Wagner has been a leading partner
in conservation efforts since the 1980s, participating in over 100 conservation initiatives that have conveyed 500,000 acres into conservation ownership and placed 700,000 acres under working forest conservation easements.
This adds up to an area larger than Rhode Island.
- 2022. Wagner worked with the Forest Society of Maine (FSM) and the Northeast Wilderness Trust to conserve over 21,000 acres adjacent to State-owned lands in Grafton. FSM and Wagner negotiated the terms of a working forest conservation easement that allows for ongoing forest management and traditional public use, including the use of popular hiking trail spurs that access the Appalachian Trail as it traverses the Mahoosuc Range. Initially conceived as exclusively a conservation easement project, the Northeast Wilderness Trust bolstered the conservation outcome when it came in as a fee purchaser of two targeted blocks:
- west of Route 26, a 1,356-acre block of high elevation lands included perhaps the last unprotected segment of the Appalachian Trail, and
- east of Route 26, the Trust purchased a larger 4,689-acre block that extends down off the mountains across a range of ecosystems into spruce-fir flats and open wetlands.
- 2006: The Trust for Public Lands negotiated and facilitated the State of Maine’s acquisition of 3,688 acres in Grafton Notch, a cornerstone in the development of a local loop trail system and a key conservation parcel tying together state park and public lands and the Appalachian Trail corridor. Due to its conservation values, this project ranked #1 nationally in the United States Forest Service Forest Legacy program in 2007.
- 2021 through 2024. After more than 15 years of discussion, Wagner and the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust figured out a three-phased project design to protect more than 10,000 acres around the north end of Kennebago Lake, Little Kennebago Lake, and significant stretches of the Kennebago River. In late 2021, a private conservation buyer purchased some 3,300 acres as Phase 1. RLHT followed up in January 2022 with the acquisition of another 1,700 acres as Phase 2, completing the acquisition of the lake and river frontage lands. Upon completion, Phase 3 will add another 5,000 acres of uplands and provide connectivity to extensive adjacent conserved lands.
- 2004 through 2007. Working with the regional Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, Wagner consummated three deals over four years to protect important waterfront parcels on Rangeley and Cupsuptic Lakes as well as important adjacent and viewshed lands. 1,780 acres total.
- 2003: In the first phase of this project, Wagner worked with the New England Forestry Foundation, the local Woodie Wheaton Land Trust, and the State of Maine to protect over 50 miles of shoreline along Spednic Lake and the St. Croix River, one of the premier canoe expedition routes in the region. 3,025 acres.
- 2004 & 2005: Wagner worked with the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) and its local partner the Downeast Lakes Land Trust to convey 27,084 acres in T5 & T6 ND to the land trust as a community forest. These lands included extensive undeveloped shorelines on West Grand Lake and Pocumcus Lake. Concurrently, NEFF acquired a working forest conservation easement on an additional 312,069 acres. This easement precludes future development and assures sustainable forest management. The easement lands largely remain under Wagner management.
- 2011: Working with The Conservation Fund and local partners including the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust, Wagner helped to kick off the East Grand Lake Watershed Initiative, guiding 12,000 acres and over 21 miles of undeveloped shoreline on East Grand Lake onto a conservation track. Learn more here.
- The Nature Conservancy purchased 9,608 acres in Merrill Strip Twp, along the Quebec border. This tract included extensive high elevation habitats favored by Bicknells thrush and other species.
- Following discussions with local advocates, a private conservation buyer purchased 1,163 acres of high elevation lands adjacent to the Appalachian Trail corridor in Mt. Abram Twp.
- Dating back to 1997, Wagner has been involved in a string of transactions totaling over 12,000 acres that have allowed the Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge to protect its core holdings around Lake Umbagog and important habitats in the surrounding watershed.
- 2013 & 2014: Wagner and The Conservation Fund identified a package of 39 properties in four states that encompassed 33,000 acres of conservation priorities! TCF acquired virtually all of these lands directly, to hold while engineering permanent conservation outcomes with state and local partners, including: The US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, States of Vermont and New Hampshire, municipalities, and land trusts.
- From 2010 through 2014, Wagner sold 13,350 acres to the Province of Nova Scotia, including several important waterfront parcels and an old growth forest containing globally rare lichen.
- 2002: In the first phase, the State of Maine acquired extensive waterfront lands along northern Moosehead Lake, as well as natural communities of interest adjacent to these lands and on Spencer Mountain, totaling 4,779 acres.
- 2003: In the second phase, the State of Maine acquired an additional 46,890 acres, including extensive water frontage on important lakes, ponds, and rivers. Concurrently, the Forest Society of Maine acquired a working forest conservation easement on an additional 283,669 acres. This easement precludes future development and assures sustainable forest management.