The Appalachian Mountain Club, one of America’s oldest conservation groups, is buying Barnard Forest, a nearly-30,000 acre tract of land in central Maine’s Piscataquis County and adding it to the 100,000 acres it already owns in the area.
The club is actually purchasing the northern half of the tract outright; the southern half is being purchased by two other non-profits, The Conservation Fund and The Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation, that will hold it until AMC can raise funds to buy the rest from them. The total sale price was $15.2 million.
AMC will manage the lands under its Maine Woods Initiative, which believes that “Public recreation, habitat restoration and responsible forestry can—and should—work together to create healthy and resilient ecosystems.”
Through its ownership of the Barnard Forest, AMC will bring its fish habitat restoration efforts that benefit threatened species such as native brook trout and endangered Atlantic salmon to waterways farther south within the West branch of the Pleasant River and to the greater Penobscot River drainage. That work has reopened 110 miles of stream habitat by removing over 100 culverts and restoring natural stream channels, conducting woody debris additions to rebuild in-stream structure, and supporting Atlantic salmon egg planting. In addition, AMC intends to restore public access for recreation for the first time in nearly 20 years.
