Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
More than 27,000 acres of forest in western Maine are now permanently protected from development, The Conservation Fund announced Thursday.
The protected lands are centered around Bethel and include the former Chadbourne Tree Farm, along with properties added to existing preserves and public lands across the region.
The forests will remain working forests and open to the public, protecting wildlife habitat, clean water and outdoor access. The lands include portions of the Crooked, Androscoggin and Kezar rivers, and a new Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife boat launch at Songo Pond.
Chadbourne Tree Farm sits at the headwaters of the Sebago Lake watershed, which supplies drinking water to more than 200,000 people in the greater Portland area.
This conservation project also secures some of the remaining large pieces needed to connect Sunday River Resort and Mt. Abram with a continuous trail network for hikers, skiers and cyclists. The connected outdoor destination will provide year-round recreation between the two Bethel-area mountains.
The effort began in 2020, when The Conservation Fund and the Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation acquired 14,898 acres of Chadbourne Tree Farm. The purchase kept the large working forest intact while partners worked toward permanent conservation.
Since then, a coalition that includes Mahoosuc Land Trust, Greater Lovell Land Trust, Western Foothills Land Trust, Inland Woods + Trails, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands and the U.S. Forest Service has helped permanently protect additional lands across the region.
Those lands include 560 acres added to the Inland Woods + Trails Bethel Community Forest, more than 1,300 acres added to Western Foothills Land Trust preserves, more than 328 acres added to Greater Lovell Land Trust’s Kezar Corridor Lands, 600 acres added to White Mountain National Forest and 12,000 acres added to Mahoosuc Land Trust holdings. The Mahoosuc holdings include an 11,000-acre Crooked River Headwaters easement and a nearly 1,000-acre Tumbledown Dick Preserve in Gilead.
The permanent protections were made possible through the Land for Maine’s Future Program, the federal Forest Legacy Program and more than $10 million in private philanthropic support.