President Bush has earmarked $4.2 million in his budget proposal for two land conservation projects in Maine, one of which encompasses more than 42,000 acres of the Penobscot watershed outside Bangor, state officials announced Tuesday.

Maine and South Carolina are the only two states to have multiple projects listed in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Legacy Program, which helps states protect environmentally sensitive land from development.

The top-ranked project on this year’s list is near Bethel in western Maine. The Grafton Notch project is recommended to receive $2 million to protect 3,688 acres of forest and recreation land adjacent to public reserve lands and Grafton Notch State Park. The land is visible from the Appalachian Trail.

Bush’s budget also includes $2.2 million to help protect 42,537 acres on what is being called the “Lower Penobscot Forest Project.”

This contiguous land mass stretches along Route 9 for approximately two miles between Chick Hill and the Union River, northward to Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and over to the state-owned Bradley Unit.

The two Maine projects were announced Tuesday by Gov. John Baldacci and by representatives of the three major partners that would help the state conserve the land if federal funding becomes available. The three groups that would help acquire the lands or conservation easements on the tracts to protect them from development are The Nature Conservancy, the Forest Society of Maine and The Trust for Public Land.

Nearly 30,000 acres of the Lower Penobscot land will continue to be used for sustainable forestry practices and will remain open to such traditional uses as hunting, fishing and recreation. The remaining 11,000-plus acres will be purchased by The Nature Conservancy as an ecological reserve.

The Penobscot project ranked No. 11 on the list of 31 projects recommended for funding in the Forest Legacy Program. States submitted 91 requests for funding.

“To get two projects … and to have both so high on the list, I think that says a lot about how we do conservation in Maine,” said Jim Crocker, spokesman for the Department of Conservation.

Inclusion in Bush’s budget does not guarantee the projects will be approved by Congress. Members of Congress from both sides of the political aisle have strongly criticized some of the president’s budget recommendations, particularly cuts for domestic programs and continuation of controversial tax cuts.

But Ralph Knoll, who helped coordinate the project application as deputy director of the Maine Bureau of Public Lands, said getting on the list is often the biggest challenge. Historically, Congress has approved many of the projects included in the president’s budget, Knoll said. Debate on the budget is likely to continue for months, with a final vote expected next fall.

Alan Hutchinson, executive director of the Bangor-based Forest Society of Maine, said his organization has come to realize in recent years the importance that Bangor-area residents place on open space. Hutchinson pointed out that the U.S. Forest Service has identified the Lower Penobscot watershed as the nation’s private forestland most threatened from home development.

Hutchinson was elated Tuesday night that the project made it into Bush’s budget. “We are thrilled, absolutely thrilled to see that it scored so well nationally,” Hutchinson said.

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation pledged Tuesday to work to keep the funding for the projects in the budget.