On November 14 Apple and The Conservation Fund announced the donation of a 32,400-acre conservation easement at Reed Forest to Forest Society of Maine. With support from Apple, the Fund also donated an endowment to Forest Society of Maine to ensure the easement will be monitored and enforced forever. These are important steps in our collective effort to ensure the long-term protection of working forests.
Located along the Mattawamkeag River in Aroostook County, Reed Forest adds to more than a million acres of nearby conserved lands and interconnected forest habit that extend beyond the U.S. border into Canada. Maine’s forests provide important habitat for species such as Atlantic salmon, bald eagle, northern goshawk, and Canada lynx.
This conservation easement ensures that the forest will become a healthy, sustainable working forest. Keeping these forests intact provides connectivity to other conserved and managed lands within the region. The easement protects the forests’ bogs, wetlands, rivers, streams, and other aquatic habitat as well as its wildlife and plant communities. It also allows for low-intensity outdoor recreation.
The Conservation Fund worked closely with its local conservation partners to identify the most qualified and experienced easement holder for Reed Forest. Forest Society of Maine was selected because it manages conservation easements across more than one million acres of sustainable working forests in Maine, and maintains an important focus on the conservation of Maine’s North Woods.
Forest Society of Maine is honored to receive and hold the conservation easement at Reed Forest to help ensure its permanent protection. Apple and The Conservation Fund are demonstrating genuine leadership that will help working forests remain intact for Maine’s communities and environment.
Reed Forest Map
Read more about the project from:
Bangor Daily News
Apple Newsroom
The Conservation Fund
