East Grand Watershed Project Page

East Grand Watershed Project in the Town of Orient

The URL of this page is: http://www.chiplakenews.org/EGWProject.htm

Newer notes and messages have been posted above older messages.

NOTE: If you find any of the information on this page to be inaccurate, please send an e-mail noting both the incorrect AND the correct information to: ChipLakeINFO <AT> aol.com
The following is the best information available known at the time this information was posted.

Additional information will be posted here when it is released through the office of the Town of Orient. You may e-mail proposed messages and announcements to Orient04471 <AT> yahoo.com asking that the town officially release that information to be listed on this page.

December 2010

The following "Frequently Asked Questions" is a compilation of the notes, comments and questions that were developed by the people who attended a Public Forum held at the Weston Town Office on October 26, 2010, fifteen of whom were residents and voters of the Town of Weston and fifteen of whom were residents and voters of the Town of Orient. In addition to staff and scribes, nine other non-resident participants attended the forum. This summary was compiled by Nancy Bell of The Conservation Fund which sponsored the forum in conjunction with the Towns of Weston and Orient. Her contact information is given below.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What lands are included in the East Grand Watershed Initiative?
The East Grand Watershed Initiative project area includes three parcels of land totaling approximately 12,000 acres in the Towns of Weston and Orient as follows:

* Meetinghouse Point/Weston: This parcel includes 981 acres in Weston with frontage on East Grand Lake and Sucker Lake.

* Million Dollar View/Weston & Orient: This parcel includes 4,966 acres in both Weston and Orient with frontage on East Grand, Deering, Brackett and Longley Lakes.

* Monument Brook/Orient: This parcel includes 6,066 acres in the Town of Orient with frontage on North Lake [The Thoroughfare] and Monument Brook.

2. Who owns and manages these lands and who will decide their future?
The lands are part of a larger timberland holding (former Georgia-Pacific lands) owned by Typhoon LLC. Wagner Forest Management Ltd., of Lyme, New Hampshire is responsible for managing the land and the disposition of certain properties, including these lands. Wagner manages over 2.7 million acres of forest for more than 20 different landowners in the U.S. and Canada. Wagner has extensive experience in sustainable forest management and has completed many conservation projects on lands under its management.

3. Have Typhoon and Wagner already decided to sell the land?
Typhoon’s investment strategy focuses on the long-term management of timberlands. Over the course of the past decade, this strategic focus has prompted Wagner to sell (or place conservation easements on) most of Typhoon’s waterfront lease lots and other high-value waterfront. Wagner has been contemplating its course of action regarding the East Grand lands for several years, and has decided the time has come to move toward a sale. Recognizing the unique character of this land and its great importance to the local communities and larger region, Wagner has elected to work collaboratively with the towns and conservation interests to come up with a disposition that benefits the public, rather than simply placing the lands on the open market. If the lands were simply sold to the highest bidder, there would be no assurances that the interests of area residents would be considered.

4. What conservation groups are involved in this project?
The project was initiated through the efforts of the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust (WWLT), a regional land trust established in 1994 with a mission to promote conservation of the Chiputneticook Lakes. WWLT has been involved in a number of land conservation projects on Spednik and Mud Lakes. The land trust quickly determined that the size and cost of the East Grand
Watershed Initiative required a partnership with a larger organization possessing significant experience and financial resources. WWLT approached The Conservation Fund (TCF), a national and conservation organization, because of its previous involvement in the Downeast region at West Grand Lake and in other parts of Maine.

5. What will be each group's role?
The Conservation Fund is negotiating with Wagner Forest Management to acquire these lands from Typhoon. WWLT is working closely with TCF to provide them with information and local insights and to assist with the collaboration with the two towns.

6. Who will eventually own the 12,000 acres?
At the present time, we do not know. While TCF hopes to acquire the property, it does not intend to be a long-term owner. Instead, it will convey the land and conservation easement(s) to other parties in a way that is mindful of the objectives to be set forth by the towns of Weston and Orient. Based upon public discussions to date, it is quite possible that there will be several different owners of portions of the property.

7. How will the lands be managed in the future?
Again, we do not know the specifics other than to say that the goal of the current collaboration with Weston and Orient is to identify the towns' priorities for the land's future uses. Once those are better defined, TCF and WWLT will come up with options on how best to achieve those priorities. Based upon input received to date, the following future management objectives appear to have broad support: maintaining traditional public access to the lands; continuing to manage much of it for sustainable timber production; maintaining the high water quality of the lakes; and providing economic opportunities from the land to benefit the local economy and provide jobs.

8. What is a conservation easement and how might they be used on this land?
A conservation easement is a legal agreement on a parcel of land that governs what can occur on the land in the future. A conservation easement can be tailored to the specific needs of a parcel. Typically a conservation easement will either prohibit or limit future development, but can allow other uses such as commercial forestry and agriculture and can guarantee future public recreational access. It is granted by the landowner to a "holder" which is usually a land trust or public agency. The landowner remains owner of the property and continues to use it and pay taxes, while the holder is responsible for ensuring that the terms of the conservation easement are followed by monitoring it on a regular basis. It is likely that conservation easements will be among the conservation tools used as part of the East Grand Watershed Initiative. However, no decisions have been made regarding what lands should be covered by an easement or what the terms of any easements might be.

9. What is the difference between conservation easements and local zoning?
There are several important differences between conservation easements and zoning restrictions including:

* Zoning can be changed at any time, whereas, conservation easements are permanent to ensure that certain values such as working forests, clean water, and public access are protected over time.

* Conservation easements can prohibit or severely restrict development and the landowner is compensated for giving up those rights. Zoning can restrict development in certain fragile areas, but cannot take away all development rights on lands that may be important to the public, but is otherwise suitable for development (such as a sand beach).

