DOWN EAST magazine • August 1, 2025
Of all the New England states, Maine contains the lowest percentage of public land relative to its entire area, just 6.9 percent, according to data compiled by the Maine Land Trust Network (Rhode Island, at 11.6 percent, is the next lowest). What Maine lacks in public land, land trusts have strived to make up for by conserving private land. Today, Maine hosts 84 land trusts, more per capita than any other state in the country, and the Maine Land Trust Network’s latest census shows that those trusts have collectively conserved 2.93 million acres, equal to almost 15 percent of the state’s land base.