Building Resilient Habitats Map

Maine/Northeast Resilient Habitats

The northern forests of New England, (part of the Northern Appalachian Bioregion), represent one of the Sierra Club's priority "Climate Adaptation Refuge Zones."

In order to allow native plants and animals to survive the growing stresses of climate change by providing vital resilient habitats, a northeastern "refuge zone" would consist of large core protected areas, buffer zones, and interconnected corridors.

An extensive body of analysis and mapping by the scientists of the Two Countries/One Forest Project (2C1F) has completed the identification of key core ecological areas and vital wildlife corridors from the Adirondacks of New York, through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and into Maritime Canada. The Sierra Club is an active participant in the 2C1F collaboration and has activated a community-based grassroots network of volunteers representing each of the New England states and maritime Canada. Together, Sierra Club staff and volunteers are designing a plan to educate the public and pressure key state, federal and provincial governments to protect these globally important cores and linkages.

In a paper published in the 2007 Maine Policy Review entitled "The Importance of Maine for Eco-regional Conservation Planning," Maine's large contiguous, un-fragmented northern forests were identified as the ecological core of the Northern Appalachian region. The Maine Woods, encompassing over 10 million acres, are the biggest block of undeveloped forestlands east of the Mississippi and provide critical wildlife habitat, pristine watersheds, rare plant species, and some of the last old-growth forest stands in the northeast.

Currently the Maine Sierra Club Chapter is actively opposing the largest development proposal in Maine's history, proposed by Seattle-based Plum Creek for the Moosehead Lake Region – the heart of the Maine Woods. Our efforts have been successful in building an effective rural northern citizen network "northern voices for wilderness." Hundreds of citizen activists spoke at public hearings across the State, submitted comments to the regulatory agency and peppered the state's newspapers with letters. A decision on the development plan is expected in the fall of 2008. Sierra Club is also uniquely positioned to work with the public and Governor Baldacci's administration to explore, design and implement a bold plan for permanent federal and/or state protection for this vast core of unspoiled forests – up to six million acres – to prevent further efforts to fragment and develop these important forestlands.

The priority goal of Sierra Club's Northeast Resilient Habitats Initiative is to establish a cross-borders network of protected core areas, corridors and buffer zones which span federal, state and private lands in order to preserve resilient habitats in the face of the adverse impacts of climate change. We will:

Continue to work with top scientists to develop a model climate adaptation plan for the northeast region and will build public and political demand for the plan's adoption.

Mobilize conservation groups, hunters and anglers, wilderness guides, nature-based businesses, local government officials, private landowners and others to support the plan
Preserve all remaining northeast mature forest ecosystems in order to support long-term climate stabilization by maximizing the carbon sequestration of greenhouse gasses.
Work with the congressional delegations of the northeast to change federal policy and steer national resources and expertise to address the need to strengthen habitat resilience.

For more information about the Maine Chapter, please visit http://maine.sierraclub.org

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