Friends’ Advocacy Today
Friends of Baxter State Park is an advocate for the Park and Percival Baxter’s forever wild vision. We champion Baxter’s “right, unspoiled way through education, outreach, and community building.” We strive to instill respect for the flora and fauna that inhabit the park, and we are a watchdog for preserving the Park’s environment so that future generations will find the Park unchanged.
The Future of Friends
The Baxter Youth Conservation Corps is just one way we hope to shape the future stewardship of the Park. We share our love of the land, teach conservation and preservation of the environment, and build strong, curious, enthusiastic lovers of the Park.
Environmental Education
Sharing scientific information with our members is one way we bring the Park’s needs to people who would normally not be aware of them. At our 2022 Annual Meeting, we held a panel discussion on scientific research in the park. President Emeritus of Chewonki, Don Hudson and Justin Schlawin from the Maine Natural Areas Program presented finding from long-term monitoring and surveys in Baxter State Park. Don has studied alpine plants on Katahdin, conducting the first survey of plants in the 1980s, and assisting with a new survey that is providing interesting results. Justin's work focuses on the study of old-growth forests. Both emphasized that BSP is home to many rare species and is an ideal area for this research due to the lack of human intervention. Their baseline work will help determine the impact of climate change on the Park. The panel discussion begins at 50:00.
Building Community in the Katahdin Region
The Katahdin region has experienced profound changes since Friends was founded in 2000. The booming industrial economy that earned Millinocket the nickname of “Magic City” has disappeared entirely. Since the collapse of its papermaking industry a decade ago, the Katahdin region has been struggling to stay afloat. Some outdoor recreation businesses have been thriving and helping to build a diversified economy, but change is hard, and it comes slowly.
In 2014, Friends sponsored a speaker series in Millinocket focused on recreation and nature-based tourism. The Katahdin Collaborative formed out of that near-vacuum in early 2015. Within two years, the Collaborative had attracted the attention of key funders and was developing a process to engage the entire region in a shared vision for the future. That year-long effort, known as The Katahdin Gazetteer, was completed successfully in April 2019. The region now has a clear roadmap to a more sustainable and vibrant future. Friends has been an active participant in this work since 2016.
The Park is influenced by economic and social conditions outside its boundaries. It cannot thrive if the communities surrounding it are suffering. The Park needs livable communities for staff to call home, which means everything from affordable housing to good schools and hospitals. It needs places to buy truck parts, fast internet service to power the online reservations system, and skilled contractors to help maintain roads and bridges.
The Katahdin region is on the upswing. The ongoing revitalization of the Katahdin region is a powerful example of what we can achieve when we stand on common ground and have a shared vision. Crossing the boundary into Baxter State Park still feels like entering into another world, and we will continue working tirelessly to keep it that way, but it sure helps that the world outside is getting a little brighter.
Advocacy for Park Land - Katahdin Lake
Percival Baxter made his 1920 climb of Katahdin via Katahdin Lake. A year later, he proposed a state park that would include “Katahdin Lake, one of the most beautiful of all Maine’s lakes." Baxter succeeded in capturing all the great peaks in the Katahdin cluster but was unable to bring Katahdin Lake into his wilderness preserve.
In the end, it took the combined efforts of scores of heroes, most of them unsung, to negotiate complex legal and political deals and raise $14 million for the land before achieving the long-standing goal of bringing Katahdin Lake into Baxter State Park. Friends of Baxter State Park played a key role in this preservation effort, working closely with the Maine Department of Conservation and The Trust for Public Land, which coordinated the fundraising.
Thanks to the scholarship of Howard Whitcomb, Friends provided crucial testimony to ensure legislative support and helped persuade the Baxter State Park Authority to accept the property. Two private inholdings remained along the lake at the Katahdin Brook outlet. In 2012, Huber Resources Corp donated its 143 acres, and in 2013 the heirs of James Sewall gave a conservation easement on their 43-acre parcel. Finally, all of the lands around Katahdin Lake were permanently protected. In 2021, a century after Percival Baxter first formally proposed a state park including Katahdin Lake, the area is a favorite destination for hikers, campers, anglers, and wildlife watchers.