Finding Common Ground: Exploring Meaningful Incentives for Family Forest Landowners to Encourage Public Recreation Access to Private Lands in Maine

The state of Maine is one of the most privately-owned states in the nation. Publicly owned land accounts for a mere 6% of the total land area. Public recreation use of private land is generally assumed to be open and free, unless posted by the property owner. This tradition can be traced to the Colonial Ordinance of 1641-47 that allows public access across private lands for “fishing and fowling and cutting ice.” This tradition has been extremely valuable for not only hunting, fishing and recreation, but this public recreation access provides a valuable service for Maine’s number one industry: tourism. While this tradition of public recreation access has been embraced by many landowners, research indicates that there has been a rise in postings against public recreation access. To address landowner concerns and to seek valuable solutions, focus groups were conducted throughout the state with family forest landowners, government representatives and interest groups, and a mail questionnaire was administered to 1,600 family forest landowners. The results of this study identify family forest landowner policy preferences towards public recreation access within the state of Maine, identifies the variables that influence these preferences, and provides valuable solutions for decision-makers, interest groups and government officials.