The New England Forestry Foundation has reached a $30 million agreement that will set aside 754,673 acres in Maine for forest conservation. This is the largest privately funded conservation deal in the nation and protects an area 20 percent larger than Rhode Island from future development, the Washington Post reports.

The foundation reached agreement this week with the Pingree family for a conservation easement valued at $37.10 an acre. The $30 million will be raised through private donations, foundation officials told the Post.

The easement will allow some logging, but other development is restricted. The Pingree family has owned an estimated 1 million acres of northern Maine forest land for over 150 years.

The land is near Mount Katahdin, the state's highest peak. The tract includes more than 2,000 acres of lake, river and stream shoreline.

Other recent conservation announcements include an agreement between Pacific Lumber Co. and the state of California and the federal government to protect nearly 10,000 acres of old-growth redwoods; a deal to buy 300,000 acres of Northern Forest land in New Hampshire, New York and Vermont; and the purchase of 185,000 acres in Maine by the Nature Conservancy.

The nonprofit New England Forestry Foundation was established in 1944. It now owns 20,000 acres in 108 tracts across the region.

Full text of the article is currently found at:
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-03/04/301l-030499-idx.html