Wednesday,
March 21, 2001
By DIETER BRADBURY, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Some of the most scenic and productive timberlands in northern and western Maine
will be protected forever under a $28 million land conservation deal signed
Tuesday.
The agreement between the Pingree family and the New England Forestry Foundation
ranks as the largest private forest land conservation project in U.S. history.
It follows an intensive, two-year fund-raising campaign supported by
million-dollar grants from major foundations, as well as pennies scavenged by
Maine schoolchildren.
Under the agreement, development will be prohibited on 2,000 miles of lakes and
rivers, several mountains and other scenic areas. The deal includes such
recreational gems as the upper St. John, Machias and Allagash rivers, as well as
part of the Rangeley Lakes region.
At 762,192 acres, or 1,191 square miles, the area covered by the agreement is
larger than the state of Rhode Island and about 3 1/2 times the size of Baxter
State Park.
For the Pingree family, which has owned the lands for 160 years, the agreement
lowers taxes, removes the development threat and makes growing timber more
profitable.
For the public, the deal means that some of Maine's most beautiful and unspoiled
forest lands will remain open forever for fishing, hunting, hiking and wildlife
habitat.
"Today we make history with a conservation easement of unprecedented scale
and magnitude," said Gov. Angus King at a State House news conference to
announce the agreement.
"The protection of over three-quarters of a million acres shows that with
the right partners, landscape-scale projects are dreams that can come
true," he said.
The Pingree family reached an agreement to sell a conservation easement on its
lands to the forestry foundation in 1999. For about $37 an acre, the foundation
made sure no one will develop the forest into lots for camps, homes, businesses
or other activities.
The Pingrees, who have a reputation for practicing responsible forestry, still
hold title to the lands and will be able to continue using them to grow and
harvest trees. But neither they nor any future owners will ever be able to
convert the land to other uses, such as vacation homes or housing subdivisions.
The easement protects a staggering array of resources. They include portions of
the Cupsuptic, Black, Little Black, St. John, Machias and Aroostook rivers. All
are known for their clean waters, high-quality canoeing and top-notch fisheries.
The deal also covers such lakes as Upper Richardson, Kennebago, Munsungan, Loon,
Caucomgomoc, Eagle, Chamberlain, Allagash, Mooseleuk and Churchill. Their
shorelines are largely undeveloped and sprinkled with backwoods campsites.
The protected forests contain a number of bald eagle nests, 24,800 acres of
managed deer yards, 72,000 acres of wetlands and at least 67 rare and endangered
plant sites.
"The assemblage of natural resources is beyond compare," said
Montgomery Lovejoy, president of the forestry foundation, "which is why the
response to this effort from individuals, foundations, corporations and
government has been so outstanding."
The conservation deal was expanded with the support of the Maine Chapter of the
Nature Conservancy, which contributed money and land from its acquisition of
182,000 acres in the St. John River Valley and the Big Reed Pond area in 1998.
Founded in 1944 to manage and protect New England's working forests, the New
England Forestry Foundation owns and manages 21,000 acres in 120 demonstration
forests. It holds more than 50 easements.
The agreement with Pingree, called the Pingree Forest Partnership, was its most
ambitious capital campaign ever, with the goal of raising $28 million in less
than two years.
Major charitable foundations donated much of the money. The contributions
included grants of $1 million or more from the Kresge Foundation, the Libra
Foundation, the John Merck Fund, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the
North American Wetlands Conservation Fund, the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation and
one anonymous donor.
But the campaign also attracted smaller donations from more than a thousand
individuals, such as students at the Breakwater School in Portland who
contributed $831.42 in a penny drive.
In addition, the campaign collected $500,000 from the owners of a barge that ran
aground off Rhode Island in the winter of 1996, spilling 828,000 gallons of home
heating oil into the ocean.
The North Cape spill killed hundreds of birds, including a number of wintering
loons. To compensate for the loss of waterfowl, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service allocated money from the oil spill restoration fund to the Pingree
easement.
The donation compensates for the damage to the loon population because it
protects valuable loon nesting habitat on a number of remote Maine lakes.
The Pingree easement easily outranks any previous private land conservation
easement in the United States. Previously, the largest known easement was
140,000 acres on a project in Montana.
A broad coalition of conservation, sporting and business groups supported the
Pingree project. Its members included Maine Audubon Society, the Sportsman's
Alliance of Maine, the Maine Forest Products Council and the Natural Resources
Council of Maine.
The broad-based support reflected shared concerns about the future of the
northern forest at a time when many large timberland holdings have changed
hands. The region is also under development pressure from an increasingly
affluent population that is seeking vacation home sites.
Keith Ross, who oversaw the Pingree project as the forestry foundation's
director of land protection, said the agreement signed Tuesday will help protect
north woods traditions.
"This is a banner day for the northern forests," he said. "With
this easement, future generations can be assured they will have diverse,
sustainably managed forest lands to enjoy forever."