Wagner has been a leading partner
in conservation efforts since the 1980s, participating in over 80 conservation initiatives that have conveyed more than 480,000 acres into direct conservation ownership and placed over 700,000 acres under working forest conservation easements.
This adds up to an area larger than Rhode Island.
- 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.
- 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. Wagner still manages some of these lands.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2006: The Western Mountains Charitable Foundation purchased 535 acres in a corridor along the Dead River in West Forks Plt. and Lower Enchanted Twp., ME as part of its vision to create a hiking and ski trail and huts system.
- 1996: Working forest and public access conservation easement, encompassing 31,450 acres in northeastern Vermont.
- 1990: Working forest and public access conservation easement purchased by New York State, encompassing 19,300 acres within the Adirondack Park.
- In 2010, the State of Maine purchased just over 200 acres of islands and riparian parcels along the Androscoggin River in Gilead, Maine.
- In 2006, the Town of Byron (ME) purchased an 8.5-acre parcel that contained a focal point of the town – beautiful Coos Canyon along the Swift River.
- In 2005, the Greenland Point Center, a locally controlled environmental education center in Princeton, ME, purchased 31 acres adjacent to its campus.