Reaching and Achieving: MCHT Attains Ever More Ambitious Goals
MCHT sought to protect Marshall Island in Jericho Bay for upwards of two decades through negotiations and even a bank auction bid. Finally in 2003, the Trust—with Campaign for the Coast funds—secured three separate parcels in a single calendar year, preserving the entirety of this remarkable, 981-acre natural gem.
The development pressure along Maine’s shoreline that characterized the 1980s abated briefly in the early 1990s, but soon returned—sending property values soaring and placing many unspoiled shorefront settings in jeopardy. Maine Coast Heritage Trust launched an ambitious campaign to generate more resources for coastal conservation. Richard Rockefeller, who chaired the $100 million Campaign for the Coast,” liked to cite Winston Churchill’s aphorism ‘Play for more than you can afford, and you will learn the game.’ “We couldn’t afford not to launch the Campaign,” Rockefeller reflects, “because the stakes were too high if we failed to act.”
Through this multi-year campaign, MCHT and its partners conserved more than 17,236 acres (through the end of 2007), 175 miles of shoreline, 31 miles of accessible trails, and 81 entire coastal islands. Equally important, the Trust expanded its network of partners and leveraged greater governmental and landowner support for land protection and stewardship. Longtime partners like the Land for Maine’s Future Program, first established in 1987, continued to prove critical supporting acquisition of gems such as Beech Hill in Rockport, Marshall Island in Jericho Bay and Whaleboat Island in Casco Bay.
Maine Coast Heritage Trust forged a strong partnership in 2000 with the year-round community on Frenchboro Long Island and diverse organizations to secure 914 wild acres with 5.5 miles of shoreline. “The project was a lifesaver,” observed Frenchboro First Selectman David Lunt. “If the land had gone into development… it wouldn’t have been Frenchboro anymore.”
By accelerating the pace of land protection, the Campaign vaulted the Trust into a new era of stewardship. When the Campaign began in 2000, Maine Coast Heritage Trust held 99 easements and owned 36 properties. By 2010, the number of easements had nearly doubled and the number of properties had more than tripled to 125.
Over the last decade, MCHT has also forged much closer ties to the communities where it holds land—settings such as Castine (where the Trust now manages 293 acres); Cutler, Trescott and Lubec downeast; Camden and Rockport (home to MCHT’s popular Aldermere Farm and Erickson Fields Preserve); and Frenchboro Long Island.
Stronger partnerships with communities and local land trusts have led to shared work toward regional land conservation—pursuing projects defined more by nature’s contours than by human boundaries. These collaborative endeavors began forming in the 1990s and have gained momentum in the last decade. They span the length of Maine’s coast from the Mount Agamenticus to the Sea Initiative in southernmost Maine to collaborative efforts in Washington County, particularly around Cobscook Bay.
MCHT has worked consistently on its own “whole place” protection efforts, concentrating land protection in areas of outstanding natural beauty and value. “This focused and persistent effort has tremendous payback,” notes David McDonald, MCHT Director of Land Protection, “enabling the Trust to preserve the integrity of whole landscape features like inlets, basins, brook watersheds and archipelagos.” Each new success, decades in the making, affirms the vision and determination that have been central to the Trust from its earliest days. “I think one of the real beauties of MCHT is that while the staff has changed over the years and the board has evolved, there’s this continuity,” observes former MCHT Vice President Caroline M. Pryor. “It has a presence and patience: to be there for a family when the time is right is a hallmark of MCHT’s work.”
