GREENVILLE, Maine - More than 4,300 acres of what is described as scenic and ecologically significant land have been permanently protected with the puchase by the Appalachian Mountain Club of Baker Mountain in the 100-Mile Wilderness region near Greenville.
AMC Senior Vice President Walter Graff says all the land around Baker Mountain was protected in one way or another, and so AMC wanted to see if they could buy the Baker Mountain property.
Graff says Baker Mountain is the second-highest Maine peak between Bigelow Mountain and Mt. Katahdin, and can be seen from the Appalachian Trail. The land will be managed for a variety of uses, including recreation, habitat protection and sustainable forestry.
"There's a portion of this mountain, probably about three-quarters of it, that will in forever-wild status," Graff says. "So that will be protecting that in, really, perpetuity. There will be no harvesting on that part of the property, but probably another third of it will continue to be operated as a managed forest, like some of our other lands."
AMC now holds some 70,000 acres of conservation and recreation land in the 100-Mile Wilderness region.
