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With deal, Appalachian Mountain Club conservation area is now 3 times larger than Acadia

An aerial view shows woods and water under a pink and purple sky. FILE PHOTO / COURTESY JAMIE MALCOLM BROWN, THE CONSERVATION FUND The Appalachian Mountain Club finalized its acquisition of the 29,000-acre Barnard Forest in Piscataquis County.
By Laurie Schreiber

The Appalachian Mountain Club finalized a land deal that adds 29,000 acres of forestland to its multi-use conservation and recreation land holdings in the North Woods. 

With the addition, the AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative now encompasses nearly 130,000 contiguous acres — an area nearly three times the size of Acadia National Park and more than eight times the size of Manhattan. 

The AMC was able to finalize the deal thanks to a $10 million gift from Natick, Mass.-based software developer MathWorks.

It is one of the largest philanthropic contributions in AMC’s nearly 150-year history.

Accelerated deal

The purchase began in 2023, when the AMC partnered with the Conservation Fund and the Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation to buy and permanently protect the swath, known as Barnard Forest, from the Elliotsville Foundation, for $15.2 million.

The Conservation Fund and the Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation participated in the deal in order to give the AMC time to raise the funds needed for AMC to assume full ownership. 

The $10 million gift accelerated AMC’s full ownership by two years, according to a news release.

“It enables us to safeguard an irreplaceable landscape, ensuring its health, access and biodiversity are permanently protected,” said Nicole Zussman, AMC’s president and CEO.

Forest acquisitions

Piscataquis County, with a population of 17,417, stretches from Maine’s geographic center through the North Woods and nearly to the Canadian border. It is home to Baxter State Park, Mount Katahdin and what the AMC calls the 100-Mile Wilderness region.

The 100-Mile Wilderness, although not formally a wilderness area, is the name given to the next-to-last section of the Appalachian Trail on its 2,180-mile route from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mount Katahdin. 

In 2003, AMC established a presence in the 100-Mile Wilderness with its purchase of the 37,000-acre Katahdin Iron Works Tract, which kicked off its Maine Woods Initiative, AMC’s strategy for land conservation in the region. Additional acquisitions ensued. Today, AMC protects over 100,000 acres of forest and fish habitat in the 100-Mile Wilderness.

The Barnard Forest abuts those woodland holdings. With the forest's addition, land under the Maine Woods Initiative now totals nearly 130,000 contiguous acres.

The acquisition secures significant habitat, including critical salmon spawning grounds, more than 70 miles of streams and continuous forest stretching to the Appalachian Trail.

The land, previously closed for 20 years, will now be reopened for fishing, hunting, recreation and tribal access.

The land will be “open to future generations for fishing, hunting, recreation and cultural use, including tribal access,” said Steve Tatko, AMC’s vice president of land and conservation.

The Appalachian Mountain Club, headquartered in Boston, is the nation’s oldest conservation and recreation organization. The Conservation Fund is a nonprofit that works to protect land nationwide.

Habitat and jobs

Barnard is a working forest that lies within the Pleasant River watershed, home to the last naturally reproducing population of landlocked salmon in Maine. The forest includes more than 70 miles of stream corridors, critical spawning grounds for endangered sea-run Atlantic salmon, extensive spruce-fir flats, and associated wetlands that provide cold-water habitat for native brook trout and landlocked smelt. 

Under AMC stewardship, the Barnard Forest will support restoration forestry, habitat connectivity and climate adaptation. The property will be managed to Forest Stewardship Council standards, with plans to rebuild older forest conditions and expand carbon stocking. 

The forest also contributes to rural economic growth by helping support more than 50 forestry- and recreation-related jobs and reinforcing AMC’s $8.39 million annual economic impact in the region. 

The property will remain on the tax rolls of Piscataquis County.

Initial funding for the project came from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the EJK Foundation and other lead individuals and foundations. AMC’s three-year campaign to protect and reopen Barnard Forest resulted in nearly $24 million in gifts, grants and program-related investments to support the acquisition, perpetual stewardship, and capital necessary to reestablish public access to Barnard Forest. 

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