What’s Up with the CLUP? How You Can Help Shape the Future of the North Woods
August 18, 2026
by Frances Killea, NRCM Policy Advocate, Woods, Waters, & Wildlife
For generations, Mainers have built memories and livelihoods in the North Woods. Millions of acres of forest, peppered with lakes and woven over by remote dirt roads and trails, have long provided jobs and timber, shaped a culture of outdoorsmanship, and cultivated a sense of adventure that is not only heritage but identity.
I recall exploring my first Gazetteer during the early months of my life in Maine, roaming around my home in the Midcoast but also tracing my finger to places to which I hadn’t yet been: all the way Downeast until I pinpointed Lubec, north to where a friend lived in Fort Kent, west to Kingfield and Carrabassett Valley.
But the places that intrigued me most were the many tiles with names like T2R9, the lakes with no road access, the faraway island of Matinicus. I didn’t know then, but all of these remote places fall under a single jurisdiction. They’re part of the Unorganized Territories (UT), a region that encompasses all unorganized and de-organized townships in Maine, covering more than half of the state’s area and falling under the guidance of the Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC).
What’s Next for the Future of the Vast North Woods? You Can Help Decide.
Organized cities and towns typically use documents called comprehensive plans to govern land use zoning and development, and the LUPC has a similar document for the UT, called the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP).
The CLUP is the overarching document that guides planning, zoning, and permitting in the UT over 10-year time periods and establishes policy frameworks to help the LUPC board and staff make decisions that will uphold the unique character of the region.
The LUPC defined four principal values in the 2010 CLUP that exemplify the character of the Unorganized Territories:
- The economic value of the jurisdiction derived from working forests and farmlands, including fiber and food production, largely on private lands. This value is based primarily on maintenance of the forest resource and the economic health of the forest products industry. The maintenance of farmlands and the viability of the region’s agricultural economy is also an important component of this value.
- Diverse and abundant recreational opportunities, including many types of motorized and non-motorized activities. Unique opportunities exist for recreational activities which require or are significantly enhanced by large stretches of undeveloped land, ranging from primitive recreation in certain locations to extensive motorized trail networks. Recreation is increasingly an economic driver in the jurisdiction and the State.
- Diverse, abundant and unique high-value natural resources and features, including lakes, rivers and other water resources, fish and wildlife resources, plants and natural communities, scenic and cultural resources, coastal islands, mountain areas and other geologic resources.
- Natural character, which includes the uniqueness of a vast forested area that is largely undeveloped and remote from population centers. Remoteness and the relative absence of development in large parts of the jurisdiction are perhaps the most distinctive of the jurisdiction’s principal values, due mainly to their increasing rarity in the Northeastern United States. These values may be difficult to quantify but they are integral to the jurisdiction’s identity and to its overall character.
The CLUP is the single most important tool in promoting environmentally responsible land use practices that support a diverse ecosystem, healthy communities, and robust local economies.
The LUPC has begun the process of updating the 2010 CLUP, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) is working to ensure that the new version maintains robust environmental safeguards and addresses emerging challenges. As the UT faces increased pressure from climate change, economic shifts, and development, it is critical to have a strong guiding document in place to retain and defend this globally unique landscape.
How the CLUP Helps Guide Decision-Making
The last CLUP was published in 2010 and has not only guided decision making in the UT over the past 15 plus years but has also served as a “state of the UT” report with summaries of key attributes of the jurisdiction: forestry and agricultural economies, population and development patterns, scenic and recreational resources, water and wetland areas, plant and animal habitat, and more.
The CLUP also defines the LUPC’s protection, development, and management subdistricts. These items are important because they quite literally dictate the shape of the UT: where development happens, how unique natural resources are managed, and even how cultural and archeological sites are preserved.
The LUPC categorizes Land Use Districts into three groups, each with a set of subdistricts:
- Management (3 subdistricts)
- Areas of commercial forest products or agricultural uses (79% of the UT)
- Protection (14 subdistricts)
- Areas of significant natural, cultural, or resources, where development/other land use activities may damage significant characteristics (21% of the UT)
- Development (10 subdistricts)
- Areas with a pattern of concentrated residential, industrial, recreational, or commercial use, or areas appropriate for designation as development subdistricts (<1% of the UT)
The CLUP helps limit sprawl by restricting the construction of new buildings close to existing pockets of development (its “location of development” rule). In the past, this sprawl-limiting effect was facilitated primarily by the Adjacency Rule, which dictated that new development had to occur within one road mile of an existing development.
An overhaul in 2019, which was opposed by NRCM, local residents, and the editorial boards of the Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News, expanded the allowable radius for development by establishing new rural hubs and allowing development within seven miles; this and other changes opened a million acres of land to residential development, and another 700,000 acres to commercial development. While the 2019 Adjacency Rule revision is unlikely to change, the CLUP update affords an opportunity to revisit the importance of zoning subdistricts and reinforce the tenet of limiting sprawl to preserve the relatively undeveloped integrity of the North Woods.
