White Mountains to Moosehead Lake Initiative

Western Maine and Eastern New Hampshire contain exceptionally productive and large blocks of working forest, famed waterways and wetland complexes, and some of New England’s most dramatic high elevation ridgelines and mountain peaks.  The region is critical for the forest products industry and the hub of inland recreation and tourism in Maine.  The proposed study area for this project encompasses the Upper Androscoggin River, Mahoosuc Mountains and Lake Umbagog, the Rangeley Lakes, ten of Maine’s fourteen 4,000-foot peaks, 145 miles of the Appalachian Trail, vast working forest, and numerous rare species.  The region’s world-class recreational opportunities – be it backpacking the A.T., skiing Sugarloaf and Sunday River, fishing the Sandy River, snowmobiling or ATVing endless miles of woods trails, hunting vast tracts of forest, or paddling the Rangeley Lakes – define the way of life and quality of place.  In fact, these qualities justify why the Northern Forest was recently identified as one of the five Focus Landscapes in President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative.