Mapping and Monitoring
Losing Open Space in Southern Maine: Farms and Forests
Statewide Farmland and Forest Loss and Forest Recovery
In the graph below, historic changes in Maine’s forest area since the 1600s are shown in green. The declines in forest area during the mid-1800s period of agricultural expansion were much more pronounced in other New England states (Source: Harvard Forest). Losses in Maine’s farmland acreage from 1880 to 2005 (in orange) were equivalent to 28% of the state’s land area. From 1964 to 1997, lands in agricultural production dropped by 50% (Land & Water Resources Council, 2002). Much of this farmland initially reverted to forest but more recent conversions are to residential and commercial uses, changes that are likely permanent (source: US Census, Irland, 1998). Farmlands are important open spaces for both habitat and for food production.
Farmland Losses in Southern Maine
Below, Southern Maine (e.g.York, Cumberland and Androscoggin Counties) formerly held more than 20% of the state’s farmland before the great agricultural expansion westward in the late 1800s. Today, southern Maine has about 12% of the state’s total farm land which has declined by almost 5 million acres since its peak in the early 1900s.
