The Maine Woods Initiative with Steve Tatko

Illustration by Jasmine Hortop.

Two years ago I hiked through Maine’s 100-mile wilderness. It’s a bit of a misnomer, because there’s no true wilderness to be found in the 100-mile wilderness, but it is the most remote stretch of the entire Appalachian Trail and a beautiful area to walk through.

By the time I reached this part of Maine, I had already hiked over 2,000 miles from Georgia en route to completing my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Since completing my journey, I’ve been working on producing a documentary podcast series about the trail called Common Land, and I reached out to Steve Tatko to get his perspective on this one unique section of the route.

Steve is bursting with enthusiasm for the Maine woods and the Appalachian Mountain Club’s efforts to protect this area. He grew up right along the border of Maine’s unincorporated territories, a vast stretch of uninhabited, but privately owned, forest land that covers nearly half the state. He always had a deep bond with this land, but was told while growing up that he’d have to leave if he wanted to earn a good living or follow his passion. That turned out not to be true, as an opportunity to work for the Appalachian Mountain Club arose that actually valued his preexisting connection to the region and to the area’s communities.

The Maine Woods Initiative is a unique and vast project. The Appalachian Mountain Club has bought over 114,000 acres of land in the region, but even though its privately owned, they are managing it based on a public land model. They’ve created numerous recreational opportunities, they’ve initiated sustainable logging operations working closely with local communities, and they’ve restored watersheds, re-establishing the only wild Atlantic Salmon run on the entire Eastern seaboard. It’s an example of land conservation and protection that values and includes human communities - Steve is working to protect not just ecosystems, but cultural lifeways and economic viability.

I hope that you all are just as inspired as I am by the important work that Steve is doing!

-Matt Podolsky

Photo courtesy of Steve Tatko.