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A federal agency plans to seek conservation easements or purchases to protect from development a chunk of land in the North Woods twice the size of Baxter State Park and a smaller group of parcels in and around Mount Blue State Park.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service said Thursday that it would ask Congress to approve more than $12.5 million to purchase easements or deeds to 515,500 acres north of Moosehead Lake under the Phase II portion of the West Branch Project.
State and private donors would have to chip in an additional $4 million to make the project fly.
“It’s really good news,” said Leslie Hudson of the Forest Society of Maine. “Obviously, Congress needs to act – but having that in the budget [is a positive step].”
Phase I of the project is close to completion. It calls for the state to purchase 12 miles of undeveloped shorefront on the northeast side of Moosehead Lake and 4,473 acres around Big Spencer Mountain. The rest of the land, 67,520 acres, will be protected by a conservation easement. That project was slated to cost about $8 million.
The more expensive Phase II project would add land to the north: from Quebec on the west, to Chesuncook Lake on the east and north to Baker and Caucomgomoc lakes. The area, which includes the headwaters for the Penobscot and St. John rivers, would remain open for recreational use. Although development would be prevented, logging would not.
Competently managed, “sustainable forestry is a good neighbor,” said Bruce Kidman, a spokesman for The Nature Conservancy.
While fund raising for the state and private portion of Phase I is well under way, Phase II has yet to begin.
“It’s a daunting task,” said Ralph Knoll, director of planning and land acquisition for the Bureau of Parks and Lands. “We’re optimistic and we think we’re going to succeed, but we have a lot of work ahead.”
John Ripley, spokesman for Gov. Angus King, said the USDA’s move to Phase II meant that the federal portion of the project’s money was closer to reality. He said the governor strongly supported the whole West Branch Project because it would give continued recreational access to a huge chunk of Maine.
Critics have said that the West Branch Project could be a first step toward another national park or federal control of Maine land. King has responded that there are no federal strings attached to the program.
Observers said that the Phase II project is much easier to pursue than some others because the land is in only two hands – Yankee Forest, LLC, and Great Northwoods, LLC. Wagner Forest Management manages the parcels of both companies and has been negotiating the deal.
In the second deal in Maine, for acreage in and around the Mount Blue State Park in Weld, the picture is much more complicated. Knoll said a handful of landowners own land that is targeted for conservation.
Anyone who has climbed Tumbledown Mountain, part of the park, knows that it has unique features such as an alpine lake and krummholz, the characteristic stunted vegetation.
What many don’t realize is that the park’s trails cross land that is in private hands with the informal approval of existing landowners.
“A lot of people are under the assumption the area is under protection and is owned by the state and that’s not actually the case,” said Bruce Farnham, Mount Blue State Park manager. Some of the unprotected areas are in the alpine region, he said.
Farnham said concerns over the park’s future were raised in recent years when an unusually large number of parcels in the Webb Lake area were put up for sale.
The plan is to get easements or deeds for the lands that are generally between and adjacent to the two main sections of the park, Farnham said. Easements provide a means to protect the land and allow a variety of recreational uses such as cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and hiking, he said.
While Phase II remains a ways off, it would target more than 30,000 additional acres, Farnham said.
USDA representatives did not return a call for comment.
In all, the USDA said it was recommending expenditure of $60 million in projects to protect nearly 750,000 acres across the county. The program is a part of the Clinton-Gore administration’s Land’s Legacy Initiative.
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