High Peaks Initiative Kicks Off Summer with Conservation and Recreation Summit

The High Peaks Initiative (HPI) recently convened the annual Conservation and Recreation Summit in Farmington, Maine, gathering local, regional, and national organizations working in Maine’s High Peaks region. This summit is a chance for people living, working, and playing in the A.T. region where ten of Maine's fourteen highest mountains lie. It's a place that's heavily focused on a way of life built around the outdoors - not just the mountains but the forests, rivers, streams, lakes, trails, and communities that are all a part of the High Peaks. It's also a place that, like everywhere else, is undergoing changes and dealing with disruptions. Use of private lands by the recreation public is a Maine tradition but with changes in use (larger ATVs, varying logging road conditions, new kinds of landowners, etc.) there can be issues to resolve. Resources are always a topic of discussion, as everybody from local towns to land trusts to state agencies needs funding to maintain trails and make sure that public access is secure. In an ideal world there would be sufficient funding to pay for all the trail maintenance projects and resource securing all the public land, but that's not always the case! We would like to thank our High Peaks Initiative partners for making this summit possible: High Peaks AllianceMaine Appalachian Trail Land TrustRangeley Lakes Heritage TrustNorthern Forest Canoe TrailMaine Mountain CollaborativeMaine Huts and TrailsNorhtern Forest CenterTrust For Public LandThe Wilderness SocietyAppalachian Trail ConservancyGreater Franklin Development Council