Big Growers Retreat as Locals Race to Save Maine's Blueberry Barrens
More than 1,000 acres of midcoast blueberry land are for sale as growers pull out, and a Searsport group races an October deadline to buy 150 acres of it.
Land stewards in Maine's midcoast region say more than 1,000 acres of blueberry barrens are currently for sale or have recently changed hands, a wave driven by large growers retreating from low prices and unpredictable weather patterns tied to climate change, the Bangor Daily News reported. Conserving the land is difficult because blueberry fields must be mowed regularly or they revert to scrub and forest.
Among the properties on the market are two owned by Wyman's: a 122-acre tract on Clarry Hill in Union, asking $499,000, and a 40-acre plot in Penobscot, asking $299,000. A relative of the family that runs Allen's Wild Maine Blueberries is separately asking $1.8 million for Patterson Hill, a 247-acre property in Belfast.
In Searsport, a group of women organized as the Wild Blueberry Collective is trying to raise $750,000 to buy more than 150 acres that Wyman's is selling; they have collected $100,000 through grants and $35,000 from individual donors so far and face an October 2026 deadline to complete the purchase under an agreement with Wyman's. On June 15, 2026, Northport voters approved a moratorium on future RV parks, "glampgrounds" and event venues after a couple from Massachusetts acquired over 100 acres of barren land for a planned campground.
Ian Stewart, who leads the Camden-based Coastal Mountains Land Trust, said the fruit ranks as "second only to lobsters" among symbols of Maine, even as trusts struggle to keep pace with the volume of land now on the market.
This story was first reported by Bangor Daily News.
