Land Use Change in the Lower Penobscot Watershed: Implications for Public Recreation Access Abstract l Updates & additional materials Principal Investigator
Graduate Research Assistant
Stakeholders & Other Partners
While Maine is often remembered for its public recreation areas such as Acadia National Park and Baxter State Park, in reality, only about 6% of the land in Maine is publicly owned (Field, 2003). Public use of private land for hunting, fishing, and motorized recreation is part of Maine's heritage. Increasingly lands are also being used for hiking, walking, and bird watching. Land use change, particularly development, is a major threat to recreation access. The types of individuals and companies now owning major tracts of forest land are vastly different from ten years ago (Hagen, Irland, & Whitman, 2005). Also, residential development pressure presents an ever-increasing stress on forest land, with one study demonstrating that the Lower Penobscot Watershed is the number one area in the entire United States for projected increases in housing density and a resulting decrease in contiguous forest cover (Stein et al. 2005). This project will explore implications of land use change on public recreation access to Maine's private forest land through the use of a mail survey. The main objectives of this project are to: assess current recreation access on private land, increase understanding of landowner decision making, develop predictive models based on different types of recreation, create GIS maps that illustrate current and predicted recreation access, and provide recommendations based on the results. This project is currently of great interest to several stakeholders, and will be useful not only for these engaged stakeholders, but other local planning officials, state agencies, and recreation groups as well. Updates & Additional Materials 12/14/07 Workshop Resources |
Environmental Solutions Initiative
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Senator George J. Mitchell Center