A huge part of forested Maine yesterday was protected from development in what is the largest conservation easement in the nation. The deal, along other large-scale easements or conservation purchases, ensures Maine will be a heavily forested state for decades to come and shows the kind of support – political and financial – exists for these projects.

Before this project, the largest easement in the nation was 140,000 acres in Montana. This deal quintuples that record. The agreement between the Pingree family and the New England Forestry Foundation sets aside from development 762,000 acres in exchange for $28 million. The money, except for a small federal grant, comes from private donations, including a significant gift from Maine’s Libra Foundation. The presentation yesterday announcing the conclusion of the fund raising represented an important win for the environment in Maine and nationally.

The $28 million is spent well. Not only are substantial pieces of land being subdivided for development in Maine, but this land in the northwestern portion of the state has been particularly well-managed by Seven Islands and has earned approval as “Green” certified by two independent certifiers, the first forestland to pass such a test. It is no wonder that the Pingree Forest Partnership Project attracted immediate and generous support.

Not only did the national media pay attention to the project when it was announced in 1999, major donors did too. And it wasn’t just the big environmental grant-writers, although the John Merck Fund and the Merck Family Fund, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Kresge Foundation and two dozen others gave exuberantly. Maine groups like the Maine AFL-CIO, Maine Professional Guides, Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and the Maine Audubon Society, plus camping, snowmobile, fishing and other outdoor associations came out in support of the project. If nothing else, the easement represents the preservation of a way of life – a working forest and a recreational one, too.

This record easement and the neighboring Nature Conservancy purchase of 185,000 last year, also achieved through private fund-raising, should tell Maine something about the intense interest in its woods and the willingness of people to spend considerably on seeing it continue as woods. In the case of the Pingree Partnership, that interest resulted in a large and permanent success for Maine.