SABATTUS — The Androscoggin Land Trust has called on the Pine Tree Council to discuss conservation outcomes, as fear grows that the council, which oversees Boy Scout activities in Southern Maine, is attempting to sell Camp Gustin, its 135-acre property on Loon Pond in Sabattus.

A recommendation to sell the property, made in November 2009 by executives within the Pine Tree Council, was met with strong resistance by local Boy Scouts and their families, as well as scouting volunteers and conservation activists. Subsequently, the matter was tabled and the possibility of a sale went undiscussed, according to Ed Desgrosseilliers, the Pine Tree Council's Abnaki District chairman.

That is, until last week, when attention was brought to ongoing timber harvesting operations on 85 of Camp Gustin's 135 acres — harvesting that, by some estimates, has yielded $80,000 worth of wood. Since then, some members of the council as well as volunteers within the organization, have voiced their concern that a sale is imminent. "If they're doing all of this cutting, you have to ask yourself: Is it connected to a sale of the camp?" said Allen Ward, scoutmaster of Troop 109 in Lisbon Falls.

According to Walter Stinson, who chairs the Executive Committee of the Pine Tree Council, the recent tree cutting at Camp Gustin is part of a forest management program the council follows for all of its forested properties under the guidance and supervision of a registered forester.

In an e-mail sent Monday from Jonathan LaBonte, executive director of the Androscoggin Land Trust, to members of the Pine Tree Council, LaBonte reiterated his organization's intention to discuss a conservation outcome. According to Labonte, the Androscoggin Land Trust has been interested in the status of Camp Gustin since it was approached by executives of the Pine Tree Council in the summer of 2009 about a purchase of the property.

In November of last year, the Androscoggin Land Trust responded to the council's proposition by requesting "to sit down and discuss how a conservation outcome might be pursued, while understanding the Boy Scouts financial interests and environmental ethic," according to a memo released around that time.

Their request to discuss conservation outcomes was declined, and the Androscoggin Land Trust became "concerned that a facility that has been so important to generations of scouts and their introduction to the outdoors and the Androscoggin River watershed has been reduced to a real estate transaction seeking to attain maximum financial return," according to the memo.

LaBonte said he sent the e-mail to remind members of the Pine Tree Council of the willingness of the Androscoggin Land Trust to work toward a conservation outcome.

"I'm hopeful that the Scouts will investigate ways to maintain access to the property," he said, including the option of "a conservation easement that could allow some recreational access for scouts" or local citizens.

Camp Gustin was deeded to the Scouts by Charles W. Gustin in 1933 for camping. It has a dozen campsites that include open-air shelters and latrines, but few other amenities. “Countless boys have learned to swim, tie knots, pitch tents, build fires and save lives at Camp Gustin,” according to the council's website. Some have said the Camp Gustin property could fetch as much as $375,000, but Desgrosseilliers is skeptical, putting the figure closer to $200,000.

According to Anthony Rogers, the Pine Tree Council's executive director, the future of Camp Gustin will be discussed at the council's November board meeting. Ultimately, the decision whether to sell the camp property will be left to a simple majority of the 38-member council board, he said.