SAVING LAND & STEWARDSHIP
Our primary goals are to conserve land, and then care for it with good stewardship once it has been conserved.
SAVING LAND
We work with private landowners and others who are interested in permanent conservation deeds to conserve land for perpetuity. Sometimes we acquire land, other times we hold a conservation easement which allows the land to be privately farmed or privately managed for timber and other goals. Sometimes we raise money for these deeds, other times the conservation values are donated by generous landowners, developers, or others thanks to tax deductions and other incentives. Grants like the Land for Maine's Future program are important, and for every project we rely on small and large donations from people like you. Call us if we can work with you on community or neighborhood or personal property conservation goals.
| Today, RRCT actively works in all twelve towns in the Royal River region. Our 2005 Royal River Region Conservation Plan guides the organization to focus its resources on conserving lands whose biological, recreational, historic, agricultural, and scenic values are critical to the functioning of this developing region. We are revising this plan to reflect changes in recent years, including our new focus on working farms, and major progress through various municipal and state conservation planning initiatives. |
STEWARDSHIP
Stewardship is the on-going, long-term commitment of time and resources to the conservation of land, and its implementation is essential to RRCT's ability to protect land in the future. RRCT strives to practice exemplary stewardship of its lands, always protecting ecological values and when appropriate and feasible, providing compatible human uses. Important components of our stewardship will include development of a local land ethic, community involvement, and a focus on the quality of each visitor's experiences at our preserves.
Land stewardship seeks to reconcile the ecological health of preserved lands with low-impact human uses through far-sighted management. A major component of land trust stewardship includes annually ensuring that the terms of conservation easements are met, and helping landowners meet those terms. Stewardship also entails managing invasive plants, maintaining trails and public access, developing property management plans, and ensuring that ongoing land uses do not jeopardize the ecological integrity of the landscape. In all of these endeavors, RRCT's Stewardship Program welcomes the time and energy of volunteers!
ON-GOING PROJECTS
Our 2012 stewardship work plan is focused on trail planning and construction at Pisgah Hill in New Gloucester. We continue to do trail work and we are planning coastal access stairs at Littlejohn Island in Yarmouth, along with continued work managing invasive plants. We completed major trail improvements at the Intervale Preserve in New Gloucester, and plan additional river access work there in 2012 to encourage fishing.
Our stewardship staff and volunteers also monitor all of our conservation and trail easements annually, to guarantee that the goals of those easements are being realized.
We always need volunteers for stewardship activities. If interested please be sure to contact our Stewardship Director, Kyle Warren, at kwarren@rrct.org or 632-6112.
Come Join us
