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Join us for a Guild Gathering, in the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine forestlands.

Full agenda

Thursday

We encourage you to check out a hike on your own in scenic Gulf Hagas during the day (or let Amanda know at amanda@forestguild.org  if you’d like to gather with other forestry tour participants to hike this).

2:00 p.m. Meet at Gorman-Chairback Lodge

2:00 – 3:30 Compare two contrasting fish passage sites. Visit a nice hardwood site recently harvested to facilitate glad skiing.

4:30-5:30 Presentation by Dave Publicover and Steve Tatko on ecological management of AMC’s forests. 

6:00 Dinner (provided if you are staying at the AMC Gorman-Chairback Lodge. Otherwise, you may bring your own and join us).

Friday

7:00 Breakfast (provided if you are staying at the AMC Gorman-Chairback Lodge. Otherwise, you may bring your own and join us or meet the rest of the group at Katahdin Ironworks).

8:00 Drive to Katahdin Ironworks checkpoint (Google location for Katahdin Ironworks State Historic Site). 

9:00 Convene at Katahdin Ironworks checkpoint, gather all participants, head to Stop 1. 

9:45 Stop 1 – Visit plantation, 1st entry thinning in a softwood stand as part of an uneven age conversion.

11:00 Stop 2 – Explore a past high-graded hardwood site currently running heavy to beech. Discuss management options and long-term objectives.

Noon – 1:00 Lunch stop at Caribou bog bridge. Discuss landscape-scale history. Explore settlement remains. (field lunch provided if you lodged at AMC Gorman-Chairback Lodge. Others please bring your own lunch.)

1:00 Stop 3 – Depart for active harvest off Caribou Pitt Rd. Discuss changing harvest history, including revisiting the slot harvesting method popularized in the early 2000s.

2:15 Stop 4 – Visit a fresh harvest in a hardwood to mixedwood transitional forest, some of which is a first entry for AMC.

3:15 Drive out to the Katahdin Ironworks checkpoint.

4:00 Optional tour of Katahdin Ironworks and charcoal ironworks.

Continuing education credits: This event has been assigned 5.0 Category 1 CFE credits by the Society of American Foresters.

Lodging info:  Lodging is full. Please check directly with AMC for any last-minute openings at 603-466-2727, Mon-Sat, 9 am to 5 pm.

Travel info:

Gorman-Chairback Lodge is a 2.5-hour drive from Augusta, ME and a 1.5-hour drive from Bangor, ME. Limited spaces on this field tour are available for individuals participating Friday only. If you plan to attend only on Friday, breakfast and lunch are on your own, and there is no additional cost to register. If you plan to attend only the Friday field tour, please plan to meet the group at the Katahdin Ironworks Historic Site (KI gate) at 8:45 a.m.

Pickup trucks or four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended, as well as spare tires. During the Friday field tour, we will carpool from site to site, beginning and ending at the Katahdin Ironworks gate.

Thank you to Steve Tatko for the photos on this event page.