John Sowles flies a Cessna 170, a Champ, and a TaylorCraft. His career was in testing and ensuring water quality in the United States and abroad. He’s a former trustee for The Nature Conservancy and continues to do volunteer work for them. John retired from his scientific profession, but still consults in the Dominican Republic and Kenya.
WORTH THE READ: JOHN SOWLES GUEST EDITORIAL
Our many RAF supporters have such vast and varied experience, and we’re capturing some of their words of wisdom to share with you. This month’s guest editorial is by John Sowles, a longtime pilot and RAF Supporter from Maine.
Bridging the Conservation Divide :
I’m neither the owner or CEO of a major aviation manufacturer nor a 10,000 hour bush pilot. But I do want to share my experience assisting the RAF in opening up a remote airstrip in the North Maine woods. Hopefully, it will help others as we try to save access to a dwindling number of airstrips.
The RAF is remarkable in many ways; it was born of an audacious idea by a bunch of bold risk takers over a coast-to-coast geography, negotiating with government bureaucracies, private property owners and environmental/conservation organizations. Objectively, I’d say they were a bit short of furnishings “upstairs”. But look at what they have accomplished!
My introduction to the RAF began soon after its founding at a dinner with a group of local pilot friends – Steve Williams, Lisa Reese, and Maine Liaison Andy Rowe – where the McKennas explained their vision and goals. At that point in my life, most of my flying had been on floats collecting samples for the State from waterbodies that were difficult to access by truck. I really enjoyed and appreciated getting away to remote areas and relying on nobody but myself. I had never given it a thought that land-based airstrips could provide a similar sense of independence, self-reliance, and peacefulness as the ponds, lakes and rivers I visited. The possibility of a land-based experience intrigued me and I became involved.
Right off the bat, I was afforded a front row seat on a long journey with RAF as we worked to reopen an abandoned airstrip in northern Maine. From the mid ‘60s and into the 80s, Maine’s north woods was hit with a spruce budworm infestation that destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars of wood having widespread negative impact on the economy of Maine. To combat the budworm, International Paper and the Maine Forest Service built a 3,200-ft paved airstrip to handle converted WWII bomber spray planes.
After the budworm infestation passed, Red Pine Airfield was abandoned. Its location adjacent to the St. John River made for a popular camping spot for canoeists and hunters. In 1998, as part of a large land conservation deal, ownership of Red Pine passed to The Nature Conservancy. For liability reasons, the strip was X’ed out. Camping and land-based vehicle access remained.
At that fateful dinner, it leaked out that I happened to be a Trustee of the TNC in Maine. “Could I help?” Soon I found myself in an awkward position between two organizations that on first glance might appear in conflict. At the time, conservation organizations were not especially known for opening access, much less motorized access. But Red Pine had been used for recreation for decades by locals.
When TNC ‘X’ed it out, it left a bitter taste with locals at a time when organizations like TNC were trying to repair community relations. Upon closer look, the RAF and TNC hold a lot in common. Both believe in supporting communities while achieving their mission. In TNC’s case, much of their land is open to commercial harvest, hunting and fishing, thereby supporting local economies. In RAF’s case, RAF provides stewardship value to the property owner. In this way we indirectly serve the non-aviation communities as well. Both organizations are respectful. Both seek ways to collaborate. Both are committed to conserving natural area experience. And both appreciate local community values.
Because TNC looked at the airfield as a potential attractive nuisance and liability, RAF made the case that we could manage that risk while benefiting a wide constituency. And through gentle conversation, I think we changed the balance sheet from negative perceptions of aviation to positive. Helpful in our conversations were the RAF Code of Ethics, data showing the comparable environmental impacts of aircraft vs land-vehicles, enabling TNC staff to access their property more frequently, ensuring a landing area for emergency evacuations in a remote area of the state, as well as for pilots transiting a large tract of unoccupied forest. We also were willing to concede about 700 feet by shortening the runway so that it would not infringe on the river protection corridor.
I’ve always believed that people can’t appreciate places if they are locked out. By being present and maintaining a clean and safe area, Red Pine can continue as a critical low impact asset for pilots and many other recreationalists. I want to acknowledge Andy Rowe, Steve Mason and Bill Sylvester as partners in this journey and Steve Williams and Lisa Reese for that dinner so many years ago. They, along with TNC staff, were a pleasure to work with.
