State officials have approved funding for a piece of property near Branch Lake that will help triple the size of Ellsworth’s city forest.
The Land for Maine’s Future board has decided to award Ellsworth $92,500 to pay for half the cost of acquiring roughly 280 wooded acres on the eastern side of Branch Lake. The land separates the existing 238-acre lakefront Ellsworth City Forest, which is publicly accessible, from another 285-acre wooded lot that the city owns to the north off Phillips Way.
The expansion of the city forest is expected to help protect the water quality of Branch Lake, which is used as the city’s water supply. It also will provide more outdoor recreation opportunities for local residents, the number of which is growing as developers construct housing in the city to address the shortage of affordable apartments and homes in Hancock County.
The city hopes to use money from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to cover the other half of the $185,000 asking price for the 280-acre middle lot, which currently is owned by Herbert C. Haynes, Jr. With the two awards, the city can acquire the parcel without using any local taxpayer funds to expand the city forest to more than 800 acres.
The appraised value of the lot is $216,000, roughly $30,000 more than the agreed purchase price, according to Matt Williams, Ellsworth’s city planner. The city has not yet been awarded a grant by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but hopes to find out this fall if that money will come through, he said.
City officials have not said whether they would move forward with the planned purchase of the property if the Land and Water Conservation Fund grant does not come through.
Frenchman Bay Conservancy holds a conservation easement on the existing city forest and on a large adjacent privately-owned lot that abuts the city forest to the south. The expansion of the city forest and of the conservation easement is expected to result in an undeveloped block of more than 1,300 acres of forested habitat on the eastern side of Branch Lake.
“This new addition includes wetlands and streams that feed into Branch Lake, which supplies drinking water for residents and creates a habitat block of 1,363 acres,” Laura Graham, the director of Land for Maine’s Future, said Thursday. “[Land for Maine’s Future] is proud to be funding this important project.”
City officials have said they could create as much as 10 miles of hiking trails across the three publicly accessible lots, but Williams said planning for additional trails won’t start until the city has acquired the middle parcel. There are roughly 2.5 miles of hiking trails in the city forest.
