Goal #1: Protecting a Viable Network of Land

From the very start the Coalition emphasized strategic conservation to ensure the best return on investment of conservation funds and efforts. To that end the Strategic Conservation Framework points to placing at the fingertips of the land trusts robust information and tools for setting local and regional conservation priorities.

First up were a set of efforts creating conservation data at coastwide scale. After assessing existing information about the lands that best define the character of coastal Maine, the Coalition members selected three types of data to make whole and readily available: habitat, points of access to the coast, and scenic/cultural features.

As a result, in early 2006 three data development projects were launched.

1. The multi-agency collaborative, Beginning with Habitat has spent a year identifying the prime habitat lands across the coast.
2. At the same time the first-ever mapping of all commercial and recreational access to the coast was begun by the Island Institute—an ambitious project that combats the quiet, undocumented loss of public connection and access to Maine’s coastal waters.
3. The Maine State Planning Office completes the trio with their work to develop and pilot a methodology communities can use to select their most defining scenic and cultural features. When all three projects are complete, the conservation priorities that emerge from each data set will be conveyed on a Coastal Reference Map—a tool that creates a new, broader viewing lens and context for a coastwide, viable network of conserved lands.

The next step is helping Maine land trusts use this information effectively in their communities. This is being accomplished through the building of a strategic conservation planning curriculum this year that will deliver through training sessions the best practices of strategic conservation, effective model processes, and mentoring support to select land trusts.

Given the many trusts that are working in neighboring and sometimes overlapping coastal enclaves, collaboration in strategic conservation planning is key. In this vein, MCPI funds were targeted to help launch--through the work of the Nature Conservancy , Maine Coast Heritage Trust, and the Maine Land Trust Network GIS Council-- a conserved lands database for GIS mapping that sets standards for how the myriad of available conservation data layers are organized, making information sharing easier, more professional, and sustainable.

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