Projects on tap this year for Moosehead Lake Visitors’ Center

Tim Obrey,
President
Natural Resource
Education Center
Special to Piscataquis Observer

    GREENVILLE — After a very successful Moosehead Lake Togue Derby, we are  ready to bust out of this winter and begin a full slate of projects  at The Natural Resource Education Center at Moosehead  (NREC).
    Last year, the Chamber of Commerce estimated around 6,000 people stopped at the Moosehead Lake Visitors Center that NREC constructed in 2009. That’s pretty impressive, but we hope to attract even more with some of the outstanding projects we have on tap for 2015/2016.

    As soon as the snow clears, we will break ground on our restoration of the Big Moose (Squaw) Mountain fire tower at our Visitors’ Center on Route 15. Many people have asked us to bring back that awesome view to the east of town from the rest area and we plan to do that by harvesting some trees behind the building after the tower is up. We will also build a wrap-around deck on our building so visitors can stop and enjoy a breathtaking view of our region.
    This spring AMC will be clearing the property at the old Medawisla sporting camps and they have graciously donated one of the cabins to NREC. This traditional sporting cabin will be a great addition to the NREC Visitors’ Center campus and we will use it as a warming hut for the very popular after school cross country skiing program on the NREC trails.
    But that is not all! This fall, NREC has organized a training session with the Maine Winter Sports Center and we plan to launch a youth biathlon program at the end of 2015. We hope to purchase new trail grooming equipment and set up a biathlon course.
    We have received a very gracious donation to purchase Daisy pellet guns that the students will use at the shooting stations. There has been a lot of interest in this sport in Maine recently and we think it is a great way to get kids outside during the winter months.
    We want to thank all the local support that helps make the skiing program successful. Erik Cochrane, Paul Ducey and Dawna Blackstone are outstanding!
    We have a number of other projects still in the early stages at NREC. For example a cooperative project with the Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry for new kiosks on the Visitors Center grounds that show area hiking trails and related information.
    This is in response to comments at this winter’s meeting about the Big Moose Public Lot. We hope to build an addition on the building that will provide a small conference room and contain literature and artwork related to Henry David Thoreau. We also plan to add taxidermy of local native species, including a lynx that should be arriving soon.
    We appreciate all the support we have received from the Moosehead Lake community over the years and as you can see,  You can follow the progress of all our projects on our website) or on the NREC Moosehead Facebook page.