Snowmobile Reroute Opens at Redington Forest

The Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust has a mission to preserve and protect land surrounding the Appalachian Trail in Maine for public benefit, and this includes many aspects of recreation and community that might at first seem unrelated to the trail. But these other uses are intimately connected to the ecology and social fabric of Maine's A.T., and come together to create the place so many enjoy and care for. In Maine's High Peaks region, MATLT's Redington Forest conservation easement is a vast expanse of forest, streams, and mountains, that also attracts recreationalists due to public access for hunting, fishing, snowmobiles, ATVs, cross county skiing, and hiking. In 2023, however, many of these uses were imperiled by a series of devastating storms that destroyed bridges, washed away trails, and left streams running down old logging roads. Not only was recreation impacted, but many of the ecological values the easement was purchased to protect - water quality, species habitat, climate resilience - were impacted, too. The local snowmobile club and the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands approached MATLT and worked on solutions to assist recreation while also ensuring that ecological recovery could occur. The scale of devastation meant rerouting the snowmobile and ATV trails, moving bridge spans to install in new locations, and enlisting volunteers for extensive maintenance. This work rechanneled streams and secured their banks, ensured that streams were once again free flowing, and protected vernal pools and wetland areas. All of this had to be done to according to conservation easement standards. As a result, snowmobile access between Rangeley and Stratton has been reopened for the winter and Redington Forest is steadily recovering from climate induced storms. These efforts in one portion of the A.T. landscape can help maintain ecological integrity from the trail corridor down through mountain slopes and along rivers to the matrix forest areas below.