Friends of Baxter State Park

Education and Outreach: We offered the 2023 Maine Youth Wilderness Leadership Program which enabled ten Maine high school students to experience a nine-day leadership training program in spectacular wilderness. Participants in this program learned from specialists in botany, storytelling, history, and recreation. The goal of this program is to inspire and cultivate the next generation of Maine's environmental leaders. We published three issues of our Forever Wild newsletter with a circulation of 2,100 (1,500 print, 600 digital) per issue. We published the 2024 Baxter State Park calendar in partnership with Baxter State Park and a local company. We hosted a booth at the Common Ground Fair on September 22 - 24. We produced and distributed eight podcast episodes containing seven hours and 21 minutes of content focused on Baxter State Park.

Advocacy for the Park: We attended five meetings of the Baxter State Park Authority, three meetings of the Katahdin Collaborative and related groups, two meetings with Wabanaki leaders, two meetings and workshops of First Light Learning Journey, and one legislative hearing. We monitored several ongoing policy challenges and opportunities facing Baxter State Park.

Support for Park Activities: Our Baxter Youth Conservation Corps (BYCC) completed six weeks of full-time trail work in Baxter State Park, for a total of 1,200 hours of donated services. Crews completed major projects on the Horse Mountain, Pogy Notch, South Branch Falls, and Chimney Pond trails. Our two BYCC Conservation Fellows completed 317 hours of service to Baxter State Park focused on climate change planning and video production. We also made a direct contribution of $5,578 to Baxter State Park, which represents 50% of the net proceeds from our annual fundraising sign auction.