Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters group forms
Photo / Dan Sakura
Lucas St. Clair, president of Elliotsville Plantation Inc., is also the president of the newly formed Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters.
Six months after former President Barack Obama created a national monument in Maine, a nonprofit organization has formed to support its mission.
Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters will work to preserve and protect the outstanding natural beauty, ecological vitality and distinctive cultural resources of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and surrounding communities for the inspiration and enjoyment of all generations, the group announced in a release on Tuesday.
The group’s formation comes two weeks after Gov. Paul LePage asked President Donald Trump to scrap the national monument designation.
So-called friends groups are common at other national parks, which cannot raise money privately. The nonprofit is not part of the National Park Service but intends to enter into an agreement to work collaboratively with and support the mission of managing the monument.
“Initially, the friends group will focus on building volunteer opportunities, developing education programs and advocating for the monument,” said Lucas St. Clair, president of the Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters. “Eventually, the nonprofit organization will provide financial support for specific projects in the monument and surrounding communities, raise private funds to supplement — not replace — federal appropriations, protect the integrity of the monument and its resources, and speak for users in the betterment of monument operations.”
“Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument can become a first-class destination for visitors to northern Maine,” said Anita Mueller, vice president of Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters. “I look forward to working with the National Park Service to develop services, facilities and programs that will make the experience of visiting the national monument a wonderful, lifetime memory.”
Modeled after Friends of Acadia
“All of us at Friends of Acadia are excited by this announcement and want to welcome the Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters into the community of friends groups that help serve national parks and national monuments throughout the country,” said David MacDonald, president of Friends of Acadia in Bar Harbor. “Friends of Acadia has received incredible support from volunteers, businesses, and surrounding communities who want to give back to Acadia, and public-private partnerships like this will only become more important in the future. We look forward to being a resource and partner with our friends to the north.”
Friends of Acadia has granted more than $25 million to the park and surrounding communities since its founding in 1986 in support of dozens of projects, including youth programs, restoration of Acadia’s trails and carriage roads and establishment of the fare-free Island Explorer bus system.
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