First proposed back in 2017, New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) is a transmission line designed to bring electricity from hydropower facilities in Quebec to consumers in Massachusetts as part of the regional electrical grid. The construction route includes clearing a 150-foot-wide, 53-mile-long line through undeveloped Maine woods between the Canadian border and The Forks in Somerset County.
Central Maine Power (CMP) began construction of the transmission line in 2022 after years of pushback against the project’s proposed impacts, including a statewide referendum in 2021 and a number of court cases and permit challenges.
Maine Audubon has been involved since the early days of the proposal, working to understand and communicate the potential impacts of the transmission line on wildlife and habitat, and ensuring that—if the line were approved—adequate mitigation to protect Maine wildlife and habitat would be required as a condition of the permit. One area we have been particularly focused on is the potential impacts of forest fragmentation caused by the line. In 2019, we published a three-part series on the risks to north woods wildlife ( Part 1,Part 2,Part 3).
We were also involved with strengthening environmental requirements imposed on the project by Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in July 2020. Among the conditions were that CMP fund the protection of vernal pools and Stream Smart crossings; and also mitigate fragmentation by developing a Conservation Plan to protect around 50,000 acres in the vicinity of the line in Somerset County.
That Conservation Plan was made public just recently, and Maine Audubon joined environmental partners around the state in examining the Plan’s impact. Unfortunately, our scientists have determined that CMP has fallen well short of its obligations.
We joined partner groups on joint comments to the DEP asking them to deny the proposal as submitted and to address the many shortcomings in a new Conservation Plan, including improving the definition of “mature forest,” protecting and creating no-cut areas around existing older forests, removing easement language that would allow additional fragmentation, and improving protections in riparian zones. Finally, the groups also call on DEP to require NECEC to secure 15,000 to 20,000 acres of fee acquisition land outside of the proposed plan area that already is in a mature forest condition or approaching mature forest. Maine Audubon and our partners will continue to work on this issue to ensure the utmost protection for wildlife in Maine’s North Woods.
Please read the press release below for more information and a link to our full comments.
Maine Council of Trout Unlimited | Appalachian Mountain Club | Maine Audubon |
Natural Resources Council of Maine
CMP’S PROPOSED CONSERVATION PLAN FAILS TO COMPLY WITH PERMIT
REQUIREMENTS
June 12, 2025 (Augusta, ME)—Central Maine Power’s (CMP) proposal for conserving land in western Maine as mitigation for its transmission corridor fails to meet the requirements in its permit for protecting and connecting mature forests and safeguarding the region’s wildlife, according to joint comments filed today by several of the state’s major environmental groups.
The Maine Council of Trout Unlimited, the Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Audubon, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) consulted with leading scientists, foresters, and forest ecologists in developing their comments. Those experts assessed the proposal submitted by CMP’s affiliate company, NECEC Transmission LLC (NECEC), and determined that the plan fails to meet the permit requirements in multiple ways.
As a starting point, the land is one of the most heavily harvested landscapes in the Unorganized Territories, with 77% of the trees less than 35 feet high. Most of the trees in the 50,063-acre Conservation Plan would take 40 years—until 2065—to reach even 50 feet in height, which is far below what is widely considered an ecologically mature forest. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permit for the project requires a conservation plan that is designed to manage, sustain, and connect mature forests and riparian habitat.
Also, contrary to the directive in the DEP permit that the plan be comprised of large, contiguous blocks of forest, the land is highly fragmented by the NECEC corridor, another transmission line, and a public highway (Route 201). The groups believe that 5,398 acres should be removed from the plan because they are in small blocks that are less than the 5,000-acre minimum size requirement called for in the permit or are impacted by transmission lines and the road and should not qualify as mitigation. Removal of these areas brings the plan to 44,665 acres, below the 50,000-acre requirement. Also of concern, the plan allows for future harmful development including new roads and gravel mining, which would further undermine the wildlife protections called for in the permit.
“The NECEC corridor will have a significant impact on an intact landscape in a region that supports some of Maine’s best remaining brook trout habitat,” said Matt Streeter, Chair of the Maine Council of Trout Unlimited. “The permit calls for a meaningful conservation response that protects coldwater streams and helps offset those long-term effects. What’s been proposed falls far short of that goal. We’re asking DEP to require a plan that truly meets the intent of the permit.
According to the groups, the proposed Conservation Plan “clearly and broadly fails to meet the spirit, intent, and specifics of the requirements outlined in the DEP and BEP Orders and must be denied.” The mitigation requirements were established in a DEP permit issued on May 11, 2020, and a Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) Order issued on July 21, 2022.
“The plan fails to meet the permit requirements in so many ways that it shouldn’t be a difficult call for DEP to deny it and require that the company return with a substantially improved proposal,” said NRCM Staff Scientist and Woods, Waters, & Wildlife Director Luke Frankel. “In this heavily logged area owned by Weyerhaeuser, the conservation easement proposed by NECEC won’t result in anything resembling mature forests for another 60 years, or longer. That’s not what the DEP and BEP envisioned in their permit requirements.”
The groups strongly object to the plan’s proposed definition of a “mature forest” as being comprised of trees that are 50 feet or taller, with an amount of wood per acre that is just twice as much as what Maine law defines as a clearcut.
“NECEC’s definition of a mature forest will not provide the habitat features needed by fish and wildlife that depend on mature forest such as Blackburnian and Canada Warblers, Wood Thrush, American marten, brook trout, and Atlantic salmon—all of which are struggling—and thus would fail to mitigate impacts to wildlife caused by the transmission line. NECEC can and must do better to comply with the legal requirements in their permit,” said Maine Audubon Director of Conservation Sally Stockwell.
According to Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Conservation Policy Director Eliza Townsend, “The NECEC transmission line was approved by the Department of Environmental Protection contingent on a plan to conserve high-value habitat in compensation for the corridor’s impacts: habitat fragmentation and loss of mature forest. The proposed Conservation Plan put forward by NECEC does not meet the terms of its permit. The DEP must deny it and require a meaningful plan that truly compensates for the significant negative impacts of the NECEC.”
The joint comments propose a list of changes that should be made to the plan for it to comply with the permit, including changing the definition of “mature forest” to one that is ecologically defensible, protecting and creating no-cut areas around existing older-age-class forest stands, removing language in the conservation easement that allows additional fragmentation, and improving riparian zone protections. The groups also call on DEP to require NECEC, as a critical part of an updated plan, to secure 15,000 acres to 20,000 acres of fee acquisition land outside of the proposed plan area that already is in a mature forest condition or approaching mature forest.
Click here to read the full comments urging DEP to deny CMP’s conservation proposal.
