Appalachian Trail Boundary Crew to Recover Large Tract of Land in Maine

July 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Andover, ME (July 21, 2011) – For three weeks beginning on July 24, 2011, as part of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) Land Protection Program, the ATC and volunteers from the American Hiking Society and Frostburg State University will be marking the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) boundary in Andover, Maine.

Maine has more National Park Service (NPS) corridor boundary miles than any other state on the A.T.; with almost twice as many boundary miles as its approximately 280 Trail miles.  This is due to the fact that a large portion of the Trail is not located within the confines of National and State Parks.

“The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is excited to be able to tackle this project with the help of Frostburg University and the American Hiking Society,” said Carlen Emanuel, ATC Land Protection Manager.  “Our combined efforts will help us recover the boundary near Andover, Maine and help protect the public’s investment in the lands that surround the A.T.”

The A.T. Boundary Crew's main purpose is to protect the public’s investment in the lands that surround the Appalachian Trail. To ensure the continued protection of the Trail corridor, volunteers from A.T. maintaining clubs work with the ATC to monitor and maintain over 1500 miles of the corridor’s exterior boundary stretching from Tennessee to Maine. To monitor, volunteers walk the edge of lands acquired for the Trail and assess them to ensure their continued conservation. To maintain it, volunteers repaint and brush out this boundary line to keep it well-marked and easy for our neighbors to identify.

The Boundary Crew also educates nearby communities and landowners about our conservation mission in an effort to mitigate encroachments on the corridor. Encroachments are uses of the land that are incompatible with our mission of conservation and include the dumping of trash, off-road-vehicle use, timber theft, and the illegal building of structures. When monitoring uncovers encroachments, the Trail club, the ATC, and partner agencies work cooperatively to address and alleviate them.

For more information on Boundary Crews, visit www.appalachiantrail.org/boundarycrew.