For Tim Glidden and the Land for Maine’s Future, it’s all about feast or famine.

Glidden is director of LMF, which funds conservation projects across the state. Since its inception in 1987, LMF has helped preserve public access to 444,000 acres of Maine, including 919 miles of shorefront.

LMF’s funding, however, has remained at the will of the voters. Three bonds have made its budget: $35 million in 1987, $50 million in 1999, and $12 million in 2005. Some years, the agency is flush. Other years, it operates on a shoestring while waiting for the next infusion.

“[Maine] can’t take its landscape for granted,” said Glidden, before the LMF board approved three major local expenditures on Dec. 14: $243,000 for Rumford Whitecap, $500,000 for access to Cupsuptic Lake in Adamstown Township, and $74,500 for a 14-acre riverfront parcel in Lewiston.

LMF administration must be credited for operating effectively despite an up-and-down funding environment, as preservation of Maine’s “greenfrastructure,” as Glidden calls it, is of utmost importance to the state’s economy and society. Without its stirring landscape, Maine just wouldn’t be Maine.

Yet, it’s becoming clear LMF will stay underfunded. Politicians habitually rob the future to pay for the present, and in Maine’s contentious tax climate, paying to purchase private property can prove politically problematic. Government shouldn’t compete in the free market for real estate, anyway.

This is why LMF’s position as a seed agency for land trusts and private groups is the best role for this laudable program.

The Mahoosuc Land Trust, which is trying to preserve Rumford Whitecap, still needs more than $200,000 to complete the $680,000 purchase of the mountaintop. The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust is about $350,000 from the $1.275 million it needs for the parcel in Adamstown Township.

The success, or failure, of these conservation efforts rests with these groups, as Maine taxpayers – through the LMF – should only provide so much. It’s time for those wishing to preserve Whitecap, or access to Cupsuptic Lake, to match the public’s donation with funds of their own.

And it’s gratifying to see funds in our backyard, as Maine’s more urban and suburban areas have been overlooked for LMF conservation projects. The Androscoggin Land Trust’s proposed Androscoggin River Park, with walking trails and boat launch, could be a worthy public amenity.

The LMF does yeoman’s work with its meager resources, as more projects than dollars exist for conservation efforts in Maine. Glidden called a LMF endorsement a “stamp of approval” that should make other potential donors confident in the merits of the project.

We could go one better: It’s called making something out of next to nothing, which is a policy other parts of the state should emulate. Unlike most areas of government, the LMF does well making a feast out of famine.