History
Board
of Directors | Staff
The
Forest Society of Maine (FSM) was established in 1984
through the efforts of the Society for the Protection
of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF) to accept a substantial
gift of an easement and conservation lands comprising
18,000 acres in Attean Township. The Coburn family,
owner for many generations of these scenic and ecologically
and recreationally valuable lands, sought to create
lasting conservation protections that would also provide
for the continued flow of wood products.
While
legally a Maine corporation, FSM operated as a subsidiary
of SPNHF from 1984 to 1997. In 1994-95, Maine forestland
owners and land conservation professionals initiated
a study and a series of meetings to address the absence
of an in-state organization dedicated to conservation
of large tracts of working forest. Specifically, they
explored the potential for a “North Woods land
trust” that would provide forestland owners with
conservation alternatives that meshed with their ownership
objectives. From this effort came a recommendation and
an action plan to transform the Forest Society of Maine
into a staffed, Maine-based, fully operational land
trust. A year-long transition began in 1996 with the
naming of a board of directors comprised of Maine forestland
owners and conservation professionals, and culminated
in the hiring of FSM’s first staff member in mid-1997.
Not long afterward, a series of massive land sales began
to change the face of Maine’s North Woods forever,
providing extraordinary and unanticipated opportunities
for this young organization’s land conservation
activities.
Board
of Directors | Staff
|
