RUMFORD — Close to a hundred people gathered Saturday to inaugurate the 446-acre Rumford Community Forest at 161 Isthmus Road, celebrating years of effort to protect forested lands and provide a recreation area available to people of all abilities.

Among the attendees was Gov. Janet Mills, who spoke about how towns like Rumford are showing a renewed energy after years of struggle.

“After decades of doubt over the future of mill towns, like this area, it’s only fitting that we’re here today to celebrate another symbol of Rumford’s resurgence,” Mills said.

Betsy Cook, Maine state director of the Trust for Public Land, said community forests are created and cared for “by the community, for the community.”

“Through all the work that you have done here and will continue to do, you are ensuring that Rumford Community Forest is going to provide educational benefits, environmental benefits, health benefits, economic benefits, but perhaps most importantly, is the benefit of community bonds that have been created and will continue to be,” Cook said.

“These bonds are the fabric of the community and the work to strengthen them through this community forest project is going to have impact far beyond the community forest for decades to come,” Cook added.

The idea for the public forest began a couple years ago because Karen Wilson, a teacher and member of Inland Woods and Trails executive board, and her husband, Todd Papianou, a physical education teacher and Outing Club adviser, were tired of always traveling away from this area to enjoy the wilderness.

Town leadership and nonprofits got involved, with business owner Rich Calhoun and his business partner, Kara Wilbur, purchasing the 446 acres on Isthmus Road to protect the land while plans were finalized.

Mills talked about legislation she signed to send the Maine Trails Bond to voters and “they overwhelmingly approved that bond to provide additional funding to communities to support the long-term maintenance of multiuse trail projects like this one.”

Mills said this land had originally been slated for significant housing development.

“But developing this particular parcel of land would have threatened local water supplies and wildlife habitat, while worsening future flooding events in Rumford and Mexico,” she said.

“Instead, using funding from the state of Maine’s Land for Maine’s Future and the U.S. Forest Service Community Forest, the town of Rumford has been able to complete this conservation project and create the Rumford Community Forest in less than a year,” Mills said.

Mills said the community forest preserves easy access for multiuse, year-round trails, where people can go hiking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, hunting and fishing pretty close to town.

“I’m also looking forward to seeing the new universal trail that people with wheelchairs, walkers and strollers can use to enjoy the beauty of this area of the great outdoors,” Mills said.

Travis Dustin, lands coordinator for Inland Woods + Trails, helped establish the Scotty Brook All Persons Trail, which most of the people attending walked following the grand opening.

Work is well underway for a 1.5 mile hiking trail called Porcupine Trail, with an elevation of about 600 feet. Four members of the Mountain Valley High School Outing Club arrived at 9 a.m. Saturday to work on creating a bog bridge for that trail.

“This is grassroots movement that is local to the community, doing the right thing and wanting good things for the people here,” Rumford Town Manager George O’Keefe said. “I think about all the people who have worked so hard for so long to make something really beautiful like this happen on a wonderful piece of land.”

With plans for two new parking areas close to town and connections to regional trail networks — including the Black Mountain trail network, Pennacook Area Community Trails at Mountain Valley High School — the land also will be maintained and improved for a wide variety of outdoor recreation uses, including hiking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, hunting, fishing and motorized uses on designated trails.