SKOWHEGAN – A local conservation group is calling on the state to protect 10,000 acres near Bald Mountain Pond and is putting pressure on the landowner to negotiate a sale or conservation easement.

The Friends of Bald Mountain Pond sent a petition with 133 signatures to Gov. Angus King earlier this year asking for state acquisition of the land around Bald Mountain Pond, a lake whose northern edge is traversed by the Appalachian Trail.

Iver Lofving, a member of the conservation group, said the land on the western, eastern and southern sides of the lake were on the state parks department’s wish list last year, when the state was negotiating easements around Moosehead Lake.

The pond, located in Bald Mountain Township, northeast of Bingham, is a favorite of fishermen, kayakers and canoeists. The National Park Service and the state Bureau of Parks and Lands owns some of the area on the pond’s northern shore.

“It’s a unique type of place. A place that feels much more remote than it really is,” Lofving said. “It is the place to take people to experience whatever it is we think of as the real Maine.”

But Plum Creek Timber Co.’s termination of talks made the group worry that the company may be considering developing the area around the 1,152-acre pond or selling to private buyers.

The Friends of Bald Mountain Pond point to Plum Creek’s sale of 7,500 acres around Spencer Lake in northern Somerset County to cable TV mogul John Malone as a precedent. The sale gave Malone, who already owned 8,300 acres around the lake, virtually the entire shoreline.

Jim Lehner, general manager of Plum Creek’s northeast regional office in Fairfield, said the company has reassessed its policy of selling large tracts and indicated a conservation easement might be a possibility

“I doubt we would consider any further sales,” Lehner said. “We may take a look at other possibilities. Large-scale sales of forestlands I won’t say are out of the realm of possibility, but they’re down on the list somewhat.”