BANGOR (AP) – Large swaths of Maine woodlands are changing hands at the highest rate in history, raising questions about the future of the state’s tradition of public access to the land.

The potential collision between property owners and recreation-minded visitors such as hunters and snowmobilers will be examined in the coming months by a new task force appointed by Gov. John Baldacci.

“We’re just trying to find out what we should be doing to ensure the public’s right to access. … We’re looking at the whole picture,” said Maine Department of Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan.

Many Mainers have long accepted the idea that privately owned woodlands in some sense belong to everyone. Family cabins were built without thought of short-term leases, and hunting guides established businesses dependent on others’ land.

“We’ve had a great party for a long time,” said Jym St. Pierre, whose group, RESTORE, tracks land sales in Maine closely.

But with nearly 7 million acres sold in just six years, and thousands of acres – millions by some estimates – closed to the public as a result, the state’s peculiar tradition of “permissive trespass” may not survive this generation.

“More land has sold in less time than at any time in our state’s history,” St. Pierre said. “It’s hard to see things when you’re in the middle of them, but we are at a very historic moment.”

For decades, a field or a woodlot here or there might be sold and closed to the public. But today’s sales of “kingdom lots” to wealthy vacation home owners, townships to preservationists like national park advocate Roxanne Quimby, and large swaths to developers, mean that many more acres are being closed each year, McGowan said.

“If your point of reference is from when you were a kid growing up 50 years ago to today, it’s drastic,” said George Smith of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.

The most recent flare-up was between national park advocate Roxanne Quimby, who purchased a township in northern Penobscot County in November 2003, and those who will lose access to her land for hunting, trapping and riding ATVs and snowmobiles.

Quimby and Smith are on the 19-member task force, along with state legislators, guides, landowners and managers, and representatives of forestry, tourism, conservation and recreation interests.

At a recent meeting in Greenville, the tension was palpable as members of the group struggled to stay on task while sitting across the table from longtime opponents. But working through that discomfort is one of the major goals of the group.

“We tried to find the people with the difficulties and bring them together,” McGowan said.

The task force will make an interim report in February and is expected to issue its final recommendations by September. But few members of the committee believe the problem can be wrapped up in a bill.

“We might be able to solve some of this by common agreement. I don’t think we need legislation for everything,” McGowan said.