Maine’s blueberry barrens, which have been part of the state’s iconic scenery since before Europeans first arrived, are not as permanent as some might think.

Many are not just used for growing the state’s signature wild fruit, but also are beloved spots for hiking, hunting and picnicking, and provide important habitat and food for many species of animals and birds. The barrens are also testament to an ancient, and continuing, interplay of human stewardship and the unique features of the land.

But the fate of these Maine landscapes is increasingly uncertain, and preserving them for future generations is not so simple, according to land stewards and nonprofit groups that help protect parcels throughout the midcoast from being developed.

More than a thousand acres of blueberry land are currently on the market or have been sold recently. Larger blueberry producers are withdrawing from the region in the face of low prices and the intensifying effects of climate change, which has made weather patterns more erratic, sometimes whipsawing between early frosts, soggy conditions and drought in a single growing season.

Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that some large tracts of blueberry land that were for sale have recently been withdrawn from the market. Some of this land appears to be being cultivated for berries again this year, though it’s unclear whether it will be put back up for sale after the harvest.

“With what’s happening with our blueberry land, we’re seeing how vulnerable we are when private corporations have been holding or stewarding something that is a community asset and a part of the community’s local food system,” said Alivia Moore, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation and co-director of Niweskok, a Wabanaki-led nonprofit focused on reconnecting Wabanaki people with the land and their cultural food systems. The group has a farm and education center in Swanville.

The midcoast blueberry parcels that are for sale include several plots owned by Wyman’s, including 122 acres on Clarry Hill in Union priced at $499,000 and 40 acres in Penobscot being sold for $299,000. It also includes a 247-acre parcel known as Patterson Hill in Belfast being sold for $1.8 million by a member of the family that operates Allen’s Wild Maine Blueberries.

Worried that this land will be lost to development, a couple of local efforts have sprung up in recent months to try to protect some blueberry land. A group of women in Searsport is gaining traction in their effort to raise $750,000 to save more than 150 acres of land being sold by Wyman’s.

And on June 15, Northport voters overwhelmingly approved a moratorium on new RV parks, “glampgrounds” and event centers after a Massachusetts couple bought over 100 acres, much of it in blueberry barrens, with plans to turn the parcel into an RV park with up to 80 sites and geodesic domes.

Wyman’s did not respond to requests for comment.

In neighboring Hancock County, a would-be developer faced strong local opposition last year to converting a Blue Hill blueberry barren into house lots. He ended up selling the 38-acre property, which used to be owned by blueberry businessman Kermit Allen, to the project’s opponents.

Small-scale blueberry producers have also stepped in in some cases to buy fields or contract with land trusts to manage blueberry fields they already steward. But despite public concern, and the unusually large amount of blueberry land currently at stake, there is no large-scale coordinated effort to protect the midcoast’s blueberry barrens from being developed into new uses.

When it comes to an emblem of local culture, “blueberries are second only to lobsters,” said Ian Stewart, the executive director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust, which is headquartered in Camden.

But “it’s hard to react” to so much blueberry land being on the market at the same time, he said.

It’s not that people don’t care, Stewart said. His group, which manages large blueberry barrens at its Beech Hill Preserve in Rockport, hears frequently from people who are worried that this land will be lost to development.

Many local land trusts already have some blueberry land in their portfolios but adding more presents real challenges, he said. The land needs to be managed in perpetuity in order to keep it from reverting back to forest, and finding people to take that on isn’t easy.

When the land trust protects a block of forest, it takes a “fairly hands-off approach,” Stewart said. It may just leave the forest alone, or manage invasive species, or build a trail.

“Blueberry land is quite the opposite,” he said. It requires mowing and bushogging in perpetuity, otherwise it will revert to scrub and then forest.

Coastal Mountains has a reserve account for maintaining its blueberry land at Beech Hill. Stewart estimates that it costs $25,000 to $35,000 per year in staff time and other costs to manage the land trust’s blueberry land.

It’s with these costs in mind that the land trust evaluates opportunities to conserve more blueberry land.

“We’re aware that it is a real investment, so we don’t take it on lightly,” Stewart said.

“Conservation isn’t the tool that keeps [this land] blueberries,” said Linnea Patterson, land conservation manager at Georges River Land Trust, which is headquartered in Rockland. “Managing is what keeps it blueberries. And a lot of land trusts aren’t equipped to become a commercial-scale blueberry grower or steward.”

The fact that many of the parcels currently for sale cost hundreds of thousands of dollars makes conserving some of the tracts on the market even more challenging, she said.

Still, she says that blueberry barrens have a lot of qualities that make them good candidates for conservation such as scenic views, habitat, and potential for public access.

Georges River Land Trust currently works with blueberry growers at two of its preserves and the land trust is eager to help find a solution to protecting the region’s blueberry landscapes, Patterson said.

“It’s a very emotional thing to think about losing native Maine blueberry fields,” she said.

Moore, of Niweskok, said the current moment presents “an important, sudden, fragile opportunity.”

Wabanaki people are a big part of the reason we have so many blueberry barrens in Maine, she points out. “Yes, it’s the soils, it’s the topography, it’s the geology. It’s also the millenia of relationship and stewardship of Wabanaki people.”

That relationship, which she characterized as “caretaking for collective abundance,” provides a way forward that could help protect land and also restore communities’ stewardship of the land.

This could include land trusts, farming coops and other grassroots efforts to protect and care for the land, she said.

“I think there’s a really important opportunity with so much land [listed] for sale right now where we can reorient and shift away from private land holding of something that really needs to be part of stabilizing our local food system and putting it back into local community control,” Moore said.

One grassroots effort, The Wild Blueberry Collective, has been organizing to protect a tract of land that Wyman’s is selling in Searsport. They have approached land trusts but found the groups were able to offer resources, but not to take on the effort to buy the land.

“It feels like the way to make this happen is through grassroots organizing,” she said.

Instead of putting the land directly on the market, Wyman’s has offered the group a purchase and sale agreement if they can raise the funds by October. To date, the group has raised $100,000 in grants and $35,000 from donors and small fundraisers. They also have an agreement with an entity that will loan them half of the money if they can come up with the first half, said Gloria Pearse, though she declined to provide more specifics about the agreement.

While the collective is currently focused on fundraising to protect the parcel in Searsport, they would not be opposed to working to protect other blueberry landscapes, Pearse said.

“Land is being developed and here’s our opportunity to protect the reason why we like where we live,” she said. “This is the time to save that land.”

BOSTON, (WPRI) — A somerset man has been cited for allegedly causing a deadly wrong-way crash in Boston late Saturday night.

Just before midnight, troopers from the H9 Barracks were called for a report of a multi-vehicle crash on I-93 North before Exit 15A.

A preliminary investigation showed that the driver of a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, identified as 81-year-old Antone Carvalho, of Somerset, entered Route 93 North at Exit 15B and drove southbound in the northbound lanes.

Two vehicles, a Honda Odyssey and an Audi A4, attempted to avoid the Carvalho and crashed into each other.

Four people in the Honda Odyssey, were taken to a Boston-area hospital for evaluation.

Shortly after the initial crash, police say Carvalho collided head-on with a Chevrolet Cruze.

Carvalho and the other driver were taken to Boston-area hospitals for their injuries

The driver of the Chevrolet Cruze, identified as a man in his 20’s from Haverhill, died from his injuries.

Carvalho will be issued a summons to appear in court at a later date.

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