Environment and Outdoors

Maine Coast Heritage Trust conserves 1,700 acres on Schoodic Peninsula

Maine Public | By Susan Sharon

Published December 20, 2021 at 4:38 PM EST

Pictured here is a stream that is a tributary to Mills Stream, which forms the western boundary of the property and provides clean water and food for wildlife including beaver, otter, moose, bear, and brook trout.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust announced today that it has conserved 1,700 acres of forestland on the Schoodic Peninsula in Winter Harbor.

Known as the Schoodic Forest, the parcel's protection marks a big step in conserving a largely intact wildlife corridor that stretches form the ocean to inland forest, one of the last of its kind on the Eastern Seaboard.

Over the past four decades, other partners, including The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state of Maine and Acadia National Park, have been working to conserve more than 55,000 acres in the Schoodic to Schoodic wildlife corridor, which extends from the Schoodic Peninsula to Schoodic Mountain, in the state's Donnell Pond Public Reserve land, and continuing north.

Looking southward toward the nearly conserved property, which encompasses 1,700 acres of important wildlife habitat, including forest and wetlands.

"Habitat protection of this size and scope has become increasingly important and increasingly rare," said Maine Coast Heritage Trust project manager Bob DeForrest. "If we conserve these connected landscapes now, wildlife will have a greater chance of finding food and hospitable places to live as temperatures continue to warm."

According to a news release, Maine Coast Heritage Trust will manage the land primarily as wildlife habitat with scientific assistance from the Schoodic Institute.

Both organizations are planning to work with community members to ensure public access to the property.