SABATTUS — For some, it was the opportunity to put their best foot forward despite what felt like immense odds. For other, it was the first time they laid eyes on the path of progress left in the wake of harvesting timber from more than 80 acres of once-pristine forest.

And for many, like 13-year-old Coyote Freeman, there was no time for disappointment in the face of downed tree limbs and large, deep ruts that ran through the heart of his troop’s site at Camp Gustin.

“It looks like they’ve been using that road to get all the trees out,” Freeman said as he walked among tree stumps littered with fallen branches and brush. “They’re driving through the campsites and just wrecking them.”

Freeman, a member of Boy Scout Troop 580 out of Rumford, was one of dozens of Scouts who showed up in force with their parents, siblings, Scout leaders and friends to help with a cleanup effort Sunday aimed at raising awareness about the camp’s future.

Surrounded by deep muddy ruts where the road to their campsites once traveled, Freeman and others called on members of the the organization that oversees Scouting in southern Maine not to sell the beloved Sabattus Boy Scout Camp at the heart of a yearlong controversy.

“We’ve got a sign on it to make sure it doesn’t get harvested,” Ed Desgrosseilliers, Pine Tree Council Abnaki District chairman, told Sunday’s crowd. “It may all be for naught, but the idea here is to make some lemonade out of lemons. And we’ve got a lot of lemons here, so we should be able to make lots of lemonade.”

Since late last month, a logging company has been harvesting wood on 85 of the camp’s 100 acres. Opponents of selling the camp contend that the recent wood harvesting is nothing more than the overseeing body, the Pine Tree Council, stripping the camp of its natural resources before marketing it as land cleared for housing development.

The assertion was disputed by the council’s executive director last month, who said that the fate of the camp is expected to be the subject of this month’s board meeting of the Pine Tree Council.

While the harvest is expected to yield roughly $80,000 for the cash-strapped council — which is nearly $1 million in debt — it has left hundreds of local Scouts, volunteers and families scratching their heads.

Anthony Rogers, the council’s executive director, told the Sun Journal in late October that neither the timber cutting nor the possible sale of the camp is aimed at paying down the council’s debt.

But not all Scouting volunteers agree.

“It just begs the question of cause and effect,” said Allen Ward, Scoutmaster for Troop 109 out of Lisbon Falls. ” If it (the wood harvest) isn’t related to a sale, then why couldn’t they wait 60 days until the ground was frozen?”

Ward said that local Scouts knew about the timber harvest because hundreds of trees were marked earlier this year in February. Walking around the camp, he expressed disappointment and concern over the way that the logging machines marched through the camp downing everything in their paths — whether the trees were marked or not.

“They really gouged up some trees as they went by,” said Bob Reed, assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 007 out of Lewiston. “Those trees will eventually die.”

Reed said that the operation also left a lot of branches from felled trees in the upper branches of nearby trees. He said that the tree branches present a hazard for Scouts who will not be able to set up camps underneath them for fear that they might fall.

A year ago, a council subcommittee floated the idea of selling the expansive, undeveloped land fronting Loon Pond. The idea was not only met by a chilly reception from Scouting folks in the Lewiston area, but rallied members of the Gustin family, who have fought since then to protect the land donated by the late Charles Gustin in 1948.

“We’ve always been a close family. We keep sticking together and fighting these battles,” said Laurel Gustin-Depuy, 48, granddaughter of Charles Gustin. “I want my grandfather’s legacy to live on. He wanted this land to be here for the Boy Scouts to have, and we’re going to do everything possible to make that happen.”

Members of the Gustin family were at the camp Sunday to not only help with the cleanup effort but also to voice their support for saving the camp.

Ultimately, the decision whether or not to sell the camp property rests in the hands of the 38-member council board, which will meet later this month.

Mike Gustin, the 49-year-old grandson of Charles Gustin, confirmed that the deed to the council for the camp property includes language that could bar its sale. He said his father and uncle, sons of Charles Gustin, sent a certified letter to the council pointing this out, but never received a response.

He said that the family all plan to attend the Nov. 18 meeting where the council will be asked to vote on whether or not to sell his grandfather’s legacy. Gustin indicated that the family may consider legal action.

“We’re hoping at that meeting that the vote won’t pass,” Mike Gustin said. “If they do decide to sell, then we’ll have to regroup at that meeting and decide how far we want to go with this.”