About the Region
The Greater East Grand Region (GEGR) was designed from the beginning to be a citizen-led effort involving the towns and residents of a multi-jurisdictional territory of remote rural Maine. The region has ten widely separated communities, four of which are municipalities, three are plantations and three are villages within the unorganized territory. The region is remote, is situated at the extremities of three counties, shares a forty-mile long international border with Canada, and is divided by two state legislative districts and three state tourism areas. To say the barriers to past collaborative and coordinated economic and community planning has been a challenge is a serious understatement.
The specific Maine planning region includes the towns of Amity, Danforth, Haynesville, Orient and Weston; the plantations of Drew, Glenwood and Reed including the Village of Wytopitlock; the Unorganized Townships of Bancroft and Brookton Village, Forest City and Forest Twp., T11R3 NBPP, T7R2 NBPP, T8R3 NBPP, T3R3 Wels and T3R2 Forkstown, and the forest lands in the northerly parts of Codyville Plantation.
The people, heritage, and culture of the towns and communities which make up the Greater East Grand Region are each influenced by a broad, distinct and nearly independent landscape. Thus, the true strengths and assets of the Greater East Grand Region are based on a compendium of diverse landscapes, combined to form a highly unique area of over 500,000 acres in size – a landscape which includes the eastern portions of the watersheds of the Middle and Lower Mattawamkeag River, nearly all of the Baskahegan River drainage and most of the Upper St. Croix River watershed including its internationally controlled waters and adjacent shore lands in western New Brunswick. The landscape of western New Brunswick is included in the greater region because of the internationally controlled waters of the Upper St. Croix River including East Grand Lake and the associated shore land cottage owners who rely on the region’s service center located in Danforth.