Piecing Together the Puzzle:  Farms, Forests and Water
GWRLT Strategic Conservation Plan

York Pond Addition Completed

Explore Diverse Habitats at The Savage Preserve
Paul Miliotis, naturalist and ecologist

Timber Harvest=Cordwood

Volunteers Make the Difference

Remembering Carlton Young

Download pdf of Fall 2009 issue of Great Works

Piecing Together the Puzzle:  Farms, Forests and Water
GWRLT Strategic Conservation Plan

It is not about land, or acres, or projects, but about all the life that occurs in that thin layer from a few feet underground to the tops of the trees.

Farms, Forests, and Water is the title of the Land Trust’s just released Strategic Conservation Plan providing the guideline for the organization’s land protection efforts over the next 15 years. Why farms, forests, and water? Because these three landscapes provide what we and our communities need to thrive; clean air, clean water, and food. When we depend on the resources of natural communities it is our responsibility to manage those communities in a sustainable way. Land conservation accomplishes this goal by protecting these resources for generations to come.

Grover Family Lands: Donation of 3 parcels totaling 71 acres in North Berwick

York Pond Campaign to raise money to purchase 140 acres (+/-) parcel.

Davis Foundation grants $10,000 to York Pond 2009 Campaign

Great Works River Watershed Education program kicks off with dedication of Grover Family Lands, June 13th, 9:30-11:30 am, at Bauneg Beg Grange Hall, North Berwick.

2009 Farmstand List

Doug Mayer, new Board member from Ogunquit.

Link to Summer 2009 issue of Great Works

Together We Do Great Things

In this issue of Great Works we revisit the conservation of about 580 acres of land around York Pond. What now appears as a large, contiguous block of conservation land was stitched together using both large and small parcels, through agreements with a diverse group of landowners, by a number of volunteers and organizations over the course of twenty years.

York Pond was the first large-scale conservation effort for Great Works. The lessons we learned are deeply ingrained in how we work today on large projects and are summed up by three P’s: perseverance, patience and partnership.

Each York Pond project brought us a new partner to work with, the towns of Eliot and South Berwick, the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, developers, and individuals. We learned to adapt our role accordingly, to move fluidly from being the leader to the supporter of a project without ever giving up our primary role as the ‘voice for the land’.

As the local land trust, we make it a priority to know our landscape, our neighbors and how to talk about the unique qualities that make our region special. We know our limits – we just can’t purchase every beautiful, undeveloped piece of land that comes available. We also know that we can and will work long and hard to find someone who can. York Pond, Bauneg Beg Mountain, Beach Plum Farm, Mt. Agamenticus, each has taught us that partnerships have the power to achieve great things.

Highlights of this newsletter:

20 Years Working Together in the York Pond Area

Tracking the New England Cottontail Rabbit

The Savage Preserve: Winter Notes from the caretakers and results of natural resources inventory

Thank you to our donors in 2008

Link to PDF of 2009 Winter/Spring issue of Great Works

Some selections from our current newsletter:

Watersheds…Protecting our vital resource

Marshwood Middle School Students to Monitor Sturgeon Creek Watershed

Riparian Buffers

Discovering The Savage Wildlife Preserve

Kenyon Hill Timber Harvest

Entire Fall 2008 issue of Great Works

This summer saw a severe tornado in Barnstead and Alton, destructive flooding in Lebanon and Acton, high river levels making boating and  fishing risky, elevated bacteria counts at our coastal beaches, along with record rains and a persistent cloud cover.

Farmers struggled to get their hay dry and their crops were hurt by disease.

Water districts incurred added costs to remove silt and sediment from surface supplies while facing up to a 15% drop in demand as customers reduced watering of lawns and gardens and hotels and restaurants experienced a slow season.

GWRLT is the local land trust in the communities of the Berwicks, Eliot, Ogunquit and Wells. Did you know this region includes 6 major drainages such as the Webhannet River watershed and our namesake, the Great Works River watershed?

Click on map for larger image.

The GWRLT service area – 6 towns – contain 8,474 acres of riparian buffer. A recent analysis completed for the Strategic Conservation Plan showed that 407 acres (5%) have already been developed and another 424 acres (5%) have been impaired enough to possibly not be functional. 914 acres (11%) have been protected. That leaves 6,729 acres (79%) vulnerable to land use changes that will impair water quality. With all the rivers within the service area already on Maine Department of Protections’ “Rivers at Risk from Development” list, it is clear there is much to do. Over the next year the Trust will be stepping up its efforts to support landowners who own riparian buffer lands so they can continue to provide the clean water on which we all depend.

Oh the things you will see…

The Raymond & Simone Savage Wildlife Preserve is quickly becoming a much loved GWRLT public place. Trained and untrained eyes have taken their first looks at this special property and returned with a sense of awe for its bounty and gratitude for its protection.

Dedication of The Raymond & Simone Savage Wildlife Preserve

Volunteers Make It Happen...

Trail Expansion at Bauneg Beg

Strategic Conservation Planning

A formal dedication of this truly extraordinary property on the Salmon Falls River in South Berwick was held on a not-so-sunny Saturday in May. The rain held off, sort of, but few were optimistic enough to bring along a picnic. As it happened, the day before, May 30th was the 95th anniversary of the birth of the donor of the property, Simone Savage, who died in 2006. Her husband, Raymond, died 20 some years earlier.

A 6-member Maine Conservation Corps (MCC) crew spent 8 days in late May and early June on our Bauneg Beg property in North Berwick, performing a variety of much-needed trail work. The dedicated and hard-working crew, hailing from all over New England, first created a new trail to the summit. Approximately 1/2-mile long, and traversing a lovely beech forest, the new trail links Bauneg Beg Hill Road with the summit and makes accessible the southern half of the property.

Here are some selections:

22 Acres on Shorey's Brook and the Salmon Falls River, S. Berwick and Eliot

Grant's Meadow Donation: 113 Acres in Beaver Dam Heath, Berwick

Tatnic: Millie's Woods, Tatnic Ledges and 70 Acres on Cheney Woods Road 

 Millie's Woods, Tatnic Ledges and 70 acres on Cheney Woods Road

Three parcels (125 total acres) in the Tatnic region of Wells and South Berwick have been added to lands that will remain as forest, wetlands, vernal pools, rock outcrops, and flowing streams and will forever provide for views, hiking, hunting, firewood, timber, home for wildlife, and clean water. Each parcel has a different story reminding us that it is not the land but what occurs on the land – past, present, and future – that is really being protected.

Great Works Regional Land Trust has come into possession of 26 acres on the Salmon Falls River in South Berwick, a bequest to be known as The Raymond & Simone Savage Wildlife Reserve. Bordering Shorey's Brook,with a mix of woods and fields, tidal and fresh water frontage, it provides some of the best and most diverse habitat in the area. One may see bald eagles flying overhead, sea and bay ducks, shorebirds and upland bird species. The woods and fields are inviting to deer and small mammals.

This past fall, GWRLT received ownership of 115 acres to be known as Grants Meadow Conservation Area in Berwick, thanks to the donation of 113 acres from Carolyn and Wilfred (Bill) Bryan and 2 acres from the Town of Berwick as voted by its citizens. These parcels together with a Right of Way, also donated by the Bryans, will eventually provide parking, walking trails and public education on wetland habitats. These properties represent 14% of the largely undeveloped Beaver Dam Heath.