Loggers from M & H Logging, Rangeley, Maine. Photo courtesy of Bruce Kidman, Keeping Maine’s Forests
When the Environmental Funders Network launched its Quality of Place Initiative in 2009, its members had two purposes in mind: to spur economic prosperity and to enhance Maine’s distinctive built and natural environments. Using these guiding principles, the EFN, a joint program of the community foundation and the Maine Philanthropy Center, has made more than $1 million in strategic grants to organizations across the state.
The network was looking for groups with ambitious ideas -- “not the usual suspects,” as Bo Norris, founding chair of the EFN steering committee, put it. Keeping Maine’s Forests fit the bill: private and public partners attempting to alter business as usual over a massive landscape involving local, regional, state, and federal players.
“A Maine woods vision,” says Marcia McKeague, a professional forester and timberland manager who serves on Keeping Maine’s Forests’ board, “must recognize the needs and aspirations of shopkeepers in rural communities, fishermen on remote ponds, loggers making payments on million-dollar harvesting systems, and conservationists seeking to preserve our wildlife treasures.” To that end, the group has embraced inclusiveness, new models of stewardship, and the belief that success will be determined “more by unity than velocity.”
Keeping Maine’s Forests is part of a larger conversation and collaboration that EFN has nurtured by using its ability to connect grantees with one another. Many believe these relationships will grow into a new collective force of individuals, organizations, funders, and others whose commitment to Maine’s special “brand” runs deep.