Lester Kenway - Trail Crew Legend

Your hosts for Baxter and Friends are Jensen Bissell, former Park Director, and Maine's own Bill Green; both are members of the board of directors of Friends of Baxter State Park. In this episode, they interview Lester Kenway, who served as the Trails Supervisor at Baxter State Park for 22 years, spent two years with Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission, and served as the Field Team Program Coordinator for the Maine Conservation Corps until his State retirement. He is a long-time volunteer with the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, serving as its President for the last ten years.

Lester asked that we include this “preamble” to his interview:

Lester Kenway was the Parks first Trail Crew Leader.  He worked for 22 years for BSP, and his innovative and enduring work is visible in many of the Park’s most iconic and popular trails.  Lester’s description of his standards for his leadership of his crews is as enduring as his work on the Park trails: 

I always preferred crews made up of both men and women and always worked to put together crews with a gender balance. I had over 360 people on the trail crews at BSP and about 60% of them were women.

A few thoughts/observations:

I liked to build teams rather than just work crews.
Not everyone is good at moving big rocks with a crowbar but there are plenty of jobs for everyone.
Tone is set at the top of any organization.
Make sure that everyone’s ideas and suggestions are listened to.
Trail work involves solving problems.
People that work in difficult situations take care of each other.
Challenge people but in way where they will succeed.
“You can do a lot more than you think you can if you try”