A national land trust wants to raise $32 million to return 31,000 acres of ancestral land to the Penobscot Nation in a deal that would increase tribal trust holdings by a third and secure public access to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument from the south.

The California-based Trust for Public Land bought the land last December from Conservation Resources, LLC, a timber management organization, for $29.5 million. Once the trust raises the money to pay off the loans it took to make the acquisition, it will turn the land over to the tribe for placement into its trust holdings.

“Getting any land back is a step in the right direction, for sure, but getting this particular land back would be big,” said Chuck Loring, the tribe’s natural resources director. “It’s a beautiful place, but its streams and brooks are also full of the salmon and trout that mean so much to the tribe.”

More than 4,000 acres of the property are wetlands, including tributaries that feed into the east and west branches of the Penobscot River, Loring said. It is part of a 1.2 million-acre wildlife corridor that stretches from Moosehead Lake to Jackman and is used by moose, bear, Canada lynx and wood turtles.

“The Nation highly regards the East Branch of the Penobscot River and her tributaries,” Chief Kirk Francis said. “We are also ecstatic for the opportunity to explore and improve the aquatic and wildlife habitat within this parcel to conserve more land in the Katahdin region for our future generations.”

Loring couldn’t say exactly when the tribe lost this land. It was likely one of the land transactions in the early 1800s when the state paid the tribe a steeply discounted rate for land rich in timber. A treaty map from 1830 showed the lands in question already gone.

The Penobscot Nation is one of four federally recognized tribes in Maine. It relies on the Penobscot River and its surrounding lands for subsistence. In total, it holds over 128,000 acres of land for its 2,400 members, including 95,000 acres of trust land and 5,000 acres of reservation land.

The fundraising effort, which Loring expects to take four years, will be complicated by the fact that many traditional land acquisition grants require conservation easements. The Penobscot Nation wants to retain full stewardship rights over this land, however, in the same way that it controls ancestral lands that it never lost.

That means the trust will need to find private support for returning the land to the tribe without a conservation easement. Over the past two decades, the trust has returned more than 200,000 acres of ancestral lands to 70 tribes and indigenous communities.

ACCESS TO MONUMENT

Under the terms of the planned transfer, the tribe would allow northbound motorists from Millinocket and East Millinocket to use Roberts, Huber, and Kelloch Mountain roads to reach the southern entrance of the adjacent Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

That could help soften the opposition from some neighbors who worry about the potential traffic impacts of opening a monument in such a rural and remote area, Loring said. The tribe is “fiddling around with the idea” of opening a visitor center on the parcel to capitalize on the passing traffic.

If the transaction is completed, the tribe would offer a purchase option to people who lease two private camps on the property, Loring said. In previous acquisitions, people who buy the leased sites – and they almost always do, he said – would simply be carved out of the property transaction.

If the transfer is made, hikers could continue to use the land freely, Loring said. Anyone with a state fishing permit could fish the 53 miles of brooks and streams that crisscross the parcel. Hunting and camping, however, would require a tribal permit.

“We have been careful stewards of the land in this area since the very beginning, and we have no intention of changing that now,” Loring said. “We want everyone to enjoy it. It wouldn’t turn into a 30,000-acre playground for 2,400 Maine Penobscot.”

The trust is calling this deal Wahsehtek, after the name of the Eastern Branch of the Penobscot, which translates into stream of light. Its goal is to reconnect the tribe to its ancestral land and create much-needed access to the national monument.

“Trust for Public Land recognizes the profound and vital significance of returning land,” said Diane Regas, trust president and CEO. “It’s not just an isolated act, but a deep acknowledgment and reaffirmation of a timeless bond, a rich history and a promising future.”

Formed in 1972, the trust has raised $93 billion to protect more than 4 million acres of public lands.

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