AMC cites success thanks to New Markets Tax Credits

    GREENVILLE — The Appalachian Mountain Club’s (AMC) Maine Woods Initiative is marking record numbers of visitors, acres of land conservation and local economic stimulus as it now concludes its New Markets Tax Credits investment cycle, managed by CEI Capital Management, LLC.

    The Maine Woods Initiative is AMC’s strategy for land conservation in the 100-Mile Wilderness region, an innovative approach to conservation that combines outdoor recreation, resource protection and sustainable forestry and community partnerships.
    It seeks to address the ecological and economic needs of the Maine woods region by supporting local forest products jobs and traditional recreation, creating new multi-day recreational experiences for visitors, and attracting new nature-based tourism there.
    Centered on two tracts of forestland purchased by AMC — the 37,000-acre Katahdin Iron Works property and the 29,500-acre Roach Ponds Tract — the Maine Woods Initiative is the largest investment in conservation and recreation in the AMC’s 138-year history. With assistance from CEI Capital Management LLC, the project received $32 million in New Markets Tax Credits capacity.
    The New Markets program allowed AMC to complete key infrastructure improvements such as construction of the leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED)-registered Gorman Chairback Lodge, and improvements to an 80-plus-mile recreational trail system while providing economic stimulus in Piscataquis County.
    More than 20 workers, including a dozen local contractors and craftsmen, were employed in the construction project, which also included the refurbishing of historic cabins on the site.
    The New Markets Tax Credits program was designed by Congress to stimulate private investment and economic growth in low income communities that lack access to capital needed to support and grow businesses, create jobs, and sustain healthy local economies.
    The program-supported investments in any one project are for seven years, during which time the economics of the investment are continuously monitored and subject to capital market rigors and discipline.
    In 2013, more than 6,000 guests stayed at Little Lyford and nearby Gorman Chairback Lodge, up from its 1,769 guests in 2004.
    AMC manages its land for a variety of uses, including conservation, recreation, ecological protection, and sustainable forestry. The organization has placed easements on the land to ensure it remains forever open to the public.
    “We welcome the public to explore the new recreational opportunities provided by our conserved land,” said AMC Senior Vice President Walter Graff. “We’re working with our partners in the local community to help attract new visitors to this magnificent part of Maine, and it’s very exciting to see the positive results, in terms of the growing awareness of the region as a premier destination for outdoor recreation and the positive impact on local economies.”
    Graff said AMC’s land is also a venue for outdoor education. AMC’s staff works with local school teachers and students to get youngsters out on the land to complement their classroom studies with hands-on learning in the outdoors. The organization also manages its land for sustainable forestry, providing forest products jobs and supplying wood to local mills.
    “Now that the program cycle is concluded we can safely say the Maine Woods Initiative proves the triple-bottom-line impact from the New Markets program by combining economics, jobs, and environmental sustainability,” said CEI Capital Management CEO Charlie Spies. “Projects like this multiply into even greater ripple effects. Ten years since our first New Markets investments we see the program maturing. Successes like this one are paving the way for the next generation of rural community development.”
    More information is available at www.outdoors.org.