What is a tract and what is the A.T. corridor?
A tract is a unit of land that includes the Appalachian Trail within its boundary. One tract is connected to the next tract, and the next, and so on. The connected tracts define the A.T. corridor through Maine, from Katahdin to the Mahoosucs. The A.T. runs north-south inside the corridor boundary. Don't assume the corridor is always 1,000 feet wide. Tracts vary in size and width. NPS, BSP, BPL and others own the A.T. corridor in Maine. The Maine Appalachian Trail Club looks after the corridor lands and the trail.
Are corridor monitoring sections and trail maintenance sections the same?
When the A.T. corridor was laid out across Maine, the tract and corridor sections did not coincide with trail maintenance sections. Some MATC designated corridor monitoring sections nearly coincide with trail maintenance sections, others don't. This is why there are 70 corridor monitoring sections and 90 trail maintenance sections on the A.T. in Maine.
Is maintaining a section of trail the same as monitoring a section of corridor?
The two are very different jobs. Maintaining the A.T. is about assessing, planning and responding to conditions right on and immediately along the trail. The scope of trail maintenance is trail focused, period.
Monitoring is tract and corridor focused. Corridor monitors assess and respond to conditions beyond the immediate trail, all the way out to the boundary line of the corridor tract. It includes assessing activities that may be occurring just outside the corridor, or activities that may be intruding across the boundary line into the interior of the corridor.
Some examples are timber trespass, offroad vehicles, dumping, and other alterations of the tract from human activity. Changes in the natural environment from insects, disease, or forest fires can also be a part of the scope of corridor monitoring.
Can I be a corridor monitor, but
not maintain a section of trail?
Certainly. While some trail maintainers also monitor the immediate corridor, others don't. If corridor monitoring appeals to your interests, there are plenty of corridor monitoring sections along the A.T. in Maine that are available for your care and contribution.
Corridor Monitoring activity means contracting to:
- Get off the trail with map and compass and go out across the tract.
- Walk on out to the boundary lines of the corridor section.
- Look for signs of intrusion into the corridor tract.
- Walk the boundary lines more often when activity is occurring next door.
- Report incidents and your annual activity in a timely fashion.
- Revisit and check up when adjacent activities or corridor incidents occur.
- Communicate with your A.T. District Overseer and Overseer of Lands
Does MATC have hands-on training workshops? - YES!
- June 6, June 20, 2009 - CORRIDOR MONITORING WORKSHOP
Locating, identifying, and inspecting monuments are among the most important tasks of corridor monitoring. It is important, of course, to look for incursions into the corridor, to inspect the condition of the boundary line blazes between monuments, to renew paint blazes as needed and to keep the boundary lines brushed out. (These last two tasks are not required of CMs.) However, the greatest expense of surveying the corridor in the first place was locating the monuments, and it would be very expensive to re-locate a monument should one be lost. Following lines and locating monuments is not always easy, but a day of experience in the field can give you the skills that you need to do this work. Dave Field will offer two corridor monitoring workshops this spring.
June 6 - The first workshop will be held between Leeman Brook and LIttle Wilson Falls in Elliotsville. This is relatively easy terrain in a very pretty area that will give us a chance to inspect boundary lines, check out a structure that must be removed, and look for any encroachments from neighbors. Meet a 9:00 a.m. at the junction of the Elliotsville Road and the gravel road that heads in towards North Pond.
June 20 - The second workshop will be on the back of Sugarloaf, beginning on the Caribou Valley Road. The terrain is not easy but there will be some exciting conditions and views. Meet at 9:00 a.m. at the junction of Maine Route 27 and the Caribou Valley Road, near the top of the hill north of the Sugarloaf Ski Area turn.
All new corridor monitors should attend one of these workshops if at all possible, and experienced monitors are more than welcome to attend and share experience with the new folks.
Please contact Dave Field (862-3674; meeser3@roadrunner.com) if you plan to attend so that I can give you any updated information and alert you to cancellation in case of really bad weather.
Here's Dave's report on last year's workshop:
On June 2008 I led another corridor monitoring workshop to beautiful, but damp, Elliotsville. Michelle and Stan Moody (and their faithful canine), Janice Clain, and Tim Fortune enjoyed traveling through the magnificent hardwood (sugar maple, white ash, yellow birch, bigtooth aspen) and softwood (pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar) timber throughout this area. Unlike the 2006 workshop in Elliotsville, it did not rain all day but it had rained everything was wet. We walked 2.5 miles along both sides of the corridor boundary line at the western end of CM assignment 25, from the "Old Winterport" logging road to Big Wilson Stream. We found all of the monuments and took digital photos and GPS readings of each monument and its surroundings. The lunch break found us on the bank of Big Wilson Stream.
Who do I contact to become an MATC Corridor Monitor?
David Field
MATC Overseer of Lands
191 Emerson Mill Road
Hampden, Maine 04444
Email: meeser3@roadrunner.net
For more on corridor monitoring, Dave says to read this "great article on the work that ATC surveyor Sally Naser has been doing in northern New England with her tiny boundary maintenance crew." The 929kb pdf file is from the latest issue of AT Journeys. It can be downloaded from the MATC site by using this url: Boundary Monitors Mahoosucs ATJ JanFeb2008.
To view or print a PDF (Portable Document Format) file, you need the Adobe Reader, version 5 or later, on your computer. If you don't already have it, you can download a free copy of the Reader from the Adobe Web site at Adobe Acrobat. Installation instructions are available from the Adobe website.
