Orland is blessed with a diverse natural landscape and rich natural resources. It’s a hilly country with granite ridges, high hills and Great Pond Mountain topping out at 1,028 ft., towering over eight clean lakes and ponds, trout-filled streams, wetlands and beaver meadows. Add productive farms and blueberry fields and large forested areas, and Orland supplies excellent habitat for ducks and deer, black bears and bobcats, and Maine’s trademark animal, the moose. Herons and ducks ply the shallow mudflats on the Orland River, and migratory fish – especially river herring – ascend the Narramissic River to find spawning grounds.
Orland’s natural resources are critically important to its human residents and visitors too, providing rural character, scenic beauty, clean water, recreation and economic benefit, as visitors come to enjoy lakes and ponds and conserved lands year-round. Examples include: the Wildlands of the Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, the Craig Pond National Salmon Hatchery, the Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake boat launches, and the Orland Community Center walking trail.
Beginning with Habitat (BwH), Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (DIFW) and the Maine Natural Areas Program (MNAP) have provided maps and information as tools for planning development in town while conserving significant and high-value plant and animal habitats and natural communities. Beginning with Habitat – a collaborative program of federal, state and local agencies and non-governmental organizations – provides maps on its website featuring Orland’s natural resources:
Maps available include: 1. Water Resources & Riparian Habitats; 2. High Value Plant & Animal Habitats; 3. Undeveloped Habitat Blocks.
(Taken from the Orland Comprehensive Plan 2022)
Come to Orland to enjoy our Town’s rural character and beautiful environment!