Restoration of historic buildings helps preserve Maine’s history. Submitted photo

REGION — The Maine Historic Preservation Commission is pleased to announce the publication of the 2021-2026 edition of Heritage for The Future: Maine’s Statewide Historic Preservation Plan.

Every five years, the Commission, which serves as the State Historic Preservation Office in Maine, is required to develop a Comprehensive Statewide Historic Preservation Plan.

As stated in National Park Services guidance “[t]he State Plan is used by the State Historic Preservation Office and others throughout the State for guiding effective decision-making on a general level, for coordinating Statewide preservation activities, and for communicating Statewide preservation policy, goals, and values to the preservation constituency, decision-makers, and interested and affected parties across the State.

The plan was developed through meetings and listening sessions with preservationists, tribes, local, state, and federal agencies and leaders, regional planning commission members, and the general public, as well as an online survey and social media outreach.  As a result, it reflects the diverse perspectives offered by affiliated programs and the general public and is a plan for all Mainers.

This thoroughly rewritten edition of the plan opens with an explanation of how information was collected, followed by a description of what is currently known about Maine’s cultural resources, what Mainers value about these resources and how they aspire to care for them moving forward.

This is followed by a summary of nine trends that are currently impacting historic preservation in Maine and then the plan lays out five principal goals that include taking actions to address climate change, expanding the preservation network, and broadening the perspectives and property types that are included in the Maine Historic Resources Inventory and in the National Register of Historic Places.

As stated by Kirk Mohney, State Historic Preservation Officer,  “all Mainers now and in the future should benefit from historic preservation, and this plan sets a course for that goal.“

A digital copy of the plan can be found on the Commission’s website at: https://www.maine.gov/mhpc/about-us/state-preservation-plan .