Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area covers over 1,000 acres, including 600 acres of a rare sandplain-grassland community surrounded by upland forest. It was the first property purchased with Lands for Maine's Future Funds, Maine's primary source for conserving public land for its natural and recreational value. Historically, frequent natural fires and periodic burning by Indigenous Peoples maintained a mosaic of grasslands, shrublands, and dry forests known as pine barrens. As Europeans settled the area, natural fires came to be seen as a threat to local communities and were increasingly suppressed. Conservation of the property in 1990 was made possible through partnerships with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Since then, the department has cooperated with the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy to maintain grassland habitat for species that require this rare environment, using controlled burns, or prescribed fires, to restore and sustain habitat for a range of unique plant and animal species.
