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10/14/2007

"We were looking at the picture up there and thinking what happens when big ownership gets broken up," said Robert Kimber of Temple, an author and founding member of the Tumbledown Conservation Alliance.

Kimber and the other members of the alliance knew that when large parcels get broken down into smaller parcels, the land where people once hiked, or where foresters cut timber, starts sprouting houses.

"We literally got together in a classroom at the University of Maine at Farmington and said, 'now what? What are we going to do?'" Kimber recalled.

They knew they wanted to conserve the area but they didn't want to change a balance that had worked well for generations.

"It was really clear that what we wanted to do was maintain the status quo -- forest products and the scenic and recreation values of the area," said Kimber.

Over the next five years, the group wrote to their congressmen, sent fundraising letters and had cocktail parties.

In the end, they raised $8 million, including about $4.6 million in federal Forest Legacy funds and $2.6 million from Land for Maine's Future. About $600,000 was raised locally from more than 900 individuals, businesses and foundations.

They conserved nearly 26,000 acres -- parcels of land that together are many times the size of Mount Blue State Park -- which include the starkly barren summits of Tumbledown Mountain that draw a steady stream of hikers each year.

Land for Maine's Future funds played a critical role in that process, said Kimber.

"You subtract Land for Maine's Future and forget it. We just never could have done it without them," he said. "At every step of the way, they were crucial players."

-- Alan Crowell

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