A Time of Big Decisions: MCHT Milestones in the 1980s
“Perhaps [MCHT’s] greatest contribution is inspiring local action, giving people the tools they need, and helping them become active land conservationists. The person-to-person element is crucial. You can’t accomplish anything in conservation without people, and Maine Coast Heritage Trust has great strength and credibility with all kinds of landowners, from farmers to timber companies.”
Lissa Widoff, former director of the Land for Maine’s Future Program (in Downeast magazine, April 1991)
During the 1980s, MCHT advanced ‘Whole Place’ protection, focusing on natural settings of outstanding value – such as the Basin on Vinalhaven (shown here) and the Bold Coast in Washington County. Photo: Basin © Paul Rezendes
Maine Coast Heritage Trust took a “huge step forward” in 1985, recalls Council member Gordon Abbot, when the Board voted to accept the Trust’s first fee property (a 98-acre headland in Castine). The Lands Committee weighed this decision carefully and concluded that outright ownership required a major stewardship investment but ultimately afforded the greatest possible degree of land protection.
Passage that year of Maine’s Uniform Conservation Easement Act meant that land trusts were no longer confined to taking easements near existing land holdings. This legislative change stimulated creation of more local land trusts, with the total number doubling in two years— reaching 50 in 1987. MCHT’s board committed to support these emerging trusts with a dedicated staff position. “Helping form local land trusts is probably one of the most significant contributions we made,” observes longtime Board Chair Ed Woodsum. “The multiplier effect of what we’ve done will be tremendous.”
The rapid growth of local land trusts reflected widespread concern in Maine about sprawling development, unprecedented land speculation and diminishing access to cherished natural places. Citizens and organizations banded together to support a bond measure that would direct $35 million to secure some of Maine’s landmark properties. MCHT provided critical financial and logistical support for the first Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) bond, which voters overwhelmingly passed in 1987.
As speculative development continued to spread eastward, MCHT learned of two headlands along the Bold Coast in Washington County threatened with subdivision. On short notice, the Trust needed to decide whether to acquire these threatened lands, thereby getting into the real estate business. Council Member Peter Quesada recalls what MCHT cofounder Peggy Rockefeller said in response to that difficult choice: “‘It might fail. It might even destroy the organization because it’s a big bet. But it’s something we ought to do: if we don’t, no one else will and it’s really important.’”
“Perhaps Western Head is not only one of the most beautiful headlands on the Down East coast…, it is also, for me and many people in Cutler, the heart of our spiritual home. Its loss would have been devastating to us.”
Cutler native Delia Mae Farris
Photo: Western Head © Bridget Besaw
MCHT did purchase the Bold Coast headlands and—through that arduous but successful process—forged close alliances with individuals and communities downeast. Cutler lobsterman Jasper Cates, who helped lead the campaign to save Western and Great Heads, later observed “You’ve got to have a hide as thick as [a] battle-ship… for this kind of thing, but if you know deep down in your heart that your cause is right and you’ve got people like Maine Coast Heritage Trust on your side, you’re going to win.”
