Appalachian Mountain Club | Maine Audubon | Natural Resources Council of Maine | Trout Unlimited
December 18, 2025 (Augusta, ME) – Several of the state’s leading conservation groups have filed an appeal with the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) asking them to require improvements to Central Maine Power’s (CMP) flawed Conservation Plan for the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project.
As outlined in its permit for the NECEC transmission line, CMP is required to develop a conservation plan of at least 50,000 acres that protects and connects mature forest habitat in western Maine. Rather than selecting forest areas that included older, taller trees, CMP chose some of the most heavily cut timberlands in Maine’s North Woods as the focus for its proposal.
In their appeal to the BEP, Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Audubon, Natural Resources Council of Maine, and Trout Unlimited say CMP should be required to improve the NECEC Conservation Plan so that it truly protects and connects ecologically mature forests in western Maine, including through the purchase of at least 10,000 acres of additional forests that have taller and older trees.
The organizations expressed strong concerns about multiple precedents that would be set if the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) approval of CMP’s plan is left as is. These precedents could allow future development projects to proceed with substandard mitigation or delayed mitigation for project impacts.
“The only way to avoid a bad precedent is to not set it in the first place. If sustained, the Department’s Order approving the Plan will be a glaring and unavoidable precedent for substandard mitigation. The Board cannot let that happen,” the groups said in their appeal.
The appeal details four primary ways that CMP’s Conservation Plan fails to meet permit requirements:
- Heavily cut area with practically no mature forest habitat. The 50,000 acres selected contain a very small amount of mature forest as typically recognized by both forest and wildlife ecologists. Additionally, the vast majority of the little remaining ecologically mature forest within the proposed conservation area can be harvested under the Plan, with roughly 25% of it scheduled to be cut within the next 12 years.
- Setting unacceptable precedent with a flawed “mature forest” definition and “shifting mosaic” management strategy. CMP’s plan includes a proposed definition of “mature forest” that forest ecologists across Maine have identified as deeply flawed and not aligned with current federal definitions. They also propose managing a forest through a “shifting mosaic” harvesting strategy that leaves nearly all of the area open to harvesting at some point, preventing the development of habitat features found in true mature forests.
- Failure to meet the 50,000-acre requirement through large forest blocks. The Plan contains two forest blocks that fail to meet the 5,000-acre individual block requirement because a road and transmission lines cut through them. Without these small parcels, the Plan fails to meet the unambiguous requirement to conserve at least 50,000 acres overall.
- Unacceptable delay in mitigation. CMP’s plan would take nearly half a century before a significant amount of the trees within the 50,000 acres reach at least 50 feet tall, which still doesn’t meet the straight face test for a mature forest.
CMP filed its Conservation Plan with the DEP in May 2025, allowing public comments to be filed in June, October, and November. The Department approved the Plan on November 18. A decision by the DEP can be appealed to the BEP, which has the option of affirming, overturning, or amending the Department’s decision.
“CMP was required to protect mature forest because about 70% of Maine’s vertebrate wildlife species prefer mature habitat,” said Sally Stockwell, Director of Conservation at Maine Audubon. “This includes Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Maine like Wood Thrush and Black-throated Blue Warbler, and they can’t wait over 40 years for these forests to improve.”
“One of the largest development projects in western Maine shouldn’t be allowed to skirt the requirements for protection of mature forest habitat that are clearly outlined in the permit,” said Luke Frankel, Staff Scientist and Woods, Waters, & Wildlife Director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “The transmission line has already caused harm by fragmenting mature forest habitat. We’re calling on the BEP to ensure that CMP’s conservation plan complies with the requirements in the permit.”
“The Conservation Plan proposed to mitigate the fragmenting effects of the NECEC transmission line does not meet the terms of the permit approved by state regulators,” said Steve Tatko, Vice President of Land and Conservation for the Appalachian Mountain Club. “Approving it would set a bad precedent, signaling to future applicants that an environmental permit is negotiable. It is not. The Board of Environmental Protection must ensure that impacts of the transmission line are actually mitigated.”
“CMP should be required to adhere to an ecologically credible definition of a mature forest, required to make sure that the few remaining older forest stands within the plan area aren’t cut, required to create a Special Management Area of at least 10,000 acres that will be allowed to grow to full maturity, and required to purchase at least another 10,000 acres of land with larger and older trees. The additional 10,000 acres should be managed as mature forest in perpetuity and owned by a state agency or a conservation organization,” said Jeff Bush, Vice Chair of Trout Unlimited, Maine.
As part of the appeal filed with the BEP, the organizations made clear that they are not calling for NECEC operations to be delayed or curbed in any fashion. Rather, the appeal is entirely about the mitigation measures that NECEC is required to meet to address the fragmenting impacts of the project.
CMP’s 145-mile NECEC transmission line – which includes a new 150-foot-wide, 53-mile corridor through undeveloped woods in western Maine – will carry hydropower from Quebec to Massachusetts and is expected to come online later this year.
