North Maine Woods is a land management company that oversees the recreational use of more than 3.5 million acres of forestlands. Private individuals, as well as private industrial companies, own these forestlands. There are roughly 155 townships within the boundaries of the North Maine Woods.
The North Maine Woods Company began as a landowner committee in the mid-1960s. The purpose of the committee was to solve disputes among landowners regarding maintenance and road usage. With the log drives ending, there was need for better access roads. The landowners worked together to build a complex road system.
The new road system brought about an increase in recreational traffic. More people began to travel into the “deep woods” to hunt, fish and camp, causing difficulties for the commercial traffic using the roads as well. The landowners installed locked gates to help manage the influx of traffic.
In the early ‘70s, North Maine Woods became an association and then became a nonprofit in 1981. It began setting up a number of manned checkpoints throughout the perimeter of the region. These checkpoints took the place of the roughly 26 unmanned locked gates.
Some of the gates were part of an agreement with the State of Maine to limit the number of access points to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. Others came from agreements with U.S. Customs and Immigration to prevent people from using the private roads as a shortcut between Maine and Quebec. There are four checkpoints on the Canadian border. In addition, there are eight staffed and six automated checkpoints around the region. There are also cameras at each location that are monitored 24/7 during the regular season.
Recently there has been a decline in visitor usage. North Maine Woods visitor use records show that it is a trend across all ages of visitors. Since 2006, however, usage by children under 15 has dropped roughly 25 percent. Despite children under the age of 15 having free day use and camping, the numbers are still falling.
Sammi LaBelle, office manager and 29-year veteran of North Maine Woods, said, “People just aren’t spending the time doing traditional outdoor activities like they used to in my day. My kids have grown up in the woods for many years. Having grown up in the outdoors, they are not consumed by the technology of today. It is unfortunate that more kids don’t have that opportunity.” She also said, “With the busy lifestyles and dual working parents, it is difficult for some families to find the time needed for these activities.”
North Maine Woods and the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands are working together to entice people young and old, back to the outdoors. Starting in the 2018 season, they will begin with half-price camping for the Deboullie region.
“In order to encourage people to experience the significant improvements made to this special area, Maine’s Bureau of Parks and Lands and the private landowner members of the North Maine Woods program reduced the regular NMW camping fees by half for overnight camping in the Deboullie Unit,” Albro Cowperthwaite, the executive director of North Maine Woods, said. This change only applies to the seven camping locations at Deboullie.
North Maine Woods has also increased the age allowing free access and camping from 15 to 18. “There is a trend toward fewer young people hunting, fishing, canoeing and camping in the Maine woods,” he said, “We hope raising the age for fees will help reverse this trend and allow more families to enjoy the Maine outdoors together.”
In the age of technology and busy schedules, sedentary lifestyles are becoming more common. Young people are spending far less time doing outdoor activities. North Maine Woods is making every effort to ensure that families continue to enjoy a true outdoor experience.
