An effort is under way to conserve 350 acres, once a target for housing, in North Raymond.

A $680,000 fundraising effort is well under way to conserve 350 acres of land in North Raymond that includes a large portion of Pismire Mountain and a large forest in the Crescent Lake watershed.

The goal of the Raymond Community Forest Project, pioneered by the Bridgton-based Loon Echo Land Trust and the Raymond Conservation Commission, is to turn the property into a publicly managed “community forest,” with a network of hiking, mountain biking and cross-country skiing trails.

In June 2014, the land trust signed a purchase and sale agreement with the Hancock Land Co., the entity that has owned the land since the 1930s. The agreement expires at the end of this year. According to Carrie Walia, the trust’s executive director, the property is valued at $615,000, but Hancock has agreed to sell the land for $506,000.

The trust is aiming to raise $680,000 before the agreement with Hancock expires, and it has raised $615,000 in pledges so far from private donors, from the town of Raymond ($50,000), the Land for Maine’s Future Program, the Portland Water District and an anonymous foundation. While the land trust has secured more than the asking price of the land, the additional pledges are needed, Walia said, to cover associated legal fees, boundary surveys, appraisals, fundraising costs and management expenses.

The controversy in Augusta about the Land for Maine’s Future program, however, poses an obstacle to the trust’s efforts to raise the needed funds before the purchase and sale agreement expires Dec. 31. According to Walia, the trust has received a $150,000 grant from the state’s largest conservation funding program, but Gov. Paul LePage has held up the issuing and payment of the voter-approved bonds that funded the Land for Maine’s Future grant, and he is not likely to change course before the end of the year, she said.

“He’s basically holding the funds hostage,” Walia said. “He will not sell the bonds that the voters approved because he’s trying to force the Legislature to approve excessive harvesting of public reserve lands.”

“We should be receiving the funds for Raymond by the deadline of Dec. 31 of this year, but it’s not going to happen because the Legislature is out of session until January and they failed to pass the necessary bills,” Walia added.

The trust has prepared contingency fundraising plans in the case that the Land for Maine’s Future grant does not come through. It is also seeking a six-month extension from Hancock on the purchase and sale agreement.

Glen Albee, the chief financial officer of Hancock, said the company is open to extending the contract.

“We’re certainly disappointed at the struggles in Augusta to get the Land for Maine’s Future funds released, but I’m sure that everyone’s acting in what they think is the best interest of the state,” Albee said. “We have a partnership and a relationship with Loon Echo Land Trust, and over the span of ownership of this piece of property, a six-month extension is pretty immaterial. We’ve owned this property for decades and decades and decades.”

The Raymond Community Forest emerged out of the town’s 2004 Comprehensive Plan, which called for the preparation of an open-space plan, according to longtime Raymond Conservation Commission Chairman John Rand, who is also chairman of the 10-person Raymond Community Forest Steering Committee. The open-space plan, which the town adopted in 2009, called for the preservation of “special places,” Rand said.

“In our open-space plan process, we had several forums and got community input, and Pismire Mountain was one of several special places that was identified through that process,” Rand said.

In the mid-2000s, Hancock Lumber Co. owner Kevin Hancock had considered developing the property. According to Walia, those plans were scrapped after the 2008 financial crash. Hancock Land is a division of Hancock Lumber, with Kevin Hancock the owner of both entities.

“He was advancing plans for the property at the time,” Walia said. “When the recession hit, subdivisions were all of a sudden put on hold.”

In 2012, Kevin Hancock approached the land trust with an idea about preserving Pismire Mountain, which is located near Crescent Lake off Mountain Road. That’s when the effort began in earnest, Walia said.

“A few years ago, Kevin Hancock took notice of what we were doing on Hacker’s Hill,” she said. “He approached us and asked if we could do something similar with Pismire Mountain.”

The ultimate goal, Walia said, is to have a committee of community members manage the forest.

“It’s really a conservation forest that will be protected in perpetuity,” she said. “The community-forest model’s core elements involved community members in planning for the project, planning for how the land is to be used and how it is to be maintained, and it actually involves the public in managing the land itself.”

If funding comes through, the trust hopes to place a conservation easement on the property and donate the land to the town of Raymond. Hunting would continue on the land, as well as modest timber harvesting, which could provide an income to the town that could offset losses in property taxes. Walia said she hopes to put the issue before Raymond voters, who would need to approve the gift, at next summer’s annual town meeting.

To Michael Reynolds, chairman of the Raymond Board of Selectmen, voters should reject the offer. Raymond does not have the staff or the tax dollars to manage the 350-acre property, he said.

“We have enough to manage right now as a town,” Reynolds said. “I don’t think we have the wherewithal or capacity to manage it. I don’t think that there was support to add this to our management. People are talking about trails and scenic vistas and all of that kind of stuff. You’re going to need parking. There’s a lot of support to it in terms of just managing it.”

According to Walia, the land trust would likely own and manage the property if Raymond does not accept the gift. Rand, who held a fundraiser at his family farm for the Raymond Community Forest on Aug. 22 that raised $4,500, said he thinks the project should go forward, regardless of which entity ends up owning the property.

“I think either outcome would be acceptable in my mind, and I think we’ll be in a better place to answer that one as the project comes toward conclusion and the final funding comes into place,” he said. “The Raymond Community Forest will preserve the forest resource for the area. That includes trails and recreation; that includes watershed protection; that includes habitat protection, and provides Raymond with another destination venue for folks to come and explore and enjoy Raymond.”

Kevin Hancock of Hancock Land Co., atop Pismire Mountain, overlooking Crescent Lake in Raymond. The Loon Echo Land Trust and the Raymond Conservation Commission are raising $680,000 to turn 350 acres of Hancock land into a Raymond Community Forest.Photo courtesy of Loon Echo Land Trust