MILLINOCKET – The Wilderness Society, a national conservation organization, is channeling $25,000 into a feasibility study for an ecology park proposed for the area.

In 2002, Harpswell-based Peregrine Technologies Inc. proposed a park for the town with a wood-fired biomass plant at its core to provide heat and electricity to the park’s commercial tenants at below-market energy costs. The park would be home to companies with intensive energy needs, such as commercial greenhouses and wood-processing and hardwood manufacturing facilities, according to Jerry Tudan, owner of Peregrine Technologies.

The Wilderness Society recently received approval for grant funding to conduct a feasibility study for the project, along with other projects around the state. The Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council, or MAGIC, was a co-applicant on the grant, among other groups. MAGIC will organize the study, according to MAGIC Executive Director Bruce McLean.

The “ecopark” concept is particularly attractive to the Wilderness Society because it promotes the sustainable use of wood fiber resources, according to Spencer Phillips, a Vermont-based resource economist for the organization. While the society is dedicated to conservation, it also has a vested interest in promoting the best possible management of the working landscape, or land that isn’t wilderness, Phillips said.

“The park represents a potentially long-term use of forest resources,” Phillips said Friday in a phone interview. “The energy resource doesn’t depend on fossil fuels or hydro; it’s using a resource that’s right there.”

By offering low-cost energy, an ecopark can improve the economic performance of its participants, which will help to strengthen the local economy, Tudan said.

“The whole beauty of this is that we’re trying to get a handle on energy in a way that’s kind and gentle to the environment,” Tudan said Sunday.

The Wilderness Society received grant funding specifically for the feasibility study from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust and the Sarah K. de Coizart Article TENTH Perpetual Charitable Trust, both of which issue grants for environment and conservation projects, among other issues.

The funding is part of a package of Maine projects being supported by the two trusts, Phillips said. The package includes funding for a University of Maine study on economic development in the Hundred Mile Wilderness area, as well as funding for the Maine Highlands Corp. to help implement recreation and tourism promotion and packaging, Phillips said.

The ecopark study likely will help determine aspects of the potential project, including the size and location of the park, as well as the biomass plant, and how the park would utilize available fiber resources, Phillips said. Parties involved in the project this week will start to identify members for a committee to help focus the study, McLean said Sunday.