KMF-2010 | Environmental Funders Network

Keeping Maine’s Forests

Purpose: For coordination of the Keeping Maine’s Forests initiative (TNC is acting as fiscal agent for the KMF Implementation Committee).
Partners: Keeping Maine’s Forests, The Nature Conservancy.
2011 Award: $11,000
2010 Award: $50,000 Read the 2010 Proposal (PDF)

Keeping Maine’s Forests (KMF) brings together diverse interests to identify and implement strategies through which Maine can further conservation, community and economic goals, all consistent with keeping intact Maine’s North Woods, the largest undeveloped forest east of the Mississippi.

With its first year now complete, KMF continues as an independent and self-governing collaboration. The KMF Implementation Committee plans to hire a Coordinator to be charged with the tasks of maintaining consistent communication among all KMF participants, providing essential coordination and organization services and assuring the follow-through on which success depends.

Critical to the success of this initiative is the creative involvement of Maine citizens whose livelihoods, sense of place and quality of life are tied to our great forests.

The idea of a collaborative approach to the Maine Woods began to take shape nearly two years ago as a handful of interests met in an early incarnation of KMF. That effort produced a highly informative report that held out the prospect of a cooperative approach. The initiative as it is constituted today grew out of an invitation by the Obama Administration delivered by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar just over a year ago. He noted the Administration’s interest in a new national conservation initiative (currently known as America’s Great Outdoors). It quickly became apparent that the US Department of Agriculture, EPA and NOAA were also interested in what regions of the country saw as unmet needs. Salazar suggested that Maine, with its vast forests and tradition of private ownership, should present a proposal of its own that reflected the perspectives of forestry as well as conservation. Since then, more than 28 stakeholders have joined the Keeping Maine’s Forests Initiative ranging from forest landowners, loggers and mill representatives, to recreational and economic development interests, environmental advocates and conservation groups.

The Keeping Maine’s Forests Implementation Committee includes the Penobscot Nation, Natural Resources Council of Maine, East Machias and Machias Watershed Councils, Maine Sportsman’s Alliance, Maine Forest Service, Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Tree Foundation, Forest Society of Maine, Environmental Funders Network, Maine Professional Guides Association, Maine Audubon, Katahdin Forest Management, Small Woodlot Owners Association of Maine, Baskhegan Co., Maine Wilderness Guides Association, Treeline Inc., Maine Forest Products Council, The Nature Conservancy, Office of the Governorf the State of Maine, Trust for Public Land, Maine Department of Conservation, Huber Resources, Piscataquis County Commission, Prentiss & Carlisle, Maine Pulp & Paper Association, Sierra Club, and Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce. The initiative is in the process of adopting a governance structure that will maintain the involvement of this diverse group of interests but also add a smaller oversight committee.