CARRABASSETT VALLEY — A plan to preserve nearly 12,000 acres of unique high-elevation forest in Carrabassett Valley has been picked to get a share of $7 million set aside by Maine voters last year for conservation projects.

The plan, being proposed by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Land, seeks to buy 11,800 acres from Plum Creek Timber Co., and turn about 4,500 acres into an ecological reserve, with the other land becoming state-managed forest, according to Kathy Eickenberg, acting deputy director for the bureau.

It’s among 22 projects recently picked by the Land for Maine’s Future Board that is overseeing the taxpayer-funded program. The funding was approved last November as a statewide referendum question.

All the projects still have to meet certain guidelines — ranging from a title search to an environmental impact assessment — before they get the money, according to Jody Harris, Maine State Planning Office program director.

If approved, the projects will conserve a total of 76,000 acres of undeveloped land and farmland, Harris said.

The board will review the projects again before giving final approval, but the program money will be set aside for the projects until they are passed or withdrawn, she said.

Maine has 14 mountains higher than 4,000 feet and the Crocker Mountain conservation project in Carrabassett Valley contains three of them: North Crocker, South Crocker and Sugarloaf, Eickenberg said.

It’s part of the largest high-elevation forest — above 2,700 feet — in Maine, and contains Crocker Cirque, one of the finest examples of a glacially formed bowl in the state, she said.

The project aims to protect endangered wildlife in the unique mountain terrain, while preserving its diverse outdoor recreational uses, which includes a 9.7-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail, Eickenberg said.

The bureau is working with other environmental agencies and private donors to find money for the project, which has a total cost of $8.8 million, she said.

The project will receive $650,000 from the Land for Maine’s Future program if it is approved by the board, she said.

The project has also applied for $7 million from the federal Forest Legacy Program, which is being discussed by lawmakers during current debates about the 2012 budget, according to Eickenberg.

“Whatever it gets depends on how much is put into that program … a major part of this (project in Carrabassett Valley) is getting the federal money,” she said.

If the land is bought from Plum Creek, the Maine Department of Conservation would decide how to manage the forest and ecological reserve, protecting habitat for the Bicknell Thrush and the state-listed endangered Roaring Brook mayfly, according to Eickenberg.

She called it an ambitious project that is part of a strategy seeking to promote Maine’s recreation and nature-based economy.

The Land for Maine’s Future Board set aside $1.4 million for six projects supporting farmland. A total of $5.6 million is allocated for 16 conservation and outdoor recreation projects across Maine, according to a release from the board.

The other projects in Kennebec and Franklin counties picked by the board include 240 acres at the Meadow Brook Farm in Fayette; 1,285 acres in the Androscoggin Greenway in Canton, Jay and Livermore Falls; and 5,808 acres tied to Orbeton Stream in Madrid.

There is no timetable for when the state board will decide on its final approvals, but the biggest factor in whether some of the projects move forward may be how much they get from the federal conservation program, Eickenberg said.

“Like a lot of these projects, (the Crocker Mountain Conservation project) is really linked to the availability of the Forest Legacy funding,” she said.

David Robinson — 861-9287

drobinson@centralmaine.com