Achievements
Here's just a small sampling of what we’ve achieved.
Maine Youth Wilderness Leadership Program
Friends of Baxter State Park created this program in 2009 to cultivate the next generation of wilderness leaders. Each August, ten Maine high school students spend nine days backpacking in the Park, working with two highly qualified leaders and more than a dozen specialists. Read more.
Baxter Youth Conservation Corps
The Baxter Youth Conservation Corps is a job training and service learning opportunity for youth from the Katahdin region of Maine. Since 2017, this program has been hiring local youth for full-time summer employment doing trail work in Baxter State Park. Participants gain valuable training, job skills, and work experience in a spectacular wilderness setting.
Trails Support
Friends of Baxter State Park funded the first trails inventory of Baxter State Park in 2011. We have provided over $200,000 in trails funding for Baxter State Park, including a major effort to reopen the Abol Trail, which was badly damaged in a landslide in 2014.
Baxter State Park’s 90th
Birthday Proclamation
On the occasion of the ninetieth anniversary of Percival Baxter's initial gift of 5,960 acres of land - including Katahdin - to the people of Maine, Governor Janet Mills honored this anniversary by proclaiming March 3, 2021 as Baxter State Park Day. Mills urged “all Maine people to recognize and celebrate the determination, foresight, and generosity of Governor Percival Baxter on this, the 90th anniversary of his original enduring gift to the people of the State of Maine.”
Publications
Friends of Baxter State Park provides communications and outreach support on the park's behalf, including essential tips for the safety of the public and the Park. Friends of Baxter has published the definitive guides to Governor Baxter and the creation of Baxter State Park, Governor Baxter's Magnificent Obsession: A Documentary History of Baxter State Park 1931 - 2006, and Percival P. Baxter's Vision for Baxter State Park, both by Howard R. Whitcomb. Plants of Baxter State Park, by various authors, including executive director Aaron Megquier and board member and former park director Jensen Bissell, provides extensively researched scientific descriptions of 857 plant species and over 2,000 photographs.
Biodiversity Research
Friends of Baxter State Park was one of the lead organizations on the Plants of Baxter State Park project, a five-year effort to inventory the entire flora of the Park. We helped publish a field guide to all plant species found in the Park, develop a plant database for Park managers, and create a baseline for monitoring the effects of climate change.
Search and Rescue
Friends of Baxter State Park supports wilderness rescue capacity in the Park. We have donated rescue equipment and provided more than $3,000 in scholarships for Park rangers and volunteers to attend specialized, high-angle rescue training. Learn more about Wilderness Search and Rescue.