In the Downeast Lakes region of Maine, the forest is key to the region’s outdoor recreation-based economy and its culture, so the community of Grand Lake Stream needed help when more than 21,000 acres of forestland was threatened.

The Center assisted by facilitating a New Markets Tax Credit financing so that the Lyme Timber Company could purchase the land in 2008. Lyme Timber committed to managing the forest sustainably and working with the community and the Downeast Lakes Land Trust toward eventual community ownership of the land.

This first purchase protected the forest from liquidation harvesting, and a subsequent conservation easement guarantees the forest will remain undeveloped. The 21,000 acres includes more than 17 miles of lake shore and 90 miles of stream shore.  It Borders Big Musquash Stream on the eastern side and West Grand Lake on the western side.

In the second stage of the project — after an eight-year, $19.4-million campaign — the land trust purchased 21,870 acres from Lyme Timber and combined it with existing conserved land to create a 55,000-acre Community Forest, helping to fulfill a 370,000-acre vision of forest conservation in the Downeast Lakes region.

The project is centered in Grand Lake Stream, a town of 128 people with an economy that relies on hunting, fishing and other recreation activities. The Community Forest provides timber harvesting revenue and 55,000 protected acres of forests and lakes on which the region’s guides and sporting camps depend.