Lacking volunteers and money, an Aroostook snowmobile club will disband

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 10, 2023

Nordic Lakers Snowmobile Club, founded in 1972, traditionally relied on volunteers and a limited supply of money to maintain its 16 miles of trails connecting New Sweden, Westmanland and Stockholm to Caribou’s 110-mile system. Soon the club will legally dissolve and several members will join Caribou Parks & Recreation’s slate of volunteer trail groomers. Half of the Nordic Lakers’ volunteers are over age 50, and many are over 60 or 70 years old. Within the decade, the club has gone from having 100 local volunteers to only 25. The problem of aging members and not enough young people stepping up to replace them is all too familiar to Al Swett, president of the Maine Snowmobile Association. “It’s our biggest problem.”