Easement protects 4,200 acres near state park in Weld
By ALAN CROWELL, Morning Sentinel Staff Writer

July 1, 2003

AUGUSTA — The Maine Department of Conservation announced Monday that it had acquired a conservation easement over nearly 4,200 acres of land next to Mt. Blue State Park in Weld.

The easement, which cost $480,000, prohibits development of the land but allows both public access and sustainable forestry harvesting.

The acquisition is part of an effort by the Department of Conservation, the nonprofit Trust for Public Land and the Tumbledown Conservation Alliance to conserve roughly 30,000 acres around the park.

Conservationists say that as more and more of Maine goes up for sale, deals like the one announced Monday ensure that land identified as important as habitat as well as for its scenic properties remains open to the public.

Erin Rowland, public affairs director of The Trust for Public Land, said her organization, the Department of Conservation and the Tumbledown Conservation Alliance, is trying to create a corridor of protected lands around Mount Blue State Park.

Monday's announcement signals the group is two-thirds of the way toward its goal, with 20,000 acres protected from ever encroaching development.

About ten percent of Maine has traded hands in the past ten years, said Rowland, a situation that threatens the state's tradition of public access to large tracts of privately owned land.

Rowland said the idea is to preserve a corridor of land that is visible from Mount Blue State Park's vistas.

That corridor is very attractive to second-home buyers from the Boston and New York areas.

The idea is to ensure that "when a hiker gets up to the summit of Mt. Blue, they are not looking down at condos or neon signs or a big clear cut. They are looking down on forest land," she said.

The 4,200 acres is divided into three parcels, two of which have been sold to Hancock Land Co., a Maine-based timber company that has agreed to manage the land using sustainable forestry techniques. Rowland said her group is looking for a buyer for the third parcel.

She said Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins, both R-Maine, have been instrumental in raising federal funds for the effort.

She said her group is now seeking $3 million in federal funding for the next phase of the project.

Those funds were not included in a recent budget put forward by the U.S. House of Representatives but Rowland said Snowe and Collins are working to ensure the money is included in the Senate's proposed budget.

Alan Crowell 207-474-9534, Ext. 342

acrowell@centralmaine.com