Notes from the Coast Fall 2026
In “Notes from the Coast,” we delve into a particular topic area, share thoughts and questions we’re exploring at Maine Coast Heritage Trust, and celebrate the good work you’re making possible.
THE GUIDING QUESTION
How can we keep Maine’s natural ecosystems healthy forever?
Like all nonprofits, Maine Coast Heritage Trust operates at the intersection of hope and reality.
In reality, acquiring and conserving land remains necessary to ensure this state remains wild and precious. But the hope is more ambitious: a world where each of us feels such a strong connection to the land, the water, and the natural systems around us that protection is instinctive, stewardship is automatic, and care is embedded.
Conservation is the first step to safeguarding Maine’s lands and waters in perpetuity. But people are vital to their forever care. It will take all of us in different capacities to champion land-use solutions that are durable and secure a healthier future for Maine.
We must strengthen the relationship between people and land and build awareness of the holistic benefits of conservation. If this is understood, if people feel this connection, they will stand up for it.
In recent decades, conservation has evolved to deepen this bond. Today, conservation groups are active partners in community conversations about challenges like housing, food insecurity, land and water access, working waterfronts, and community resilience.
Our community conservation efforts are making the relevance of our work visible, tangible, and more clearly connected to people’s lives and livelihoods. By building relevance, investing in partnerships, and strengthening connections to nature, we’ll move closer to that long-term vision, where caring for the land is simply instinctual. That’s the promise.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts and questions with me at president@mcht.org.
Kate Stookey
MCHT President and CEO
THE MOMENT OF INSPIRATION
At the end of 2025, Maine Coast Heritage Trust donated approximately one acre of land and the site of an existing 1850s farmhouse at MCHT’s Erickson Fields Preserve to Midcoast Regional Housing Trust (MCRHT). MCRHT will create long-term, multi-family, year-round housing to respond to the region’s urgent housing crisis. We also expanded Erickson Fields by five acres to enhance local collaboration, strengthen programming, increase public access, and complement wider planning efforts in Rockport.
Conservation is a solution with many benefits.
DID YOU KNOW?
Land trusts have …
- Supported 529 water access sites for recreation, working waterfront, and commercial fishing
- Opened up 371,747 acres for Wabanaki cultural access
- Conserved 40,700 acres of working farmland
Photo of Kate: Katherine Emery
Infographic: Puelle Design
Photo of Erickson Fields: Jerry Monkman/Ecophotography
Photo of Clam Harvester: Jerry Monkman/Ecophotography