Love Maine Trails Month Award Winners Announced

Written By Maine Trails Coalition

BATH, MAINE. 8/31/2023 — The Maine Trails Coalition (MTC) is pleased to announce the awardees for the second annual Love Maine Trails Month (LMTM), which took place June 1st -July 2nd, 2023. Love Maine Trails Month is a collective statewide month of stewardship where trail maintaining groups, their staff, interns, and volunteers come together to perform a variety of trail stewardship projects, engaging volunteers and raising awareness of the ethic of care and magnitude of scale required to maintain Maine’s trails. This event was hosted in partnership with Maine Trail Finder.

This Love Maine Trails Month saw 33 groups host 81 trail stewardship days. Of those, 50 events were listed on the Maine Trail Finder calendar. Opportunities were beginner-friendly and open to anyone interested in learning about trail maintenance, and they were led by hosts like local land trusts, community groups and conservation districts.

Gabe Perkins, co-coordinator of MTC and Executive Director of Inland Woods + Trails emphasized that, “a very important aspect of our Coalition is to grow support for Maine’s existing trails. Though so much more time and resources went into trails than we were able to document through Love Maine Trails Month, we want to showcase a sampling of the immense volunteer and staff efforts that went into trails across the state during this special month.”

Approximately 17 miles of trail were improved and 3 miles of new trail were built. Over 269 volunteers gave 1,520+ volunteer hours to these projects with their labor being valued at $48,336 based on the Independent Sector volunteer rate. Approximately 73 staff and interns contributed 755 hours to LMTM projects. Despite the rainy, wet month that was June, hosts were pleased with turnout and new volunteers showing up for events, with only 3 events needing to be canceled due to weather and flooding events. These numbers are just a small representation of the massive collaborative efforts involved in caring for the trails we love here in Maine.

There were 5 categories for this year’s Love Maine Trails Month awards and in total $5,000 was distributed ($1,000 to each group). Each awardee exemplified their award category and a strong connection to the importance of trail stewardship and volunteerism. Drumroll please….the award winners for the 2023 Love Maine Trails Month Awards are:

Top Notch Award - Maine Chapter of the International Appalachian Trail /Sentier International des Appalaches (IAT/SIA)- for the most progress accomplished on an important project. This small, but dedicated group tackled a lot of ground clearing trail, improving signage, and tending to a lean-to and privy in and near Mars Hill and Fort Fairfield near the Canadian border. The IAT/SIA begins in Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument and travels north and northeast eventually following the United States/Canadian international border to Fort Fairfield where it crosses into Perth-Andover, New Brunswick.

Stamina Award- Maine Island Trail Association (MITA) for most hours and days of work during LMTM. MITA had 28 volunteers contribute 140 hours of time to projects on trails along the island trail across 5 LMTM days from Muscongus Bay up to Frenchman Bay.  Staff contributed 70 hours. MITA reported total volunteer hours for June that went into the island trail amounted to 1,690+ hours.

Community Impact Award - Friends of Lower Kenduskeag Stream (FOLKS)- an all volunteer community group that hosts monthly trail clean-ups along the Kenduskeag Stream Trail in Bangor, ensuring the community has access to a special place. FOLKS cleaned up trash, blowdowns, and brush, working to maintain and beautify this vital natural space that connects neighborhoods, a local stream, and downtown area. 

Future Trail Stewards Award - Midcoast NEMBA a chapter of the New England Mt. Bike Association- for building effective and diverse partnerships. Their work on the Jack Baker Woods Trail in Thomaston involved many partnerships, including the Georges River Land Trust, Trail Runners of Midcoast Maine, Town of Thomaston, Sidecountry Trails, and Sidecountry Sports. The 2,647+ ft of trail improvements, three reroutes, and trail tread upgrades will help make the trail more suitable for additional uses such as mountain biking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing and to a broader range of hikers and walkers with differing mobility needs.

Visionary Award- Kennebec Land Trust (KLT) - for their project at the newly acquired Hales Pond Woodland Preserve in Fayette increases the proximity and access to KLT trails for the 21  local communities they cover in Kennebec, Franklin and Androscoggin counties. Volunteers worked to clear vegetation to create a corridor for a new trail. This trail, in addition to the physical and mental health benefits it will provide, creates public access to the woodlands and shoreline of Hales Pond for hiking, snowshoeing, hunting, nature observation, paddling and fishing.

See the complete list of all LMTM Hosts below. See THIS blog post for the Love Maine Trails Month By the Numbers for 2023. The MTC plans to build upon Love Maine Trails Month in 2024. If you believe that trails need love and want to get involved, or want to learn how you can host a LMTM event in 2024, please send us an email.

Love Maine Trails Month red and green logo w. text By the Numbers 2023. Icon of calendar, time clock, fist bumping, trail map, shovel and trail with pine trees tell total numbers of events, volunteers, volunteer time, trails improved, paid hours.

Love Maine Trails Month By the Numbers

  • 88, 681+ feet of trail improved (approx ~17+ miles)

  • 15,840’+ feet of new trail built during LMTM (~3 miles)

  • 1,520+: Total # of LMTM volunteer hours reported

    • $48,336 = Value of this volunteer labor using the Volunteer Rate Independent Sector 2023 value of of $31.80/hour

  • 755: Total number of paid hours for paid staff, interns or contractor

  • 269: Total # of volunteers for LMTM work day(s) (listed and unlisted events)

  • 84: New volunteers that showed up for LMTM aligned projects

  • 81: Total LMTM events - of these 51 events were officially listed on the Maine Trail Finder Calendar (4 events canceled due to rain or flooding)

  • 73: Total number of staff, interns

  • 35+: Total number of trails improved

  • 33: Total LMTM event hosts (participants listed below)

Photo Descriptions from left to right: (1) Maine IAT volunteers at the international border monument, (2) Maine Island Trail Association and Island Heritage Trust volunteers at the end of their LMTM work day at Wreck Island,
(3) Friends of Lower Kenduskeag Stream ready to set out cleaning up the Kenduskeag Stream Trail in Downtown Bangor, (4) Midcoast NEMBA members and Sidecountry Trails staff work on a boardwalk, (5) Kennebec Land Trust volunteers pose after working to clear a trail corridor to Hales Pond, (6) MITA staff and volunteers clear blowdowns along a primitive trail around Wreck Island, (7) Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust volunteers with some amazing rock work done on the Capstone Trail project, (8) Katahdin Tourism Partnership had great turnout from regional trail workers coming to do trail work on their day off!

Participating LMTM Event Hosts

Maine Trails Coalition
Previous

MTC Member Profile: Anne Marisic
Next

MTC Volunteer Profile: Julie Isbill