Another 21,000 acres have been permanently protected from development in Maine's western mountains. The Grafton Notch Forest was considered a crucial gap in a conservation corridor that connects hundreds of thousands of acres across Maine and New Hampshire. Most of the land will remain as working forest, but more than 6,000 acres will be managed as wilderness.
The project took three years to complete and involved multiple partners and supporters who raised nearly $11 million dollars in private funds to purchase a conservation easement. Karin Tilberg of the Forest Society of Maine says the result is the protection of some of Maine's most spectacular scenery and opportunities for remote recreation. Public access, she says, is now permanently guaranteed.
"This is really the peoples' backyard, this area. This is where people go to hunt, to ski in the winter, to snowmobile in the winter. Explore. It's close to Bethel, not too far, which actually means in time it could have been facing development pressure. And so we're so pleased that this land will stay available for the people," Tilberg says.
The project, on the New Hampshire border, is adjacent to the state-owned Mahoosuc Public Reserved Lands Unit, the Appalachian Trail and Grafton Notch State Park
"And then there is the Pingree easement to the north and the Umbagog Wildlife Refuge to the north. So, the significance of this can't be overstated," Tilberg says.
If the land had succumbed to development pressures and been sold off for second homes, Tilberg says the unique characteristics of the region could have been undermined.
Terms of the easement allow 15,000 acres to remain as working forest, supporting the local woods-based economy. But another 6,000 will be set aside as a wilderness preserve.
"The western Maine mountains, where it's located, are at the heart of the largest and most intact temperate hardwood forest on the planet. It's very special," says Jon Leibowitz of the Northeast Wilderness Trust.
He says the new Grafton Forest Wilderness Preserve contains lowland forest as well as sensitive high elevation lands that make them resilient to climate change and important for biodiversity. They include the headwaters of the national wildlife refuge to the north, along with wetlands, vernal pools and an abundance of wildlife. These unique qualities, Leibowitz says, make it perfect for "rewilding."
"If we, as a civilization, give nature the time and space it needs, it can heal. And that's really what rewilding is all about," Leibowitz says.
Wild places are essential for ecological health and also store and sequester significant amounts of carbon. But only about three percent of New England is conserved as wilderness and Leibowitz says projects like this one illustrate how it could be possible to reclaim more.
