Group looks to revive conservation panels

A newly re-formed statewide organization is attempting to bring back municipal conservation commissions, which at one time helped guide land use and protection decisions in communities throughout Maine.

In the early 1980s, conservation commissions could be found in more than 200 towns in all corners of the state. These municipal advisory boards often worked on the protection, management and occasional acquisition of open space in the towns.

Today there are less than 60 municipal conservation commissions still in existence, and not all of those are active.

Robert Shafto, a past chairman of Falmouth’s conservation commission, said many of the same issues over open space still exist today throughout Maine. In addition, there are new environmental problems that deserve local attention and growing public interest in conservation issues.

So Shafto and several others have reincorporated the Maine Association of Conservation Commissions, which has been inactive since the 1990s, and are taking their campaign around the state to revive the commissions.

The rise of land trusts during the past 20 years was key to the demise of many local conservation commissions. But land acquisition was only one part of the commissions’ role.

And while Maine has a host of strong, statewide organizations and solid state government agencies dedicated to environmental and conservation issues, Shafto believes there needs to be more local focus on the issues. After all, decisions made at the local level are key to what Maine will look like in the future, he said.

“I think [environmental issues] need more attention at the local level,” said Shafto, executive director of the Maine Association of Conservation Commissions. “My vision is that every town would have a conservation commission to pay attention to growth and land use, invasive species, energy use, trails, wildlife habitat and a whole panoply of issues.”

Shafto said those conservation commissions still around – many of which are in southern Maine – are making significant contributions to their communities, often in the form of educational programs.

He gave examples of Ogunquit holding a special program on piping plovers and York sponsoring a “septic social” to educate townspeople about the importance of properly maintained septic systems. Other commissions have tackled major land use issues and are working to eradicate harmful invasive species.

“What conservation commissions do varies widely and will depend on the local priorities,” he said.

Bar Harbor’s conservation commission recently led the effort to revamp the town’s wetlands law. The commission is currently helping revise the community’s comprehensive plan and is at the center of the town’s constant effort to balance land preservation with appropriate growth needed to attract young families to Mount Desert Island, said the commission’s chairwoman, Jill Weber.

The commission also serves a key role of filtering the information to the wider community, Weber said.

“In a lot of ways, we are a clearinghouse,” said Weber.

In Veazie, meanwhile, the municipal conservation commission brought in a part-time forester to help the town manage several public spaces it owns. The commission put in interpretive trails in the 20-acre McPheters Town Property and is working on a management plan for a 60-acre property.

Commission member Christopher Cronan said he believes conservation commissions can help communities figure out how best to preserve and protect land that is important to a town’s residents.

David Littell, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said he sees conservation commissions playing an important role in the state.

“Local conservation commissions are closer than other groups to many of the environmental challenges Maine faces, and are in a unique position [to] act on these challenges, both directly or by convincing local policymakers and citizens to act on issues of importance in their communities,” Littell said in a statement.

Shafto said association members plan to ask the Legislature to rewrite the statutory authorization for conservation commissions to recognize the broad role they can play beyond land acquisition and protection.

He said he hopes the association will become a tool to help existing conservation commissions network with one another as well as encourage the formation of additional commissions to focus on issues at the local level.

“Maine is a special place and we’re lucky we still have a quality environment left to protect,” Shafto said.