Summer 2009
MCHT Preserves Expand in Number, Building Community Support
Maine Coast Heritage Trust preserves are cherished community resources, generating interest and help from those who visit.
Maine Coast Heritage Trust recently passed a major milestone, acquiring its hundredth property. The number of properties in Trust stewardship has grown dramatically over the last decade, generating many new benefits and responsibilities.
In its first 15 years, the Trust’s primary conservation role was that of a facilitator—helping landowners place easements with other partner agencies and land trusts, rather than taking on stewardship holdings itself. Its first preserve was established in 1985 when several families around Castine generously offered lands to MCHT that eventually became part of the Witherle Woods Preserve. The Trust acquired nine more preserves over the next decade, and in 1996 hired Jane Arbuckle as its first Stewardship Director to help oversee management of these lands (and monitoring of conservation easement properties).
The Campaign for the Coast launched by MCHT in 2001 greatly accelerated the pace of our land conservation and by the start of 2009, MCHT held 108 properties. “The properties we own now encompass remarkably diverse landscapes and values,” notes MCHT President Paul Gallay, “from commercial blueberry barrens and wild promontories downeast to islands of all sizes and a saltwater farm known for its world-class cattle.”
To assure long-term care of its preserves, the Trust has established a network of regional stewards who sustain strong local ties through a year-round presence. “Having folks on the ground has provided untold benefits,” Arbuckle reflects. “It gives us more credibility in communities, and it helps shape our policies and practices in ways sensitive to local needs.” Stewardship staff members routinely collaborate with local officials in developing management plans for each preserve, and work hard to meet the needs of traditional users. “In some cases, we’re preserving lands that area residents have traditionally enjoyed,” Arbuckle explains. “In other cases, we’re opening new opportunities for recreation.”
With each preserve, staff members carefully assess how best to structure public use and what the ideal number of visitors might be (to sustain both the ecological integrity of the place and the visitor experience). MCHT’s stewardship team monitors changes over time—whether from human use or other impacts. “We’ve gained so much experience over the past decade,” Arbuckle adds, “about diverse facets of preserve management (from archaeological digs and storm-damaged trees to manure management!) that we now feel comfortable tackling whatever issues arise.”
MCHT has found its own stewardship work matched by growing volunteer support from community members near Trust preserves. That local sense of ownership is critical, notes Director of Land Protection David MacDonald: “For lands to be truly protected, you need a public who cares deeply about them. We are fortunate that so many volunteers and members have responded to our willingness to take on ambitious properties like Aldermere Farm or Witherle Woods, and have been terrifically generous with their time and financial support.”
MCHT has worked for two years, guided by Director of Communications Rich Knox, to develop effective means of publicizing its preserves. “It’s exciting to roll out both interactive preserve information online (see page 2) and a print guide highlighting 40 of our most popular preserves,” Knox says. “Our members are increasingly interested in learning more about these wonderful places.” MCHT board member, Dawn Kidd, who serves on the Trust’s Stewardship Policy Committee, believes this step will be a very positive one for MCHT, based on her experience with Boothbay Region Land Trust. “In our community,” she says, “publicizing preserves has generated greater awareness of land conservation, more appreciation of its benefits, and a stronger base of community support.”
President’s Column
Enhancing Outreach Online
One of the greatest rewards of land conservation work is being able to share with others news of special places we’ve preserved. At Maine Coast Heritage Trust, we announce acquisitions of new preserves in our publications and in the press, but — until recently — there’s been no central place where members and friends could read about the wealth of wonderful places we manage.
I’m delighted to say that now, thanks to the creative work of our Communications Director Rich Knox and website designer Tim Swan, we have detailed information online for 13 of our most popular preserves. They prepared an array of features for potential preserve visitors, from basic essentials like directions and a printable trail map to fun extras like interactive Google maps. The attractive and accessible format they created demonstrates MCHT’s commitment to providing public access and engages our preserve visitors in new ways.
The Web offers a great medium for sharing information about conserved lands because — unlike printed property guides — information can be readily updated. If, for example, a new eagle nest prompts a trail closure, we can post that information and visitors can plan accordingly. Better still, visitors can let us know about what may need stewardship attention. At all our preserves, we rely on conscientious visitors to be our “eyes and ears,” and the comments section on our preserve pages now makes it easy to report observations and concerns.
