2023 Annual Report

A collaboration with the town of Cutler protected 4.4 shorefront acres for a future town park, increased public access to Cutler Harbor for recreation and commercial fishing, and secured access to MCHT’s Western Head Preserve. In the coming months and years, we will be developing a plan to improve access and parking. MCHT photo.

Donors gave to support construction of a new barn and visitor center at Aldermere Farm, which is part of the recently completed $4.4 million campaign to make this preserve, and nearby Erickson Fields, safer, more efficient, and more accessible community assets in the coming decades. MCHT photo.

MCHT stewards Kyle Winslow and Frank Wilson constructed trails at Meserve Head in Machias. We also installed a new parking lot and welcomed community members at an evening meet-and-greet hosted in partnership with the AmeriCorps programs of Goodwill Northern New England. MCHT photo.

In August, we joined with volunteers on Marshall Island to collect, bag, remove, and recycle well over a ton of debris in a single day. This kind of clean-up work is endless, regularly undertaken by stewards, partners, and volunteers on all the preserves we care for. Photo by Maine Mountain Media.

As of 2023, Sheep Island is one of four islands off Casco Passage in Blue Hill Bay owned and cared for by MCHT. We look forward to welcoming visitors on Sheep and other publicly accessible island preserves within this special archipelago! MCHT photo.

A workshop led by the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik was part of the Maine Land Conservation Conference. Coordinated by MCHT, the conference offered virtual workshops and an in-person, day-long event gathering 225 people to engage on topics ranging from climate change to “fearless conservation.” This is part of MCHT’s work to support and guide Maine’s broad conservation community, including the 80 land trusts working throughout the state. Photo by Regina Smith.

Malaga Island, managed by MCHT as a preserve open to the public since 2001, was listed to the National Register of Historic Places. The 42-acre island in Phippsburg was home to a mixed-race fishing community forcibly removed by the state of Maine in 1912. Over the past several years, MCHT staff has been working with descendants of the islanders and other partners to apply for this designation. The image here was taken during a gathering on the island in 2009, around the time when the island became a site on the Maine Freedom Trail. MCHT photo.

Biddeford Pool Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust joined together to protect 23 acres of fine sand beach, sand dunes, and freshwater wetlands home to herons, egrets, and Atlantic piping plovers. Photo by Rooted in Light Media.

In 2023, Joe Taft and other MCHT stewards monitored and reported on the over 300 conservation easements that MCHT holds. These legal agreements between landowners and MCHT limit development and preserve ecological and community values of land—and they’re a critical tool used to accomplish conservation goals. Easements make up around 50% of our conservation holdings (the 45,095 acres we’re responsible for monitoring and caring for). MCHT photo.

At Old Pond Preserve in Hancock, we’re working with restoration specialists to improve the functionality of the marsh in one of the first restoration projects of its kind in Maine. As part of our Marshes for Tomorrow Initiative, an effort to save this critical habitat in a changing climate, we’re consulting partners and sharing what we learn with others caring for marshes. MCHT steward Tatia Bauer, pictured here, presented on this work with her colleague Bob DeForrest (MCHT) and Sara Williams (Downeast Salmon Federation), at Rally, the Land Trust Alliance’s annual gathering. Photo by Maine Mountain Media.