Some of the protections necessary to preserve the UT’s character fall under the CLUP’s Lake Management Program. The UT is home to more than 1,500 lakes and ponds, many of which are remote and undeveloped. These remote lakes and ponds are unique to the Northeast, boasting high water quality and habitat that supports the last remaining stronghold of wild, self-reproducing eastern brook trout in the country.
In an effort to protect these resources and manage development along their shores, the LUPC spent years surveying all lakes and ponds within its jurisdiction in the 1980s to develop management classes with associated riparian zoning. The result? A series of seven management classes designed to guide lakeshore development in the UT. Currently, lakes in classes 1 (28 total) and 6 (176 total) are safe from development within one-fourth- to one-half mile of their shores, while classes 2-5 (141 total) are subject to varying degrees of shoreline development. The rest of the lakes and ponds are placed in a catch-all class 7 (1,186 total), which lacks any specific protective or development subdistricts.
Extensive Public Input Process is Underway to Inform the New CLUP
There is no specific timeline for CLUP updates, but the UT has changed a lot since 2010. Forestry and agricultural industries have shifted, landownership and development has experienced change and growth, and the impacts of climate change are bringing statewide challenges. The document is clearly due for a refresher.
In 2025, the LUPC began a pre-process for updating the CLUP, beginning by launching a website and facilitating several informational sessions regarding a series of relevant topics, including housing and development, forest resources, and land and wildlife conservation.
The LUPC released a public survey regarding the CLUP process on July 15, 2026, designed to engage as many residents and landowners within the UT as possible. The survey aims to understand what relationship respondents have with the UT, what aspects of life in the UT are most important to them, and what challenges they feel are most pressing, as well as soliciting feedback about the CLUP update process itself. The survey will be open through September, with copies available both online and in print.
Concurrently, the LUPC will host the final three informational sessions in its series (on lakes and rivers, non-residential development, and agriculture) and begin holding planning workshops to discuss proposed updates to the CLUP. These workshops will be hosted in different regions of the UT to reach residents throughout the jurisdiction’s large footprint.
The pre-process for updating the CLUP will conclude with a list of Guiding Principles that will govern how the LUPC proceeds with updating the document. These Guiding Principles will be released for public comment, which is projected to happen this upcoming winter.
NRCM Working to Protect Unique Character of the North Woods
As the Unorganized Territories face growing pressures, the development of a new Comprehensive Land Use Plan is an opportunity for people who care about this special place to help protect it for generations to come.
NRCM is partnering with local leaders and conservation allies to advocate for a strong land use plan for the North Woods and UT that:
- Supports Maine’s growing outdoor recreation economy and our forestry, farming, and fishing heritage industries;
- Focuses development around existing communities to reduce burden on taxpayers and county services;
- Promotes the ecological health of this globally significant resource; and
- Maintains broad public access amid growing pressures.
Like all of you who are drawn to the stunning outdoor landscapes Maine has to offer, NRCM has long recognized the unique landscapes and ecological attributes of the UT, as well as the importance the region holds to local economies, heritage industries, and outdoor recreation.
Our history has roots in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, as NRCM was first organized in 1959 to protect the river and lakes of the region from logging and development. Subsequent NRCM campaigns included support for the establishment of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (2016), leading public dissent against a massive land use proposal in the Moosehead region and fighting a poorly planned metal mine in the Katahdin region that would have polluted nearby waterways.
It is important to acknowledge that the Wabanaki Nations originally inhabited this land, and we offer our respect and gratitude for their knowledge and experience, recognizing the Wabanaki’s ongoing vital role in maintaining the traditions and wisdom that sustains this place. As part of our work in the Unorganized Territories, we will strive to continue to respect, learn from, and support the Wabanaki peoples in their stewardship of this land and the opportunities we have been granted. We hope to continue to work together with Wabanaki knowledge-keepers to protect the land, air, water, and wildlife of Maine.
The importance of a planning document with strong environmental protections and a clear vision for cultivating healthier communities and supporting local economies cannot be overstated. As shifts in the timber and agricultural markets change the outlook for stalwart industries like forestry and wild blueberries, new landownership trends threaten to upset the longstanding grace of public recreation on private land, changing energy demands create a need for new renewable energy sources, and climate change both alters ecosystems and drives people northward, the UT faces mounting obstacles.
NRCM supports a CLUP update that provides strong protections for the UT’s natural resources and enables the survival of the region’s character through economic and climate turbulence. To learn more, sign on and follow us as we continue to raise awareness about the critical role the CLUP plays in shaping the North Woods.
