Land for Maine's Future approved the last piece of funding for the purchase of nearly 500 acres of forest in Western Maine yesterday, including land along the Carrabassett River.
Dubbed ‘Whitten Woods’ for the family that owns and manages the forest, the new land conservation area is over 455 acres in Somerset County.
Somerset Woods Trustees executive director Jennifer Brockway said the additional funds from Land for Maine’s Future should make acquisition of the land possible by April 2025. The organization has been raising funds to purchase the land for over two years.
It will be the first public land conservation area in New Portland.
"In Maine, we have a tradition of public access, but we're losing that tradition as land ownership patterns change,” she said. “So making sure that every community has a place where people can just walk to and be outdoors is vitally important."
A key part of the public lands will be two miles of frontage along the Carrabassett River, including a spot that's become the take-out area for paddlers reaching the end of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.
"The Carrabassett is just such a tremendously valuable river in terms of its biodiversity and recreational components,” Brockway said. “It's been startling to us to learn that there's been so little conservation activity."
Brockway says it is critical to preserve the ecosystem within the Carrabassett River area, which is home to species only found in a small number of areas in New England.
The conservation area will offer hiking trails, hunting and fishing, and will also protect the land surrounding New Portland's iconic wire bridge, a historic site popular with tourists in the Sugarloaf region.