* Conservation easements can provide certain public benefits such as guaranteeing public access for hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, and hiking, whereas zoning largely determines the location and design of developments.

10. How much will the acquisition of the Typhoon lands cost?
Negotiations are currently underway between The Conservation Fund and Wagner. The issue of price will be governed by an appraisal of the property, which is currently in process. The purchase price cannot exceed the appraised fair market value of the land.

11. Where will the acquisition funds come from?
The acquisition funds are likely to come from a variety of sources including: federal and state funding programs for land conservation; private contributions to support the project; and revenue received from the sale of portions of the property (which may or may not be protected by conservation easements) to private buyers.

12. What is the urgency in completing this project?
Wagner seeks to sell these lands in Weston and Orient in the near future. While Wagner is prepared to provide a limited period of time for the conservation organizations and towns to come up with their plans for acquiring the property, substantial progress will have to be made in the coming months. It will be necessary to submit funding applications as soon as the framework for the project has been agreed on, since the funding process can take an extended time. Several potential sources require applications to be submitted in the spring of 2011 for funding that will not be available until 2012 or 2013.

In addition to the twelve items above, those who attended the public forum were given the opportunity to ask other questions. The notes below reflect the questions and comments left in response to that opportunity.

Additional questions from the 10/26/10 Community Forum:

1. A." What is the plan for deciding land use?”
The goal of the current collaboration with Weston and Orient is to identify the town's priorities for the land's future uses. Once those are better defined, TCF and WWLT will come up with options on how best to achieve those priorities.
.
1. B." Who owns Typhoon LLC?"
Wagner does not and contractually cannot discuss who their investors are or are not. Wagner is the Manager of Typhoon with full authority to undertake actions, including the disposition of these lands, on behalf of the LLC.

1. C. "What benefit does a conservation easement provide in addition to existing laws, regulations and treaties?"
Conservation easements can provide certain public benefits such as guaranteeing public access for hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, and hiking, and ensuring sustainable forestry and habitat protection for deer wintering areas and water resources. Whereas zoning largely determines the location and design of developments.

2. "Why has Danforth been excluded from discussion? They should be included."
No one is being excluded from the discussion. Outreach to other towns will occur as Weston, Orient and the cooperating groups and landowner reach an understanding and the project moves forward. At that point, information will be shared and dialog will proceed with surrounding towns in the U.S. and Canada.

3. "Financial impact? Taxes? Loss of taxes - tax obligation? Non-profit? Pay taxes?"
The property is currently taxed under the Tree Growth Tax Law as a working forest. A goal of WWLT and TCF is make sure the project is tax revenue neutral, in other words, there is no loss of tax revenue to the towns. WWLT pays taxes on conservation properties it owns. If the towns decided to create a community forest with state participation, the tax loss, could be replaced by shared timber revenue.

4. "Who owns Five Islands?"
The State of Maine, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

5. "Please keep the public and citizens of Orient, Weston, Danforth, and Forest City informed of the results of this study. Too much mistrust in the past."
We promise to keep everyone informed and welcome continued dialog.

For additional information please contact:
Nancy Bell
The Conservation Fund
1331 Town Hill Road
Shrewsbury, VT 05738
nancy_bell@vermontel.net

802-492-3368

September 23, 2010

On September 30th (next Thursday evening) there will be a presentation by the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust at the Orient Town Office starting at 6:00. The presentation will bring Orient residents up to date on the plans that WWLT has for purchasing the three tracts of forested land currently owned by Typhoon, LLC and managed by Wagner Timber Management, one tract in Orient (about 6,000 acres) and two additional tracts in Weston (another 6,000 acres) for the purpose of permanently conserving as forest land and protecting the land and shorelines and establishing conservation easements on those lands for the benefit of the public for permanent outdoor recreation such as fishing, hunting, trapping, hiking, snowmobiling and ATV use. All are welcome to attend and participate in the discussion.

September 15, 2010

A public forum has been scheduled and posted to be held on October 26th between 6:00 and 9:00 PM at the East Grand Grange on US Route 1 in Weston, just north of the Danforth town line. The forum is sponsored by the Towns of Weston and Orient and The Conservation Fund...all Orient and Weston community members are invited to attend...a light dinner of pizza and beverages will be served. For more information contact Margaret Frye in Weston at 448-2316 or online at townofweston@pwless.net OR Lisa Silkey in Orient at 448-7729 or online at Orient04471@yahoo.com .

From the flyer now posted in various locations locally:

"What do you love about living the the East Grand Lake region? In particular, what areas are important to you for community, historic, recreation , scenic, wildlife or natural resource values? What is your vision for the future of this place? What are the challenges you see in the future? The intent of this Community Forum is to gather information on community and natural resource values in the East Grand Lake area and to listen for the common ground and concerns."

"Diverse individuals such as hunters, trappers, loggers, business owners, boaters, snowmobilers, realtors, second-home owners, developers and other interest groups are encouraged to attend to provide comprehensive input on the resource priorities of the community. Participants will be asked to identify activities, values and areas that are important using maps and in small group conversations. This event will be used to inform and develop community supported strategies for the conservation of the lands around East Grand Lake."

"The Community Forum will take place in an informal setting with small groups seated around tables."
____

In conjunction with these concerns, you might want to know that there will be an open (public) joint meeting between the Select Boards of Orient and Weston on Thursday evening, September 23rd at the Weston Town Office for an "open discussion on WWLT Conservation easement of Wagner lands east of Route #1 in the town[s] of Weston & Orient."

Additional information will be posted here when it is released (ONLY) through the office of the Town of Orient. To return quickly to this page, make this page a Favorite Page in your web browser.

Back to the Top-of-the-Page

RETURN to the Town of Orient Home Page

http://www.chiplakenews.org/tgaToO.htm