Land conservation projects in 2022 in Maine ranged from a grassroots effort to protect a special mountain in the Midcoast to the final piece of a 100,000-acre conservation effort by the Appalachian Mountain Club near Moosehead Lake.

It all adds up to more recreational wildlands conserved for Mainers, more protected deer wintering yards, and the largest piece of contiguous undeveloped forestland in the Northeast getting further protection. 

These were some of the top conservation stories in the past year:

Inland Woods + Trails grew the Bethel Community Forest to 1,500 acres in 2022, which will help extend its trail system, the Bethel Village Trails. Photo courtesy of Jerry and Marcy Monkman

Bethel Community Forest, Oxford County

In November, Inland Woods + Trails purchased 532 acres from The Conservation Fund. It amounted to a relatively small conservation parcel – but one that comes with a big vision. It grows the Bethel Community Forest from 979 to 1,511 acres – and moves Inland Woods + Trails closer to its vision of connecting Bethel with Sunday River ski area to the north and Mt. Abram ski area to the southeast.  

Inland Woods + Trails paid $930,000 for the new parcel, which also will protect 120 acres of deer wintering habitat. The purchase was made possible with two anonymous donations and federal funding from the U.S. Forest Service’s Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program.

The land also is home to American woodcock, killdeer, bald eagle, peregrine falcons and red-shouldered hawks, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

“My organization exists because 20 years ago there was a community gathering where people talked about their vision for recreation in the area. That is the foundation for our existence. And this project is our part of continuing to articulate that vision for a year-round, connected trail,” said Gabe Perkins, Inland Woods + Trails executive director.

Grafton Forest, Oxford County

In March, two conservation groups worked with timber owners Wagner Forest Management to protect more than 21,000 acres in western Maine around the Appalachian Trail. 

The Forest Society of Maine and Northeast Wilderness Trust jointly raised $10.7 million to complete the 21,265-acre Grafton Forest Project. The Forest Society now holds a conservation easement on 15,220 acres of managed forests in the area, and Northeast Wilderness Trust owns 6,045 acres of watershed and high-elevation habitat that will be managed as wilderness. 

The parcel is next to the state-owned Mahoosuc Public Reserve Lands Unit and Grafton Notch State Park, lands that include more than 18 miles of the Appalachian Trail. The Grafton Forest parcel protects access to two Appalachian Trail side trails known as Notch Trail and the Speck Pond Trail. It also protects the headwaters of the Swift Cambridge River, which drains into Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge.

Local residents, shown above hiking Haystack Mountain in Liberty, plan to purchase the peak from Allen’s Blueberry Freezer Inc. and then turn the property over to the Midcoast Conservancy. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Haystack Mountain, Waldo County 

One of the most unusual conservation projects in 2022 was the all-volunteer effort that sprouted up around Haystack Mountain in Liberty, where seven passionate outdoors people came together to try to buy a mountain that has been a favorite local hike for generations.

The Friends of Haystack Mountain banded together in the spring to purchase the property for $450,000 from Allen’s Blueberry Freezer Inc in Ellsworth with a loan from Bangor Savings Bank. The Friends group plans to pay off the loan and then transfer the property to the Midcoast Conservancy, said Buck O’Herin, one of the founding members of the group and the president of the Conservancy’s board.

The closing was expected in late December but has been pushed back two weeks. 

The 60-acre mountain includes a dirt access road to the blueberry fields on the top and a mile-long trail to the rocky summit, where views reach to the Camden Hills to the east and Mount Washington to the west. 

The Friends group plans to pay off the loan with grants and donations.

“We are also busy meeting and talking with individual donors and businesses. Some individuals have given five-figure gifts,” O’Herin said.

In August, the Appalachian Mountain Club purchased nearly 27,000 acres around the Pleasant River headwaters near Moosehead Lake to extend AMC’s protected land in the region to 100,000 acres. Photo courtesy of Jerry Monkman

Moosehead Lake region, Piscataquis County

In August, the Appalachian Mountain Club purchased nearly 27,000 acres near Moosehead Lake around the Pleasant River headwaters in Piscataquis County for $18.5 million. The purchase extended the conserved land AMC owns in the region to 100,000 acres. 

The property purchased from The Conservation Fund is in the center of the 100 Mile Wilderness just east of Moosehead Lake, and it is significant habitat for native brook trout and endangered Atlantic salmon. Steve Tatko, AMC’s senior director of Maine conservation, called it a “globally significant watershed” because it is a piece of the largest contiguous undeveloped forest in the eastern United States.

The Conservation Fund purchased the property in 2019, providing AMC time to raise the $25 million needed to bring the working forestland into permanent protection.

Reed Deadwater, Aroostook County 

In southern Aroostook County, about an hour from Millinocket, more than 6,000 acres will become one of the state’s next Wildlife Management Areas. It was purchased by The Conservation Fund in November from Lakeville Shores Inc., a forest management company, for roughly $4.8 million.

The Reed Deadwater/Juniper Brook property will be a permanent playground for hunters, fishermen, kayakers and canoeists. But it was protected chiefly for its value as a deer wintering area, where white-tailed deer congregate in winter to escape the deep snow.

The 6,326-acre property was a priority for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife given that it protects 3,000 acres of deer wintering habitat that lies within an important 9,000-acre deer wintering yard, according to The Conservation Fund.

In addition, the property contains a population of brook floater, a freshwater mussel species that is threatened in Maine, and it provides critical habitat for the endangered Atlantic salmon. Tom Duffus, the Fund’s vice president, added that the rugged-canoe put-in at Macwahoc Stream provides the opportunity for a great family paddle.

IFW is expected to purchase the property later in 2023.

“The Reed Deadwater area is such a unique natural area,” IFW Commissioner Judy Camuso said in a news release. “Not only does it provide over 3,000 acres of deer wintering habitat that benefit deer and other upland wildlife, but its unique ecosystem is home to some of our rarer species, such as wood turtles and the Tomah mayfly as well.”