The High Peaks Alliance, a local nonprofit volunteer organization based in Madrid that has spent the last 13 years dedicated to keeping public access to the region, successfully submitted a request to the Franklin County Economic Development Council for a $64,000 TIF grant to support the trail maintenance projects of five clubs in the unorganized townships of the region, according to a news release from Brent West, alliance executive director.

The alliance had worked with the Roxbury’s Slippery Sliders Snowmobile and Roxbury ATV clubs, Phillips’ Northern Franklin Snowmobile Club and Strong’s Narrow Gauge Snowmobile Club and Sandy River Riders. Three bridges were built, two bridges were rebuilt, two important state trails were rerouted, and several environmental and land owner issues were resolved. All projects included many hours of volunteer labor as well as cash contributions from the clubs.

The alliance also successfully submitted a $17,750 grant to the council that involved the Center for Community GIS in Farmington transforming GIS data the clubs’ collected into a series of planning maps. The resulting maps, which include aerial photography, topography, town/township lines, land owner parcels, roads, trails and natural resources, will be the basis for trail relocation, continual maintenance and future club maps.

“The High Peaks Alliance projects have allowed us to work with other clubs to begin planning for uniform trail maps across multiple club’s trail systems. It would be awesome if the whole region had easy to read maps. Narrow Gauge Snowmobile Club started last winter by printing them poster size and mounting them at trail intersections.” said Dana Bowman of the Narrow Gauge Snowmobile Club in Strong, according to the release.

The mapping project was a joint venture of the alliance, Maine Conservation Corps AmeriCorps, Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, the Wilderness Society, Maine Outdoor Heritage Trust and the Jessie Cox Trust.

For information about the alliance and to become a member, visit highpeaksalliance.org.