Case Study | Preserving Maine’s Green Spaces

Vision. And values. At Bernstein Shur, our passion for the law—and the environment—helped clear the way for a record-breaking Maine conservation project.

When a prominent New England conservation group joined forces with energetic residents of a small town in Downeast Maine to conserve a vast parcel of woodlands, they sought Bernstein Shur’s guidance in the transaction. In the context of rapidly changing ownership patterns within Maine’s northwoods and escalating land values, the objective was not only to ensure that the property remained a working forest, but that it would remain open for the variety of traditional recreational uses that add depth and breadth to the local economy.

A daunting challenge
Bernstein Shur’s land conservation attorneys represented the conservation interests in a series of negotiations and transactions with multiple partners extending over several years, resulting in the acquisition of a conservation corridor along waterways on the U.S.-Canada border, tens of thousands of acres of woodland surrounding pristine lakes as a community forest, and a no-development sustainable forestry easement on more than 300,000 acres.

A race against time
As counsel, Bernstein Shur assisted with negotiations and documented the complex option and purchase and sale agreements with landowners and public agencies, the grant and loan agreements with public and private funders, and the conservation easements that will govern use and oversight of these lands in perpetuity. We also managed extensive due diligence for our clients and their funders, including title and environmental review. All transpired under time pressure to make sure that funds were in place before options ran out and landowners, under significant pressure to sell to higher bidders, turned to other opportunities.

Today, the project boasts more than one-third of a million acres of Maine woodland bordering hundreds of miles of pristine lakeshore – including the largest contiguous conservation easement in U.S. history.

One for the record books
Over the last five years, Bernstein Shur’s land conservation attorneys have assisted conservation organizations and timber investment clients with acquisitions that have resulted in the conservation of more than one and a half million acres of land in Maine and New Hampshire. From protection of rural farm fields for communities interested in maintaining historic character, to advising families on long-term conservation solutions to estate planning objectives, to negotiating landscape scale conservation easements, our experienced land conservation attorneys are pleased to have had the opportunity to help bring our clients’ visions to fruition.

Real Estate Practice Group
Land Conservation Group