Climate Challenges

Maine is warming faster than the global average, putting stress on native plants and animals. Scientists predict that 34–58 percent of species will go extinct for given climate change scenarios if they are unable to disperse to new locations. Sea-level rise, warming water temperatures and prolonged drought are a few challenges that the St. George River watershed will face in growing severity in the coming decades.

Climate change is a challenge to our Maine way of life, as it affects our forests, wetlands, wildlife, health, landowners, and local economy. We have added new focus to our work to incorporate more actions that will help mitigate the effects of climate change, and we’ve committed to an ambitious set of goals for 2021-26.

Climate Actions

Protect 1,000 acres of the highest priority landscapes to mitigate local effects of climate change.

• Conserving large landscapes and the connections between them is one of the most effective ways to help local populations of plants and animals to move and adapt to a changing climate. Properly managed, conserved land can act as a carbon reservoir and a tool to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it as vegetative biomass and in soils. We will identify the highest priority land in our region and increase our pace of conservation to protect it.

Strengthen stewardship of our 4,000+ acres of conserved lands to enhance biodiversity, help natural systems adapt to climate change and foster relationships with easement landowners to help them do the same.

• Through planned habitat enhancement projects, we will increase the climate resilience of our portfolio of ecologically critical landscapes. By partnering with our conservation easement owners, we will help them mitigate climate effects on their own land. Together, we will help our local native plants and animals transition during this challenging time. We will enhance climate resilience in our preserves and, in partnership with landowners, on easement properties.

We invite you to join us in this critically important work by supporting our Keep the Watershed Wild vision.

New Project

Protect the Rockland Bog – In 2022, we hope to permanently protect another 500+ acres in this 5,000 acre wilderness. With your help we will protect bog dependent wildlife and plants, clean water, mitigate climate change, and ensure public recreation. Why protect the bog? Learn about Rockland’s biggest, oldest, ecological secret.