West Branch Project gets $1M

The giant West Branch Project has secured $1 million in state funds.

The Land for Maine’s Future Board gave final approval to the controversial request Tuesday, after nearly three years of discussion, LMF staff member Tim Glidden said after the meeting.

The West Branch Project would place 282,000 acres of privately held forest west of Baxter State Park under a working forest conservation easement, to be held by the Forest Society of Maine, a private nonprofit created to hold easements purchased from logging companies.

The project also includes the purchase of nearly 47,000 acres by the state Department of Conservation.

The $1 million in LMF funds will be used only for the state purchase, which includes 810 acres around the shores of Canada Falls Lake and the South Branch of the Penobscot River, 3,895 acres around the St. John ponds, 40,502 acres around Seboomook Lake, 1,625 acres around Baker Lake and 29 acres including historic Pittston Farm, near the junction of the East and West [editor’s correction: North and South] branches of the Penobscot, Glidden said.

An assessment released Tuesday puts the value of the purchased properties’ at $20 million. The rest of the money will come from federal funds.

Since it was proposed, the project has drawn fire from RESTORE: The North Woods, a group devoted to establishing a national park in northern Maine.

Jym St. Pierre, the group’s executive director, has criticized the deal because of the lack of public involvement in the planning. St. Pierre attended Tuesday’s meeting to say he was pleased with the state’s purchase of land for conservation, but concerns about the deal still remain.

For example, the investors in the West Branch landowner, Merriweather LLC, remain secret. And the easement documents were unavailable to the public until last year, after RESTORE filed a Freedom of Access request.

“When transferring a million dollars of scarce Maine taxpayer funds … should not the public have a right to know who is on the receiving end? Are we dealing with a legitimate entity and what are their plans for these lands once they have the money in hand?” St. Pierre wrote in a letter to the board.

As in the past, St. Pierre was permitted to address the board, but little discussion of his concerns followed, Glidden said.

Board members did debate whether funding West Branch was appropriate, however, based on language in the LMF statute barring the board from buying commercial forestland.

Board member Marcia McKeague of Medway voted against the project because she fears taking timberland out of production in the large parcel near Seboomook Lake violates LMF’s mission, she said Wednesday. If too much LMF money is used buying up forestland and taking it out of production, it will hurt the state’s economy, she said.

The funding passed by a vote of 9-1, with one board member absent, Glidden said.

The Land for Maine’s Future Board also approved about $400,000 for new local land conservation projects at its Tuesday meeting.

About 13 acres on Indian Point in Ellsworth will be purchased by the Frenchman Bay Conservancy with a $200,000 contribution from LMF.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will acquire 9.5 acres surrounding Tibbetts Pond in Concord Township, located just west of Bingham. LMF will contribute $20,000. The land will be used to provide access to the pond for fishing. DIF&W intends to set aside the 5 acre pond just for use by kids under age 16.

The town of Swan’s Island will purchase about 10 acres to construct a public water-access point at Mill Pond Park. LMF is contributing $133,333 for the project.

The Department of Conservation will purchase an easement on just under an acre of land on Sheepscot Pond in Palermo to provide the public with the use of an existing water-access site. The project will receive $46,900 from LMF.