NORTHPORT – The Land for Maine’s Future Board approved funding for the purchase of two parcels of land Tuesday, ensuring that the properties will remain open for public recreational use and conservation.

The board granted $960,000 toward the $2.43 million cost of land around Mount Blue State Park and Tumbledown Mountain north of Weld and $157,667 toward the $352,000 cost of land on the slopes of Mt. Abraham in Mount Abram Township near Kingfield. The land will be purchased by the state and will be managed by the Department of Conservation.

Both projects have been in the works for years, according to Tim Glidden of Land for Maine’s Future.

One reason the transactions have taken so long is because the land was owned by various paper companies that have been restructured several times through the years, he said.

When MeadWestvaco announced the sale of 700,000 acres of land in Maine and New Hampshire last year, these specific parcels were not put on the market at the same time.

“Part of the wonderfulness about this is that all the landowners and local folks have sustained a high level of commitment to the success of this grand vision of conservation on Tumbledown and in Mt. Blue,” Glidden said.

Sam Hodder of the Trust for Public Land has been working with the Tumbledown Conservation Alliance and others to broker the deal on Tumbledown. Hodder said this newest parcel of land is approximately 6,700 acres and includes the trailheads for the Brook and Loop trails on Tumbledown Mountain and the trails themselves. It also includes the summits of and ridgeline between Jackson and Blueberry mountains to the northeast, as well as the entire south face of Tumbledown.

“Final approval does put us in the final stages of acquiring the land,” he said. He hopes the sale from MeadWestvaco will close by late August.

If these parcels had gone on the open market, he said, the trails could have closed.

“(The parcels) can only benefit from public management and Department of Conservation stewardship,” he said.

Additional funding for the Tumbledown acquisition is coming from a $1.47 million federal grant through the Forest Legacy Program. Both Hodder and Glidden were quick to credit Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who, they said, were instrumental in obtaining the federal funding.

The Appalachian Trail Conference contributed to the preservation of much of Mount Abraham, donating 4,033 acres of land there to the Department of Conservation in 2002. Valued at more than $1.3 million, the land will be permanently preserved as an ecological reserve, according to the conference’s Web site.

The new parcel on Mount Abraham runs mostly parallel to the ridgeline several hundred feet below it and includes 1,153 acres, Glidden said. It also includes a side trail to Mount Abraham east from the Appalachian Trail. Glidden said that he hopes the acquisition of this property from Mead Oxford will be finalized by early fall.

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