MLT LAND PROTECTION GUIDELINES

     This set of guidelines helps us decide, when we are presented with more opportunities for land protection than we can handle, how best to allocate our financial and personal resources.

Land Protection Goals

     All projects we undertake should be related to one or more of our purposes as a local land trust.

a) To protect and conserve for the benefit of the general public significant lands and their natural values and traditional characteristics, primarily in the mountain and foothill region of the Mahoosuc Mountains of Western Maine.

b) To promote and provide general and scientific understanding of the region's significant natural resources and the need for their preservation to the benefit of the general public and future generations.

c) To assist towns in balancing growth with the preservation of traditional regional characteristics and land uses, especially farmland and farming, forest land and sound forest management, significant historical features, rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands, mountains, and their associated wildlife, scenery, water quality and ecology.

     In evaluating proposed donations of conservation land or easements, MLT looks at factors which make a proposal desirable, and factors which would make acceptance difficult or unlikely. In addition we want to insure that accepting the proposal is within the financial, organizational, and management capabilities of the Trust. The following list of specific criteria guides our choice of projects. The more ways a potential project has desirable qualities, the fewer ways it has undesirable qualities, the more likely we are to take on the project.

Desirable Qualities

The proposed property clearly needs to have at least one of these qualities.

1. The proposal provides a clear public benefit (recreation, scenic or historic).

2. The proposal protects a high quality native terrestrial or aquatic ecosystem, significant     wildlife habitat, or rate, endangered or threatened species.

3. The proposal abuts other conservation or public lands.

4. The land has historical or agricultural significance and thus preserves the natural     values and characteristics traditional to this area.

5. The land has educational value for use as an outdoor laboratory (classroom).

6. The land is in danger of being diminished or is in close proximity to heavily developing     areas.

7. The property has significant water resources, including aquifers, streams, marshes,      lake/river frontage.

Undesirable Qualities

If the proposed property has one or more of these qualities acceptance is unlikely.

1. The proposal does not add any significant protection to the property.

2. The proposal would not protect the integrity of the property or ecological system.

3. Future management including enforcement of the easement will be too difficult or     costly. This could be because of multiple or fractured ownership, poor access, or     environmental degradation such as waste dumps near the boundaries.

4. The property is too small to be significant for its intended purposes.

5. The proposal benefits only a single landowner or developer.

6. The proposal will place undue strain on the financial and management capabilities of     the land trust.

7. There is little community support for the project.