Realizing how important the Web is as a means of outreach, we’ve made numerous other site upgrades as well. There’s now a home page slideshow that offers a panoramic sense of our beautiful preserves and lets people link directly to our most popular pages. We’ve added a new search function and the site now has a social networking share feature so those active on Facebook, Twitter and other social media can link readily to MCHT’s site. I’ve launched a President’s Blog, which I hope you’ll visit, sharing perspectives on how land conservation is progressing in Maine.
While the Web is a perfect medium for transmitting most preserve information, it doesn’t help those who like to have a pocket-handy reference guide as they travel along Maine’s coast. To meet that need, we’ve just produced a preserve guide featuring 40 Trust properties which was mailed out to all our members. You can use this “glove compartment” guide yourself for field explorations, and share it with friends who are not yet familiar with MCHT’s work.
We hope to see you out on our preserves this summer, and invite you to join some of our many field trips if you’d like a guided introduction. Enjoy exploring our lands—both online and in person!
Stewardship: Aldermere Farm Celebrates Tenth Year in MCHT Ownership
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Mr. Albert Chatfield’s generous bequest gift, entrusting Maine Coast Heritage Trust with care of his 136-acre saltwater farm in Rockport. Mr. Chatfield’s foresight ensured that the scenic farmfields and woods between Lily Pond and Penobscot Bay would remain a cherished community treasure for generations to come. His gift allowed MCHT to sustain Aldermere Farm’s reputation as a premier breeder of Belted Galloway cattle while creating year-round educational programs that foster a deeper appreciation for land conservation.
The Farm has grown into a thriving community hub over the past decade, hosting dozens of public events each year—ranging from natural history walks and youth farming programs to moonlit cross-country ski outings. Aldermere Farm has strengthened its reputation as a statewide leader in sustainable agriculture, offering educational workshops and helping establish and manage the Northeast Livestock Expo (marketing beef, sheep and goat farms) and new Knox County Farmer’s Alliance.
In addition to helping area farmers achieve economic and ecological sustainability, Aldermere Farm has strengthened its own operations. It has nearly quadrupled annual farm revenues through the sale of beef and hay. Construction of a manure storage building greatly reduced runoff, and MCHT received State Department of Environmental Protection support to fence cattle out of sensitive areas in the Lily Pond watershed. Staff members have begun work to eliminate Japanese barberry, honeysuckle and bittersweet, thanks to a grant from the Maine Forest Service.
Aldermere Farm takes an active role encouraging community gardening, providing more than 20 raised beds tended by area families and volunteers (some of which supply produce to the local elementary and high school). The Farm hosts “how to garden” workshops, a youth gardening project, and an agricultural poster contest for children. It helps support the annual garden tour organized by the Camden Garden Club, and solicits gardening help at the Farm from Master Gardeners trained through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service.
The acquisition of the Erickson Fields property in 2008, with 70 acres of hayfields and woods in a prominent location near Aldermere Farm, has furthered MCHT’s partnership with the local community. More than 375 area residents and businesses helped support the purchase of this prime farmland, which was secured in partnership with Maine Farmland Trust and the federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program.
Aldermere Farm’s most impressive achievement to date may well be the diversity of community support it has garnered—from local businesses and families to livestock owners and managers throughout the northeast. That support is likely to grow over coming decades. As Catherine Tanzer, whose daughter participated in the Aldermere Achievers 4-H Club notes, “I look forward to many years of supporting the Farm and its imaginative endeavors to involve the community.”
Land Protection: Donated Easements Preserve Two Entire Islands
Through the efforts of dedicated landowners, Maine Coast Heritage Trust now holds permanent conservation easements on two privately owned islands in Blue Hill Bay. The easements preserve the bald eagle nesting habitat, significant seal haulouts and scenic integrity of an archipelago visible from Casco Passage and the Swans Island Ferry. Together, the two conserved islands have more than a mile of wild shoreline.
