AHS made an attempt many years ago to get more involved with the whites. Backpacker Magazine had a TV series about 15 years ago that went around the country and set up "staged" adventures with very slick production values and lots of advertising for various products imbedded in the content. They did a rather infamous trip to the northern whites where they had Reuben Rajala (formerly of AMC) to act as a local guide. In the commentary while the host and Reuben were hiking up Adams the host made comments on how well the AHS had built and maintained the trail network in the whites. They even showed a segment where AHS trail crews was doing major improvements to an RMC trail.
Prior to the filming RMC had asked that the show not be filmed in the area due to the overuse of the area and mention of the RMC or its huts were not included in the show, but to represent that AHS had anything significant to do with hiking trails in the whites was definitely an outright lie. The USFS was supporting the program as well as the AHS so I expect the producers could care less about the truth as long as it sold ads.
My observation of AHS was that it is primarily a national organization that is very good at harvesting dollars from corporate clients. Sort of corporate greenwashing and after taking a nice cut for management, they then redistribute the dollars to projects that reinforce their rep with the corporations they target. They seem to have been more active nationally previously. I do not think local organizations dare complain as a little bit of corporate money is better than none
