Maine Land Trusts Impacts
Maine boasts more than 80 land trusts, community-supported, non-profits that have permanently conserved more than 2.9 million – 14.7% of the state. This network of privately-owned properties offers many of the benefits people have come to enjoy on Maine’s public lands, including access to the outdoors for traditional activities such as hunting, fishing, hiking, snowmobiling and wildlife observation, but that’s just the beginning. Land trusts also ensure access to thousands of miles of recreational trails; provide land for sustainably managed working forests, farms, and waterfronts; protect valuable wildlife habitats; and present community programming that enhances the lives of people throughout Maine.
Maine Has Very Little Public Land
One reason Maine has such an active land trust community is because Maine has the lowest percentage of public lands among all states in our region. At 6.9%, it is also one of the lowest percentages in the country.
Most states rely on government, at all levels, to acquire and manage public lands to meet the needs and desires of their citizens to secure natural resource-based industries, protect wildlife habitat and safeguard public drinking water supplies. In Maine, where government land ownership is low, land trusts have stepped up to help meet these public goals through the acquisition of more than 700,000 acres of private conservation land, sometimes with public funding, but often without any government support.
In many parts of the country, the burden of public access to the outdoors is mostly the responsibility of government and taxpayers. In Maine, our more modest network of public lands is complemented by a privately-funded trust system that provides many additional places where we can hunt, fish, snowmobile, ATV, picnic, birdwatch, walk our dogs, and enjoy nature-usually for free.