LMF board rejects $1.2M option to buy state's largest sugar maple plantation
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry didn’t make the cut in its bid to acquire a $1.2 million conservation easement through its Land for Maine's Future program in order to protect the Big Six sugar maple plantation in Somerset County.
Maine Public reported the 23,600-acre project, known as Big Six, was competing with two dozen other funding requests and scored last. The push to approve the Big Six project focused on the timberland’s maple syrup production, said to account for roughly 20% of the state’s total output. But the operation is done exclusively by Canadian producers and accessing the timberland is done through private logging roads.
“I can imagine how this would play to people looking at this from the outside. ‘You paid $1.25 million for a piece for property you can’t even get to? It doesn’t make sense to me,’“ LMF board member Fred Bucklin told Maine Public.
In May, the Bangor Daily News reported that Big Six owner Paul Fortin had plans to cut down the sugarbush for timber if it didn't receive a conservation easement. Fortin bought Big Six in late 2012, purchasing it from LandVest, a Boston company with land holdings across the U.S., including old timberland in Maine.
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