[at-l] RE"Policing the Trail

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C)]

I was a maintainer for 25 years and a volunteer overseer of 23 maintainers for seven years. I'm still a volunteer but not as a maintainer. I still think motors should be kept out of Congressionally designated wilderness areas except in very rare instances.

The Maine trail is probably the most remote of the 2,175 miles of AT and Maine has the smallest population base on which to draw for volunteers. But we manage to keep the trail maintained to a pretty good standard.

My major effort these days is to keep the trail remote and wild, now that all the land adjacent to the narrow corridor has been purchased by developers.

Our Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust has made it's first purchases, snatching from the jaws of the land speculators, Abraham, a mountain just off the Saddleback-Poplar Ridge range, and the southeastern slopes of Saddleback itself.

We still have a $200,000 mortgage on our $661,000 purchase. It comes due Oct. 1. You can help.

Just open:   http://www.matlt.org 

There you will find the details.

Weary

> Here's the thing; when I (or most anyone else, for that matter) perform 
> trail maintenance, it's VOLUNTEER work. So, it would behoove the 
> organization(s) overseeing the maintenance to make it as easy as possible, 
> lest it discourage people FROM volunteering. Make me wear a uniform? No 
> thanks, I did that for years in the military. (I know, I still wear the 
> camo pants, but that's by CHOICE) Limit me to hand tools? That's all 
> right for some things, but when a BIG tree has fallen across the 
> treadway, that's a job for a CHAINSAW. Does it make noise? Yes. SO?! The bow 
> saws, clippers, etc. are fine only to a point. 
> 
> It's real easy to TALK about restrictions on maintainers...but I say, 
> get out there and DO some maintenance before rendering an OPINION. 
> You're probably aware of what they say about THOSE...
>