In 1995, GPMCT members learned of the impending sale of the Diamond Match property, a parcel of 2,500 acres in East Orland that makes up the core of today’s Great Pond Mountain Wildlands. The Trust made a bid for the property but funding could not be garnered at the time and the property sold to a forest products harvester. Logging began, along with the building of roads. The property was posted against hunting and trespassing. Additional acreage was added to the property. When the land went back on the market in the late 1990s GPMCT sprang into action, working with the landowner to seek partners and conservation buyers to help protect the Wildlands’ spectacular complex of forest, lakeshore, mountaintops, and wetlands. Finally, in 2005, GPMCT and the landowner negotiated a deal. With lead gifts of $1.4 million and a zero-interest loan for the balance, the Trust closed on the property in June, 2005. Despite a decade of thwarted efforts, GPMCT remained vigilant and steady in its vision to conserve this land.

The Wildlands Campaign, completed in 2007, raised $2.86 million for the purchase of this land and the beginnings of a Stewardship Endowment. Now the work of managing this vast property begins!

The Wildlands Project presents an opportunity in the fullest sense of the word…for the local community and conservation partners to join in protecting an extraordinary natural and recreational resource.

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