Nine years ago, Jimmie Upham and a handful of other Grand Lake Stream residents gathered around a picnic table and, unbeknownst to them, set in motion one of the most significant land conservation deals in Maine history.
The timberland surrounding this legendary fishing destination had changed hands not long before. Locals were concerned about the long-term future of the working forests and the growing threat of development.
Something needed to be done, the group agreed. But, what and how?
On Tuesday, Upham was in Augusta to help mark the completion of a $34.8 million fundraising campaign that has permanently protected from development 342,000 acres in the Down East region.
The deal, which was secured through a bridge loan several years ago, includes nearly 2,000 miles of frontage along lakes and rivers and contributes to a 1.3 million-acre block of continuous conservation land in Maine and Canada.
“This hasn’t been done by command-and-control out of Washington,” Gov. John Baldacci said. “This has been done locally with the support of the local community and businesses.”
The path between that 1999 picnic table conversation and Tuesday’s celebration wasn’t always clear or easy, however.
In fact, the biggest chunk of the deal would have fallen through had not a key architect of the plan, the New England Forestry Foundation, taken the risky move in 2005 of mortgaging its oldest property to cover a $6 million gap in the fundraising campaign.
Dozens of other donors, from individuals to corporate giants such as Wal-Mart, contributed to the project over the years.
“By now it is abundantly clear that the ambitious endeavor was a true partnership in every sense of the word,” said Tim Ingraham, president of the New England Forestry Foundation’s board of directors.
The project involved the purchase of 27,000 acres just west of Grand Lake Stream by Downeast Lakes Land Trust – the creation of Grand Lake Stream-area residents and guides – and conservation easements on an additional 312,000 acres to the south and north.
The conservation easements are held by the New England Forestry Foundation, which also negotiated the 750,000-acre Pingree lands conservation deal in Maine. The Woodie Wheaton Land Trust in Forest City is the third organization involved in the effort, known as the Downeast Lakes Forestry Partnership.
The first project was to purchase a 500-foot-wide corridor along 50 miles of Spednic Lake and the St. Croix River. The organizations then started working on the larger goal and, by 2005, had lined up much of the money.
The foundation’s $6 million bridge loan allowed the groups to complete the project at the initially negotiated price, despite rising real estate values.
The project has received funding from a range of sources.
Elmina B. Sewall of Kennebunk and, later, a foundation in her name donated more than $7 million to the project. Wal-Mart chipped in more than $6 million through its “Acres for America” program, while an additional $1.2 million came in from an out-of-state oil spill settlement earmarked for loon habitat protection.
Other funding sources included the Land for Maine’s Future program, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a number of conservation organizations. Coordinators of the initiative on Tuesday recognized those donor organizations as well as Wagner Forest Management, which manages the land and offered its staff during the campaign.
In a ceremony held in his Cabinet room, Baldacci said the project foremost helps sustain the working forest while permanently protecting “the livelihoods, landscapes and legends that define the Grand Lake Stream region.”
Upham, who was visibly moved by the recognition on Tuesday, said she and others from the original brainstorming group never would have thought so much land could be preserved. But at every turn they were encouraged by the partner organizations to dream big.
“They just kept saying, of course you can do it,” Upham said.
kmiller@bangordailynews.net
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