NRCM works to protect Maine’s natural areas and wild, undeveloped character, particularly in the North Woods. We support responsible land development and sustainable forest practices that protect sensitive ecosystems and wildlife. We work for increased public ownership of Maine lands, so future generations will know the Maine we love today.
Protection of Maine’s natural, remote areas was one of the issues for which NRCM was founded in 1959. More than 60 years later, much progress has been made but major threats to Maine’s land and water resources continue.
With our coalition partners, NRCM has won many significant victories over the years, from helping establish the Allagash Wilderness Waterway to passage of legislation limiting irresponsible clear cuts. But the challenges of protecting Maine’s treasured wildlands and the wildlife that depend upon them have never been greater, nor the need more urgent.
We worked to establish a National Monument just east of Baxter State Park and continue our work to push for Land for Maine’s Future funding to acquire public lands, watchdog Maine’s public lands and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, stop the ill-conceived East-West Highway from being built, weigh-in when harmful development is proposed in Maine’s North Woods, and ensure that any timber harvesting laws and policies are as protective as possible.
More than one-third of the state has changed ownership in the past 20 years. Corporations that have no stake in our local communities are buying up hundreds of thousands of acres. Slicing and dicing these natural areas can destroy the character of Maine’s North Woods forever.
This loss would affect not only the people of Maine but also our wildlife. The region is home to moose, bear, deer, and dozens of bird species—Boreal Chickadee, Spruce Grouse, Pine Grosbeak, Cape May Warbler, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher—for which the North Woods are the southernmost limit of their breeding range. Maine’s North Woods also provide many recreational opportunities for Maine people. Unchecked development threatens access to undeveloped, wild forests, lakes, and rivers for hiking, canoeing, camping, hunting and fishing.
While development pressures and the loss of public access continue to intensify, NRCM remains a voice for balancing economic development in Maine’s North Woods with conservation.
We invite you to learn more about our work to protect Maine’s North Woods and other natural areas, and to support our vital work for generations to come.

200 Years of Troubled Waters for Atlantic Salmon
By Kevin Miller, staff writer Bangor Daily News news story Atlantic salmon did not disappear from New England rivers overnight. Rather, North American populations of this resilient fish beloved by anglers for its fight and by food aficionados for its flavor has suffered what some describe as “death by a thousand cuts” over the past Read More

Atlantic Salmon Fishing Returns to Maine
Portland Press Herald editorial It’s not a long season, there are plenty of restrictions and fishermen can’t keep their catch. But starting this morning, anglers will once more be angling for sea-run Atlantic salmon in Maine. The month-long, experimental season is limited to a short stretch of the Penobscot, the river that has the healthiest Read More

Legal Muscle Lined Up for Plum Creek Battle
By Gregory D. Kesich, Portland Press Herald writer Portland Press Herald news story Plum Creek Timber Co.’s proposal to rezone more than 400,000 acres in the Moosehead Lake region promises to be the biggest development in Maine history, and the fight about its approval promises to be one of the state’s most complicated legal battles. Read More

Moosehead — Furor in the Forest
By Jeff Clark Down East Magazine Plum Creek is proposing the largest development in Maine history around Moosehead Lake. Is this the end of the North Woods or its economic salvation? Either way northern Maine will never be the same. Luke Muzzy figures that twenty years from now the people of Greenville will either consider Read More

Plum Foolish
By Ted Williams Audubon Magazine If the plan for Maine’s biggest development ever goes through, it could spell disaster for millions of acres of forestland across the northeast. For 40 years I’ve been collecting images from Maine’s north woods: the unbroken canopy of green flashing past as my crewmates from the old Kennebec Log Drive Read More

Groups and Local Residents Raise Concerns About Plum Creek’s Massive Development Proposal
* Natural Resources Council of Maine * Maine Audubon * AUGUSTA—At a State House news conference today, the executive directors of Maine’s two leading environmental organizations were joined by Moosehead Lake-area business owners and residents in detailing their serious concerns about Plum Creek’s revised development plan. Seattle-based Plum Creek, a Real Estate Investment Trust and Read More

NRCM Statement about Plum Creek’s Revised Plan
Over the past month, the staff at the Natural Resources Council of Maine has carefully evaluated Plum Creek’s 1,000+-page revised proposal for development around Moosehead Lake. We have met with many residents of the Moosehead Lake region to hear their reactions to the new plan. We have visited almost every single location that the company Read More

LURC Board Unanimously Rejects Moosehead Lake Development
NRCM news release Today at their public meeting in Dover Foxcroft, the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission voted 5-0 to unanimously reject a proposed 70 lot subdivision at Burnt Jacket Mountain on Moosehead Lake. This discussion and vote is seen by many as indicative of how LURC might proceed during their deliberation on Plum Creek’s Read More

All Mainers Have Stake in Plum Creek as Public Caretakers
MAINE VOICES: Wendy Weiger Maine Sunday Telegram As a resident of the Moosehead Lake region, I know the development proposal that Plum Creek Real Estate Investment Trust is submitting to the Land Use Regulation Commission is likely only one of many that will affect our region over the next few years. Before these proposals are Read More
Banner photo: Moose near Baxter State Park, by Gerard Monteux