BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 2, 2022
The Coastal Mountain Land Trust, which serves towns in Knox and Waldo counties, has created the Waldo County Conservation Initiative, a committee that will oversee a fund to buy up natural lands in the region and permanently preserve them. Ian Stewart, executive director of the Coastal Mountain Land Trust, said the initiative was borne out of concern for Waldo County’s lack of conserved land. Only 4.2 percent of land in Waldo County is conserved, according to 2016 data from Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands. That places Waldo County third to last out of 16 Maine counties, and far below the 20.4 percent state total. The Waldo County Conservation Initiative hopes to grow that figure and, in turn, preserve biodiversity to fight climate change.