WELD – Conservationists announced Monday that nearly 4,200 acres adjacent to Mount Blue State Park had been permanently conserved by easement.

The additional acreage brings efforts to protect the park and Tumbledown Mountain region to two-thirds of its 33,000-acre goal.

The Maine Department of Conservation acquired a conservation easement over nearly 4,200 acres for about $480,000, said Erin Rowland, public affairs director of The Trust for Public Land. The trust, a national nonprofit conservation organization, facilitated the purchase.

The easement prohibits development of the land, guaranteeing public access and ensuring sustainable forestry practices.

The trust, Conservation Department, Tumbledown Conservation Alliance, congressional and state legislatures and other groups have been working together to preserve mountain tops, popular recreation trails and habitat for rare wildlife species like the peregrine falcon, Bicknell’s thrush and spring salamander in the region.

Members of the alliance have raised thousands of dollars in private funds to preserve the land.

Alliance members Henry Braun of Weld and Conrad Heeschen of Wilton were pleased. “I’m very excited about that,” Braun said. “We’ve been working on this for three years. It’s very good news.”

Alliance member Bob Kimber credited the team effort. “We still have a lot of work to do, however,” he stated in a press release, “before we reach our goals of protecting 30,000 acres and preserving the values this beautiful region of the state is known for: outstanding recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat, and a steady supply of timber for the forest-products industry.”

Additional funds are being sought to preserve trails leading to the top of Tumbledown Mountain. Rowland said even though the Bush administration supported the group’s request for $3 million in funding from the Federal Forest Legacy Program, it was not included in the U.S. House of Representatives’ proposal for 2004.

Rowland said they’re hoping it will be included in the U.S. Senate’s proposal. Slightly more than $5 million has been raised from public and private sources to support the effort. Nearly $3 million in legacy funds were previously secured for the conservation effort.

The additional 4,200 acres brings the total acreage preserved for outdoor or recreation resources, either by outright land buys or conservation easements, to nearly 20,000 acres.

Among the protected property is about 3,900 acres that includes the tops of Tumbledown and Little Jackson mountains, Tumbledown Pond and Stockbridge Branch Valley. In January 2002, the state Department of Conservation announced the purchase of 2,468 acres that include a 1,298-foot peak known as Hedgehog Hill and about half of the park’s popular 20-mile, multi-use trail system.

The addition announced Monday consists of three parcels. The largest, some 2,445 acres, lies directly north of Mount Blue State Park and includes 2,185-foot Pope Mountain. The second 910-acre parcel lies across East Brook from public reserved land owned by Maine. The third, which totals nearly 845 acres, lies southwest of the park and includes the summit of Holt Hill as well as frontage on Route 156.

Now part of corridor of conservation land, these parcels provide important wildlife habitat as well as opportunities for low-impact recreation and a critical buffer area around Mount Blue State Park, Rowland said.

After a conservation easement was placed over the three parcels, Rowland said, The Trust for Public Land sold two of them, totaling 3,290 acres, to Hancock Land Co., a Maine-based, sixth-generation, family-owned timber company, for continued management as timberland. The trust is still looking to sell the remaining parcel, about 910 acres, to a private timber buyer who will manage the land in accordance with the easement, she said.

dperry@sunjournal.com