My “take aways” are three:
- What the RAF does and how it does it is its secret to success. It requires a clear vision that provides benefits beyond RAF directly.
- The RAF does it by being supportive and respectful rather than confrontational; listening to and addressing landowner concerns and supplying facts and rational positions, and
- Patience, LOADS of patience and perseverance. Finally, after over 12 years of work, Red Pine reopened in 2021.
In closing, I believe that for all you out there who think you can’t make a difference, think again. We all have something to offer.
Submitted January 23, 2024.
Posted in Guest Editorial, News
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At about this time, every year, we have this conversation at the RAF about what our year end letter (code for asking for your financial support) should say to you, and about the RAF and the accomplishments of the past year.
A Christmas gift of flight lessons from his parents started Scott Anttila’s aviation journey in 1985. “I learned at Johnson Field, a small grass strip tucked into the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and that early exposure to simple backcountry flying stuck with me,” Scott says. Growing up in the U.P., he spent a lot of time outdoors and found that flying was another way to get to the places he liked to explore—especially the ones most people never saw. As he earned more ratings and eventually moved to the Detroit area for work, Scott realized he needed a way to stay connected to northern Michigan. He bought an airplane and used it to get back to the smaller airstrips and lake country he enjoyed. Along the way, he also flew gliders out of Frankfort, soaring along the Sleeping Bear Dunes and towing sailplanes over the Great Lakes. “Those flights gave me a different appreciation for the landscape and made me even more interested in the small, out-of-the-way airports scattered around the state,” he says. Visiting those kinds of places, Scott first came across the Recreational Aviation Foundation. He started using RAF-supported airstrips both inside and outside Michigan. “I noticed how well-kept they were and how much access they opened up,” he says, adding, ”Over the years, I’ve watched a number of grass strips close, which made the RAF’s mission feel especially important to me. Maintaining these airstrips keeps aviation connected to the outdoors and makes it possible for more people to reach the quiet, remote areas that inspired me to fly in the first place.” Scott joins the other two RAF Michigan Liaisons, General Grant and Tanmoy Ganguly. He can be reached at santtila@theraf.org . Submitted December 11, 2025.
“The word that comes to mind when I think of our second Walker Ridge work party is magical,” RAF California Liaison Doug Lumgair said, "even though it started off again with a truck stuck in the mud.” Volunteers began arriving Friday afternoon in a tailwheel Rans, a Super Cub, and Lumgair in his Cessna 170. A pickup with a big dump trailer brought the Polaris Ranger, and more pickups arrived. The runway surface posed major problems with boulders protruding from the surface. Everyone was eager to get started with pry bars and remove them. Once they fired up the generators to power the hammer drills, they discovered that this was the best method for attacking the rocks below the surface and breaking them up into pieces that they loaded into the trailer for removal. “At times, it felt like we had taken on an impossible task. But with steady work and persistence, by afternoon, we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Lumgair said. In the Friday evening fire circle, they made new friends while sitting around a propane fire pit that had been cleverly transformed into a radiant heater by placing a washing-machine drum over it. Walker Ridge lies in a dark-sky area. Before the full supermoon rose, Lumgair said they could see the Milky Way with the naked eye. The campsite at the south end of Walker Ridge has a gorgeous view of the valley, and the view became “even more breathtaking as Central Valley tule fog filled the valley and the supermoon lit the fog, creating a shimmering white lake.” Lumgair said. Saturday morning, two crews quickly organized with hammer drills, and others began cutting brush along the runway edges. Volunteers had already removed what Lumgair called an incredible amount of brush during their first work party, but Saturday, they hauled out twelve more trailer loads. Late on Saturday, they had enough time to work on the rock outcroppings in the south turnaround area as well. "It was amazing that we were able to cut and haul so much brush and break down rocks and fill the resulting holes—all in one steady, hard-working day. Thank you very much to everyone for supporting the RAF in so many ways,” he said. Some stayed Saturday night to enjoy another beautiful evening. Work remains, and Lumgair is planning more work parties in the coming year to complete further improvements, some of which will require additional approval from the BLM. “Please let me know if you get up there this winter. I’d love to hear your thoughts and see any photos of your experience, Lumgair added. Doug Lumgair can be reached at dlumgair@theraf.org . Submitted December 11, 2025.
Chris at TacAero in Fredericksburg, Texas to fly what he calls, "the mighty XCub. It's an awesome airplane,” he added.
