Maine's craggy, foggy coastline and deep boreal woods are central to the state's heritage, character and sense of place. But Maine's coastline and legendary North Woods are at risk as never before. Confronting them are an explosion of land sales, subdivisions, liquidation timber harvesting, second home development, and loss of historic public access.

The North Woods: On the Auction Block
The Northern Forest is the largest continuous expanse of undeveloped land east of the Mississippi. But less than five percent of the State of Maine is public land and only one percent of the total area is protected as wilderness. Recent large timberland sales have opened a tremendous opportunity for conservation and the creation of a public estate in Maine. They have also thrown into question generations of public access to these lands and the future of sustainable, forest-based economies.
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The Maine Voices Project
More than 1800 Maine residents, from school children to loggers to a Pulitzer Prize winner, participated in The Wilderness Society’s "Maine Voices Project." The project was designed to elicit from-the-heart sentiments from our Maine neighbors about the places nearest and dearest to them. The project succeeded beyond our wildest hopes and soon you will be able to read some of the best of the essays.
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Community Economic Assistance
The Wilderness Society helps community, conservation and sustainable development organizations develop baseline information about local and regional economic and demographic trends. This information can then be used in planning and development efforts as well in conservation advocacy campaigns.
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Certified Forest Products
More and more consumers want to know that their wood, and products made from wood, come from sustainable forestry practices. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit third-party forest certification organization, has developed a system that provides that assurance. Certification means that wood and wood products come from forests that meet the highest standards for environmentally, socially and economically sound management.
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National Wildlife Refuge Planning
The Wilderness Society's Northeast Regional Office is working to implement strong, biologically based management plans (called Comprehensive Conservation Plans) for the eight National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) in Maine. These include the Rachel Carson NWR and the Petit Manan NWR, both of which have management planning underway.
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Things to Cheer About:
The Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area
Maine can claim 41,000 acres more of wilderness this year, around the Debsconeag Lakes Region that lies just south and west of Maine's Baxter State Park. The project -- known as the Katahdin Forest Project -- brought together an impressive alliance of conservation organizations.
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