An easement on 18-acre Sheep Island donated by Peter P. Blanchard, III, prohibits all future development (and allows for daytime public access), while an easement donated by the T. Courtenay Jenkins, Jr. family on 6-acre Eagle Island allows for a small tent platform screened and set back from the shore (with no public access guaranteed by the easement). Acadia National Park holds easements on all of neighboring Black and Pond islands, and a small portion of Opechee and Johns Island.
Blanchard, who purchased an interest in Sheep more than two decades ago and now owns the island in entirety, says “it’s wonderful to reunite places that have been fragmented.” Sheep is mostly open, providing habitat for nesting yellow warblers and song sparrows. For Blanchard, the conservation easement offers a way to “take right steps for the long term while enjoying the pleasures of ownership.” Within this exceptionally beautiful archipelago, he adds, you can enjoy a pristine landscape similar to what early European settlers encountered: “it’s a very magical place.”
For T. Courtenay Jenkins, III, of Eagle Island, the easement provides a way to sustain his late father’s vision that the island be a natural sanctuary: “My father would be pleased to know that his children have protected this beautiful little island that has provided our family with so many memorable experiences over the years.”
Memorial Gifts Honor and Extend a Shared Love of Place
The coast of Maine evokes a deep love of place in many individuals, one that often endures through a lifetime. When life draws to a close, family members may choose to dedicate memorial gifts toward conserving the landscape that person loved.
Maine Coast Heritage Trust was honored this year to receive more than 50 gifts from around the nation in memory of Grace McNeal, fondly known as “Mrs. Mac” by girls at the camp she established and ran for 50 years on Walker Pond in Sargentville. “My mother spent an idyllic childhood along the shores of Walker Pond and Eggemoggin Reach,” recalls her daughter Catherine Larson. “She established Camp Four Winds so that other children as well could really live in, experience and appreciate God’s great out-of-doors.” The extended camp family that formed there treasured “Mrs. Mac” for her can-do spirit, compassion, reverence for nature, and ready sense of humor and adventure.
When Grace McNeal died this spring at age 98, Larson asked that memorial gifts go to a fund at MCHT that supports land protection around Caterpillar Hill (where MCHT has worked for years in partnership with Blue Hill Heritage Trust). Caterpillar Hill lies just up from the former camp and affords spectacular views over Walker Pond and Penobscot Bay. “Caterpillar Hill has always been a special place in my heart, as it was in my mother’s heart and in her mother’s heart,” Larson reflects. “My grandmother traveled the world, but always said that Caterpillar Hill offered the loveliest view she had ever seen!”
For more information on memorial gifts or planned giving options, please contact development@mcht.org.
New MDI Office Opens
Maine Coast Heritage Trust announces the opening of a brand new office alongside its Babson Creek Preserve on Route 102 in Somesville. The building was constructed to strict environmental standards and now provides a permanent base for the eleven staff members who work at the Mount Desert Island field office (which has been in rented facilities since the organization’s launch in 1970).
The building sits on a former house site above Babson Creek, part of a property donated to MCHT by two individuals who purchased the land at auction. MCHT worked with a local architect to design an office and a traditional-style barn (across the road) that will minimize energy and water use and draw on renewable power sources. The builder used many materials from local and environmentally responsible providers. The new office sits well back from the shore and has a low profile so that it fits visually within the natural setting—a 35-acre preserve where people enjoy hiking and bird-watching.
Conference Success
A record-setting 450 people attended the Maine Land Conservation Conference on May 1 and 2, drawing inspiration and valuable information from colleagues. Members of Maine’s land trust community honored Espy Land Heritage Award winner Lucy McCarthy (shown here with plaque), who as Executive Director of Vinalhaven Land Trust has demonstrated many of the ways that land trusts can enrich community life through exceptional educational outreach.
Staff News
Deirdre Whitehead has joined MCHT’s stewardship team downeast, working two days a week assisting Regional Steward Melissa Lee in Washington County.
MCHT welcomes a summer trail crew (Rebecca Gerber, Gordon Adams and Karl Gifford) that will help make preserve improvements, and Elizabeth Bailey Cunningham and Brian W. Fulmer who will serve as this summer’s Marshall Island Stewards.
