June 6, 2003

Downeast Lakes Forestry Partnership

The backers of the project, the second largest conservation easement in state history, first have to raise some money, $ 35 million dollars to be exact. But Amos Eno of the New England Forestry Foundation says the price is right $ 39.43 an acre, a bargain, he says for a part of Eastern Washington County that is prized for its hundreds of miles of unspoiled shorelines on 60 lakes and ponds, thousands of acres of wetlands and a cold water fishery that people like George Smith of the Sportsman Alliance of Maine love to talk about.

“I was down there this week. I caught salmon early one morning at the dam pool on Grand Lake Stream with a big bald eagle right in front of me in a tree, and then I went fishing for the day on Big Lake and caught I don’t know it must have been hundreds of small mouthed bass.”

Grand Lake Stream and the surrounding area are home to the largest concentration of guides in the state and Steve Keith the Executive Director and founder of Down East Lakes Land Trust says it was their concern about traditional forest lands changing hands and being sold off and no trespassing signs going up, that lead to the creation of the project.

“There are about 35 registered Maine guides operating out of the village of Grand Lake Stream and there are about 10 lodges in the immediate area that employ these guides and also are the center for people doing fishing, hunting, wild life observation, canoeing and kayaking.”

Keith says that the guides are the eyes and ears of the forest, which was owned by Georgia Pacific for many years and has since been purchased by an investment group and over seen by Wagner Forest Management. Once the conservation deal is complete the development rights on 312,000 acres will be extinguished, but the land will be kept as working forest with traditional public access, another 27,000 acres will be acquired by the Down East Lakes Land Trust and managed with the goal of independent green certification. Dave Toby is a registered guide who made his first canoe trip in down east Maine when he was just 8 weeks old. He’s also supplemented his income by trapping and working in the woods. This deal he says will protect his and others livelihoods.

“Many of us people whether you’re loggers or guides or store owners in Washington County stitch together a living with many activities throughout the year. If you were to lose a few of those activities it would be hard to stay there and earn a living.”

Leading the $35 million dollar campaign to purchase the easement is the New England Forestry Foundation the same group that helped the Pingree family negotiate the terms of a conservation easement on more than 750,000 acres scattered across Maine, the largest in state history. Just last week Governor Baldacci announced a $35 million dollar campaign to protect nearly 300,000 acres north of Moose Head Lake from development. And New England Forestry Foundation Executive Director Amos Eno says there’s no doubt that raising more money for more land will be tough in a stagnant economy.

“ It’s unbelievably awful. I was in New York last week and up and down Manhattan, and it’s a very difficult fund raising market and we’ve got our work cut out for us. And we’ve hired fund raising council and much of what I’m going to spend the next two years doing will be fundraising for this project.”

December 2004 is the deadline for raising the money. Eno says they’ve had generous individual contributions already and a million dollar grant is pending. But he said it will take a lot of luck and a lot of hard work to reach the goal.