UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | SEBAGO CLEAN WATERS

Context
The 234,000-acre Sebago Lake watershed is 84% forested, but only 16% of this forest is permanently protected, and development-driven deforestation is on the rise. Due to these development pressures, the U.S. Forest

Service has identified this watershed as highly vulnerable. Sebago Clean Waters (SCW), a coalition of 11 partner organizations formed in 2017, aims to conserve 25% (35,000 additional acres) of forestland by 2032 to sustain water quality in Sebago Lake—as well as other co-benefits including recreation and wildlife habitat. To date, SCW has conserved over 11,200 acres.

One partner, the Portland Water District (PWD), provides drinking water from Sebago Lake to the downstream greater Portland urban and suburban are and has an EPA waiver from filtration, a rarity attributed to the lake’s high water quality maintained by the watershed’s forests. This waiver is at risk if water quality declines and could require the construction of a filtration plant estimated to cost $150M in 2018 dollars.

Community Engagement Efforts
SCW’s forestland conservation efforts are focused on the upstream Sebago Lake watershed communities and provide benefits to both upstream and downstream receiving water communities in greater Portland. These regions are socioeconomically diverse, including wealthy second-home owners, upper and middle-class residents, and impoverished rural and urban immigrant communities. The region is part of the unceded territory of the Abenaki, one of five tribes in Wabanaki Confederacy, now largely residing in Odanak First Nation, Quebec.

SCW is working on engaging these diverse communities, including the Indigenous people historically connected to the land. They are committed to understanding and addressing societal inequities in conservation practices. As the SCW website states: “Sebago Clean Waters is actively learning how the conservation movement—including our partnership—has been complicit in perpetuating injustice in our country and in the land and water conservation sector. We are engaged in learning about the history and present-day inequities within conservation organizations.

While we have just begun, we are committed to being part of positive and lasting change that will lead to more equitable, just, diverse, and inclusive professional networks and conservation processes and outcomes.” SCW’s Steering Committee is evaluating its own internal practices and learning—both through general equity education and more specific cultural training—as a foundation for greater community engagement. This education includes participation by several leaders and staff in an intensive year-long First Light Learning Journey and by the full SCW steering committee in an indigenous-led Wabanaki REACH training to understand the Wabanaki’s history and present-day challenges. Building on this education and led by expert facilitators, SCW is undertaking an equity-infused strategic planning process.

In Maine, First Light staff have worked with Wabanaki leaders to establish the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship which represents five Wabanaki nations who work with the non-native First Light conservation community on land access, return and stewardship. A Conservation Community Delegation to the Wabanaki Commission comprised of well-trained non-native First Light members serves as a liaison to facilitate communication between conservationists and tribal representatives. SCW has consulted the Delegation on aproposed project to gauge alignment with Wabanaki interests. In November 2023, three SCW members were part of a statewide non-native First Light delegation visit to Odanak First Nation to begin building relationships with the Abenaki diaspora.
SCW is currently focusing on community engagement during the water fund execution phase to ensure diverse community perspectives are included. The coalition is working to build relationships with new community partners and determine effective engagement strategies. SCW’s strategic planning aims to center equity, expand the collaborative’s work to address conservation-related needs of underserved communities, and include new voices in decision-making, particularly through an expanded Grantmaking Committee to better reflect community needs and priorities.