroots committee for the campaign. The Katahdin Lake parcel in T3 R8 was acquired after a successful $14M fundraising campaign by the Trust for Public Land, in cooperation with the Department of Conservation.
We attend, host, and sponsor many Special Occasions, Celebrations, and Gatherings.
- We host an Annual Meeting each April that has guest speakers, readings, poetry, photo presentations, entertainment, art, fantastic food, books, and nature walks. It has become a great opportunity to meet up with Friends and learn more about what is happening in the Park.
- Representatives from Friends attend meetings and events of other similar groups to share information and ideas. These groups include: Friends of Mount Carleton Provincial Park (FOMC) in New Brunswick, International Appalachian Trail of Maine, Friends of Acadia, and Maine Woods Forever.
- At the Friends suggestion in 2003, the 100th Anniversary of Governor Baxter’s first visit to the Katahdin area was celebrated at Daicey Pond with Park staff, the Baxter State Park Authority, and Governor John E. Baldacci attending.
The Baxter Park Wilderness Fund (BPWF) was established by a Friends member and longtime supporter of the Park. This fund provides unrestricted financial support to the Park, currently at about $120,000 per year, supplementing the trust funds established by Governor Baxter. We support the BPWF by managing the website and promoting contributions to the fund.