Maine’s Lower Penobscot Forest Project Awarded $3.25 Million in Forest Legacy Funds
BANGOR, MAINE — December 20, 2007 — Federal funding for the Lower Penobscot Forest Project was announced today by Maine’s Congressional delegation, Maine Department of Conservation, The Nature Conservancy and The Forest Society of Maine. The project received $3.25 million in Forest Legacy funding in the FY08 federal budget—the largest award this project has ever received.
“The Lower Penobscot Forest is in a vital area to preserve Maine’s tradition of sustainable working forests and is an extraordinary resource for the communities of central Maine,” said Senator Olympia Snowe. "Located only a short drive from the Bangor and other towns in the region, these forests present great outdoor recreational opportunities and environmental education opportunities for the children of the area.”
This Forest Legacy award will be applied to a working forest easement on 24,500 acres near Great Pond, part of an effort to secure the protection of 42,000 acres within a forested area that the U.S. Forest Service’s identified as the most threatened watershed in the nation. The Maine Department of Conservation, The Nature Conservancy and the Forest Society of Maine are working together to protect these lands within central Maine’s largest unfragmented forest block. According to the partners, the Great Pond easement is possible only because of the interest and cooperation of the landowner, GMO Renewable
Resources.
“I am pleased that this budget deal includes substantial support for the Lower Penobscot Forest project," said Senator Susan Collins. "This significant commitment acknowledges the importance of protecting tens of thousands of acres of unspoiled land, including the largest unfragmented forests in Central Maine, for generations of Maine people to enjoy.”
The Lower Penobscot Forest was the number three ranked Forest Legacy project in the nation this year. Previously, the project area received $2.2 million in Forest Legacy funding in FY07 and will receive a total of $1.4 million in Land for Maine’s Future Program funding.
“The Lower Penobscot Forest Project will benefit the communities in the Greater Bangor area by preserving important working forests and wetlands for the continued enjoyment and use by residents and visitors,” said Congressman Mike Michaud. “This funding will allow us protect these important lands.”
According to the U.S. Forest Service, no private forest land in the nation is more threatened by home development than the Lower Penobscot River watershed.
"For several years now, I have successfully led the effort in the House to advocate for additional funding for the Forest Legacy program,” added Congressman Tom Allen. “This year, I was very pleased that we were able to designate these funds for the Lower Penobscot project. This innovative conservation initiative will preserve this truly remarkable area for future generations and serve as a model for Forest Legacy projects nationwide."
The Nature Conservancy, which brokered the easement, also purchased a conservation easement last July on an adjacent 12,700 acres which buffers the vital wetlands at Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and the State's Bradley Unit. Forest Society of Maine is taking the lead in conserving an additional 4,800 acres near Amherst.
“Not only are the rolling hills of the Lower Penobscot Forest an important economic and recreational resource for communities,” said Michael Tetreault, director of The Nature Conservancy in Maine, “but they also sustain a wide diversity of ecological resources. The land includes forested wetlands, bogs, old-growth spruce-fir forests and spruce flats, which are becoming rare in the Northeast, and the second largest red pine woodland in Maine.”
This project arrests division of lands along the edge of Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge to the north and Route 9 to the south. The Forest Legacy funding provided by Congress this year will allow a key component of the project to move forward—the purchase of a working forest easement on 24,500 acres near Great Pond by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.
“The project conserves the working forest lands that define the region,” said Alan Hutchinson of the Forest Society of Maine. “It will help us connect the wetlands and woods of Central Maine and head off a wedge of subdivisions threatening to separate protected lands.”
Each year, land projects from all over the country compete to be selected for Forest Legacy funding. Governor Baldacci and the Maine Department of Conservation recommended the Lower Penobscot Forest project as Maine’s top Forest Legacy Program priority in 2008, and the project was strongly supported by U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Congressmen Michael Michaud and Tom Allen.
“Maine people have consistently supported investments in Maine’s special places," said Commissioner Patrick McGowan, “The Lower Penobscot lands in the Bangor area offer wonderful fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation opportunities. I want to join our partners in this project in thanking Maine’s Congressional delegation for their support of this project in Washington.
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.
Forest Society of Maine, a statewide land trust based in Bangor, was established in 1984 to work with private landowners. FSM’s mission is to conserve the values of Maine’s forestlands by maintaining traditional forest uses, sustaining their economic contributions, and preserving their ecological and recreational values. www.fsmaine.org
The Maine Department of Conservation is a natural resource agency whose bureaus oversee the management, development and protection of some of Maine's most special places: Seventeen million acres of forestland, 10.4 million acres of unorganized territory, 47 parks and historic sites and more than 480,000 acres of public reserved land.
The USDA Forest Legacy Program (FLP), authorized by Congress in 1990 to keep intact natural and recreational resources of the nation's dwindling forests,supports state efforts to protect environmentally sensitive forest lands It provides federal money to states to protect threatened working forests and woodlands either through public purchase or conservation easements. To date, the program has protected over 1 million acres of forest lands across the country, including over 300,000 acres in Maine For more information, visit www.fs.fed.us/spf/coop/programs/loa/aboutflp.shtml.
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