Shaheen visits AMC's Camp Dodge Trails Center
PINKHAM NOTCH — To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Wednesday visited the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Camp Dodge Trails Center.
The Great American Outdoors Act, passed last year, permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually and provides $9.5 billion over five years to address deferred maintenance on federal lands. The act has been called “the biggest land conservation legislation in a generation.”
Camp Dodge, since 1982, has trained and housed thousands of volunteers to maintain and repair trails thorough the White Mountain National Forest. The AMC just completed an over $2 million renovation of the facility, which it operates under a 30-year special use permit with the U.S. Forest Service.
In thanking Shaheen for her work on the Great American Outdoors Act, AMC President John Judge said not only did the senator co-sponsor the bill but was instrumental in rallying support for it in the Senate. Judge called passage of the bill a bright spot in 2020 and labeled it a “catalyst to keep and protect public lands for generations to come.”
Judge said $34 million of Land and Water Conservation Funds has gone to the White Mountain National Forest for trailhead and public access and $168 million has been spent statewide over in recent years.
Shaheen said Congress passed the Land and Water Conservation Fund in 1965 with funding from offshore gas and oil drilling in federal waters. But she said it has only been fully funded twice since then.
The Great American Outdoors Act will guarantee funding and help to address some of the backlog of projects. While appreciating the need for the funding for the White Mountain National Forest, Shaheen said she loves that money is also available for community projects, allowing people to access the outdoors where they live. She also pointed to the economic impact that the investment will provide.
“It's not just an effort about preserving for future generations, what we enjoy, but it's also an economic investment. We know the outdoor economy in this country is worth more than the whole fossil fuel industry. So, when we think about the economic investment in the outdoors, that is absolutely critical,” Shaheen said.
The senator received a tour of Camp Dodge from Camp Supervisor Amanda Peterson. The facility, which is located off the east side of Route 16, was built in the 1930s as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp and expanded over the years. Over the past 2 1/2 years, the AMC has expanded the dining hall and kitchen, replaced the bathhouse, repaired leaking roofs, expanded parking, added a training pavilion and equipment shed, constructed five new housing units and improved the existing septic system. The celebration was held in the new training pavilion.
Nearly 1,500 volunteers go through the training center each summer. Judge said the volunteers that go through Camp Dodge end up working all over the country and world. He said the AMC is doing work at Acadia and Valley Forge and an Irish delegation came to the center this summer to see how trails are built here.
Judge said six million visitors come to the White Mountains a year and some trails get unbelievable usage. He said having the funding to hire more people and build up the ranks of stewards is very important.
White Mountain National Forest Supervisor Derek Ibarguen said the Great American Outdoors Act is already providing about $1.5 million this year for the White Mountain National Forest and some significant projects are being proposed for 2022.
Ibarguen cite Camp Dodge as a wonderful example of a partnership between his organization and the AMC.
“It’s been a historic partnership,” he said, noting the intent “is to work to steward the great lands that we have right here and deliver on that experience to the American people in what they come here for.”
To show the AMC’s appreciation for her efforts, Judge presented Shaheen with an axe. He explained that at the end of the season every trail volunteer is given an axe, which is the favorite tool of the crews. He said her axe was made between 1935 and 1942 and has the CCC stamp on it.
Joining the celebration were Melanie Luce, executive director of the White Mountain Trail Collective, Susan Arnold, AMC vice president for conservation, Alex DeLucia, AMC trails supervisor, N.H. Director of Parks and Recreation Phil Bryce, Jack Savage of the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, State Senator Erin Hennessey, and Executive Councilor Joseph Kenney.
