The federal Forest Legacy program has helped preserve some of Maine’s well-known landmarks such as Moosehead Lake and the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Once again, however, the program is under attack from a small group of Republican lawmakers. As they have in the past, fortunately, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins continue to support the program, which has preserved land in 29 states.

In the last decade nearly 1 million acres in Maine have been conserved with Forest Legacy funds. The federal program enables the state and private entities to purchase development rights on forest land, keeping places like Nicatous Lake and Tumbledown Mountain free of camps and resorts, while allowing logging to continue. This benefits those who rely on the woods for work and those who use them for recreation. Both are important to the state’s economy.

Because of Maine’s success in preserving land for wildlife and recreational use while keeping it open to forestry, the state has been a large recipient of Forest Legacy Funds. The state has the top ranked project on the president’s list this year. The president has asked for $61.5 million for the program. The House, however, is considering only $9 million.

In recent years, the Senate has supported or even exceeded the president’s budget request. It should do so again this year as it begins its consideration of Forest Legacy Funding next month.

Two Maine projects are among the 31 included in the president’s funding request. Ranked number one on his list is a plan to add 3,688 acres to Grafton Notch State Park. The land is surrounded by the park and includes a portion of Old Speck Mountain and a major snowmobile trail. The Trust for Public Land has negotiated an agreement with the landowners to buy the land, which it intends to turn over to the state. Three million dollars is needed to complete the deal. The president’s budget includes $2 million for Grafton Notch.

The other Maine proposal on the president’s list is the Lower Penobscot Forest project, an effort to protect more than 42,500 acres near the Sunkhaze National Wildlife Refuge. The Nature Conservancy and Forest Society of Maine are negotiating with private landowners to buy two parcels in Great Pond and Amherst. Bangor Daily News publisher Richard J. Warren serves on the Forest Society board.

The land is the largest undeveloped forest block in central Maine in an area where new housing developments are being built at an increasingly rapid pace. The Nature Conservancy plans to buy another 11,000 acres next to the federal refuge to manage as an ecological reserve. The president’s budget includes $2.2 million for this project, which is expected to cost $15 million.

The Forest Legacy Program, and the projects it has helped fund in Maine, exemplify the Bush administration’s cooperative conservation approach. It shouldn’t be starved of funds.