1. Northeast Notebook: Augusta, Me.; A Deal to Save
A Wilderness
By Lyn Riddle
Published: August 05, 1990
In the largest single conservation deal in its history, the State of Maine has agreed to pay $13.2
million for 40,000 acres of wilderness.
James Bernard, the director of the Natural Resources Policy Division for the State Planning
Office, said Maine has not seen a land conservation deal as important since the 1960's, when
Gov. Percival Baxter gave the state 200,000 acres surrounding Mount Katahdin, the state's
tallest mountain.
The Land for Maine's Future Board, set up by the state to buy land for recreation and
conservation, will buy the land from Diamond Occidental Forest, insuring the protection of 82
miles of lake and river frontage in seven tracts in central and southern Maine.
The largest parcel is 31,500 acres southwest of Baxter State Park that includes Nahmakanta
Lake. Many individuals and conservation groups have been trying to protect the Nahmakanta
area since Diamond put it and an additional 770,000 wooded acres for sale three years ago.
Diamond International, a sister company, sold 186,000 acres in New York and New Hampshire,
and all the buyers in turn sold portions to the respective states.
The marketing of the Diamond lands prompted a Federal study of the northern New England
forests, which recommended that Federal and state governments buy more land for
conservation.
The Nahmakanta property also includes 12 miles of the Appalachian Trail, for which the
National Park Service will contribute $1.5 million. The remaining $11.7 million comes from a
$35 million bond issue approved by Maine voters in 1987. Since then, the board has spent $11
million on nine parcels covering 6,700 acres. All but two were for coastal property, including 20
miles of shoreline.
The board had been criticized for focusing too strongly on oceanfront property, but Mr. Bernard
said the Diamond purchase should quiet the critics. All seven parcels are inland. The Nature
Conservancy of Maine negotiated the deal for the Land Board. Kent Wommack, the associate
director of the Nature Conservancy, said the deal represents a ''bargain sale'' on the part of
Diamond because the land had been valued at $15 million.
In November, Maine voters will be asked to authorize an additional $19 million to buy more
public lands for conservation, recreation and wildlife habitat. Nine and a half million dollars
would go to the Land Board, $8.5 million to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and
Wildlife for wildlife habitat and $1 million to repair a dam on the Allagash Wilderness
Waterway.