TOWNSHIP 6 NORTH OF WELD – Now people can walk from Tumbledown Mountain to Mount Blue State Park and stay on publicly conserved land.
But hikers will have to bushwhack some areas to get there, said Sam Hoddar, who is the Trust for Public Land’s project manager for the Tumbledown Mountain/Mount Blue State Park conservation effort.
Another 6,702 acres was declared permanently conserved as public land Thursday. The land, which was owned by MeadWestvaco Corp., includes trails leading to the top of Tumbledown Mountain.
The acquisition is part of a larger effort spearheaded by the Maine Department of Conservation, the Trust for Public Land and the Tumbledown Conservation Alliance.
The five-year project has included a grass-roots initiative to protect nearly 26,000 acres by outright purchase or conservation easements for public use.
The project was made possible by a local, state, federal and private partnership that worked to raise more than $2.4 million for the newest transaction, according to a news release. That sum included a $1.5 million appropriation secured by the Maine congressional delegation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Legacy Program, and a grant of $960,000 from the Land for Maine’s Future Program.
Hoddar said the fair market value for the newest acquisition was $2.65 million, but MeadWestvaco sold it for $2.43 million.
The newly conserved acreage includes 6,063 acres in two parcels on the south and north sides of Tumbledown in Phillips and Township 6 north of Weld. It includes trails going up Tumbledown, Blueberry and Jackson mountains.
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