GRAND LAKE STREAM – The area always has been known for its fishing, paddling and miles of green and blue wilderness.

The members of the Downeast Lakes Land Trust have worked since 1999 to make sure that time and progress treat Washington County’s inland lakes region gently.

A new hiking trail, opened Friday after two years of work, continues the land trust’s mission to preserve the area, members said.

“It really is founded to preserve this area and all of its aspects, including the traditional uses of the land,” board member Ed McGrath said Saturday of the land trust.

Those uses include hunting, fishing, logging and hiking, McGrath said.

The 2.6 mile Little Mayberry Cove trail extends from Grand Lake Stream village up along the western side of West Grand Lake.

It cost in the “tens of thousands” of dollars to construct, McGrath said, and was done with the physical help of the Student Conservation Association and the financial help of the state’s Land for Maine’s Future Program.

The area traversed by the trail is a small part of what’s been preserved from development by land trust efforts.

Through ownership or easement, the Downeast Lakes Forestry Partnership – other partners include the New England Forestry Foundation and the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust – has protected 342,000 acres of woodlands, 60 lakes with 445 miles of lake shore, 1,500 miles of river front and tens of thousands of acres of wetlands.

The lakes protected include West Grand, Junior, West Musquash, Fourth Machias and parts of Big, Third Machias and Wabassus, according to McGrath.

For its efforts, the group received the 2006 Down East Environmental Award, which was officially presented at Sunday’s annual meeting.

Some of the land trust’s next projects include the discussion of options to purchase some lands adjacent to their owned property, including a 6,000-acre parcel on Wabassus Lake and the clean-up of some of the roads near West Grand Lake.

The three-stage clean-up project will be held in collaboration with the Passamaquoddy Tribe and will begin with the removal of old, rusted culverts left over from the logging industry.

“We know of at least 150 culverts,” McGrath said.

The next step will be to pick up abandoned “white goods” including old refrigerators from the woods.

Volunteers are invited to help with the third stage, a one-day blitz to pick up trash.

“All hands in the community are invited,” McGrath said. “By the summer’s end, our woods are going to look a lot better than they do now.”