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Drinking Water Week

May 9, 2025 By Kassie

FSM invites you to remember the importance of clean water in the final days of #DrinkingWaterWeek! In the last 40 years, the Forest Society of Maine has conserved more than 800 miles of shoreline of lakes and ponds, which promote a clean water supply. Some of that shoreline is on Branch Lake, through a conservation project done in partnership with the City of Ellsworth, Trust for Public Land, and Frenchman Bay Conservancy, and with funding from The Land for Maine’s Future Program. This project conserved 730 acres of largely intact forest at the southern end of the lake, which is the primary drinking water supply for the city of Ellsworth. The conservation easement was designed for watershed and habitat protection, low-intensity recreational access, and forest management. At the time it was conserved in 2010, this was the City of Ellsworth’s number one conservation priority.

To learn more about the project, and where you can hit the trail, visit the Conserved Lands page.

Moose Crossings & Salamander Migrations

May 1, 2025 By Kassie

Mark your calendars! FSM is partnering with the Bangor Public Library to host the second in a series of conservation related presentations.

Maine is the most forested state in the US and holds a surprising second superlative: having more roads per person than any other state. This leads to unexpected interactions between Maine’s wildlife and our roadways. Roadways can attract snakes and turtles, deter predators and secretive birds, and serve as highways for vultures, moose, and other species to move between habitats. This talk will discuss the complex nature of road ecology, spanning a variety of species, habitats, and locations in Maine – from our wilderness areas to our downtowns.

Dr. Greg LeClair is the Municipal Planning Biologist in the Beginning with Habitat Program housed within MDIFW. Greg works with towns to help them achieve their conservation goals, including subjects related to habitat connectivity and roadways.

Learn more about the event and register at the link below

Magalloway Lands & Waters

March 18, 2025 By Kassie

LEARN MORE DONATE CASE STATEMENT PRESS RELEASE

Four conservation organizations today announced a partnership aimed at permanently conserving 78,000 acres in the Magalloway region of western Maine. The multifaceted land conservation project will maintain existing recreational access to the property’s lands and waters, while establishing forested buffers around rivers, lakes, and streams. Core to the purpose, the project will help sustain the regional economy by continuing opportunities for active forest management on 62,500 acres, and in addition, designate an 11,200-acre wilderness preserve that will enhance forest and biological diversity within its boundaries.

The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, Forest Society of Maine, Northeast Wilderness Trust, and The Nature Conservancy have come together as the Magalloway Collaborative, and they are seeking to raise $62 million to fund the project by May 2026.

Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust Executive Director David Miller commented: “We have an incredible opportunity before us with the Magalloway project to conserve 78,000 acres and effectively connect more than 500,000 acres of conserved lands to the east and west. This effort supports our region’s climate resiliency, helps prevent the loss of biodiversity, and preserves public access. With the support of a community who loves the Rangeley Region, we can take action and protect these globally significant lands and waters for future generations. But we must act now.”

The Magalloway project’s balanced conservation approach was negotiated in partnership with Wagner Forest Management, representing Bayroot, LLC, the property owner. Most of the property (62,500 acres) will continue to be owned by Bayroot and support the regional forest and recreational economy. A new permanent conservation easement held by Forest Society of Maine will restrict future development, secure substantial forested buffers around streams and lakes, allow the lands to be managed for forest products, and continue allowing public access for hunting, fishing, boating, and other recreational and cultural uses.

Learn more by visiting magalloway.org or the documents linked above.

Photo by Jerry Monkman.

Game Cameras at Nickerson Tree Farm

March 7, 2025 By Kassie

FSM is using game cameras to document wildlife on our Nickerson Tree Farm property in Greenville. Our staff is discovering which animals inhabit these lands. We captured footage of a fisher making its way through the forest. Although they are sometimes referred to as “fisher cats”, this is a misnomer – fishers are actually part of the Mustelid family, along with weasels and otters! Check out our social media accounts to see the short video. FSM is excited to see the results from these game cameras, and we look forward to sharing more in the future.

John Hagan on Living on Earth

February 28, 2025 By Kassie

John Hagan, ecologist and friend of FSM, was recently featured in an interview on the Living on Earth podcast with Paloma Beltran and Jennie Doering. On the Living on Earth podcast, Hagan discussed the way his organization, Our Climate Common, is using a technology called LiDAR to map forests in the North Woods, to identify old growth forests to better conserve them.

If you’d like to listen or read more, find that here: Living on Earth | John Hagan. John gave a talk on this at an FSM event last year, and more recently worked with FSM to write and publish Maine Forest Conservation Easements for the 21st Century. If you’d like a PDF copy of the publication, reach out to us by email.

John was also recently featured on Voices for Maine’s Environment, Natural Resources Council of Maine’s (NRCM) podcast.