AUGUSTA – Proponents of a Land for Maine’s Future conservation grant program said Thursday that the governor’s $50 million bond proposal is not enough to preserve farmland and slow sprawling development.

In fact, even the $75 million bond co-sponsored by more than 80 legislators would be conservative, said Bruce Kidman, spokesman for the Maine chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

“If we were to come forward and tell you what we really expect the need to be in the next five years, I’d knock you backwards in your chairs,” Kidman told members of the Legislature’s Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation Committee.

However, a $75 million bond could revive the Land for Maine’s Future Program for a few more years – years that are seen as crucial for the future of Maine’s landscape, said representatives of the more than 270 groups that have joined a coalition to support an LMF bond.

In the past five years, 6.8 million acres of forestland have changed hands in Maine. Portland is now the 9th fastest-growing urban area in the country. And real estate prices statewide are increasing by double-digit margins, supporters of LMF said.

If Maine doesn’t act soon to conserve its landscape, it may be too late – prices are rising and the state is getting priced out, said George LaPointe, Marine Resources Commissioner and chairman of the Land for Maine’s Future board.

“This sprawl has affected our forests, our farms and our coasts,” LaPointe said.

Land for Maine’s Future addresses these concerns by providing grants for communities and land trusts to purchase preserves and conservation easements, requiring that all projects also receive federal grants or private fund-raising.

Since its inception in 1986, LMF has preserved 206,000 acres of land, including 533 miles of shoreline. The program also has brought in more than $2.40 in federal and private funds for every LMF dollar spent, according to an analysis done by University of Maine System faculty last year.

Maggie Drummond of GrowSmart Maine spoke of the value of conserving open space in rapidly developing portions of rural Maine.

“Right now, our farmers are playing defense,” she said.

Apple grower Marilyn Meyerhans agreed, sharing the story of how an LMF grant helped her purchase Lakeside Orchards, located just a few miles from the State House in Manchester, keeping that land productive, scenic and available for recreation.

Mike Rovella, spokesman for several outdoor organizations, spoke to LMF’s policy of requiring that all its projects guarantee public access for hikers, hunters and boaters. That pledge is crucial for Maine guide businesses that rely on the tradition of open forestland, he said.

“We cannot underestimate the importance [to the economy] that outdoor recreation plays,” agreed Carolyn Bean of L.L. Bean, asking that legislators not take LMF, or the access that it ensures, for granted.

Derek Smith, a student at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft, described trips taken by his school’s outdoor club and the importance of land conservation in preserving the places they have explored.

“To experience firsthand the life in the Maine woods is unparalleled … that’s what makes Maine Maine,” Smith said, asking that legislators support LMF to “keep Maine from becoming something else.”