Environmental News
2021 New Land Protection on Vinalhaven
2020 was a banner year for land protection!
Thanks to our generous donors, VLT was given three parcels of land in 2020.
We featured Little Garden Island in our fall 2020 newsletter. This rocky 5.4-acre island in the White Island group in western Penobscot Bay was donated to us last March by our partners at Maine Coast Heritage Trust. As this island hosts an active heronry (heron nesting site), public access will be limited to outside of nesting season. To learn more about Little Garden, you can find our fall newsletter on our website under the “News” menu.
‘Connectivity’ is a word we often use when thinking about conservation priorities. Land trusts look for connectivity in the lands we protect as we seek to create larger areas of undeveloped habitat and corridors so wildlife can move safely between those larger blocks. We also look for options to connect our trails, providing hikers with opportunities for longer hikes through varied terrains, something that is often requested.
Early in 2017, Kerry Hardy, VLT’s stewardship coordinator, and I were looking at our map of protected properties on Vinalhaven with connectivity in mind. We were intrigued by the possibility of a trail from Round Pond on the North Haven Road to Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Carrying Place Bridge Preserve on Calderwood Neck. Such a trail would start on the Round Pond Preserve, protected by an easement held by VLT, and run through other land also protected by an easement held by VLT. However, there was a privately owned 34-acre parcel that needed to be crossed in order to reach VLT’s Fish Hook Preserve. From there, one could hike down to the eastern edge of that preserve and across the street to the Carrying Place Preserve.
We knew the owner of that 34-acre parcel, Charlie Sullivan, who had given us the first, cornerstone parcel of what is now the Fish Hook Preserve in 2006. We wrote him, asking if he might be willing to grant us a trail easement across his land. Imagine our delight when he responded that he would like to come meet with us in early summer to walk a possible trail and explore options for the property. It had been thirty-four years since Charlie and his wife, Susan Maycock, had last been to the island; we looked forward to giving them the tour.
With their permission, Kerry and I started exploring the property to site a possible trail—and were blown away by how beautiful and varied it is. There are high bare ledges, separated by hardwood seeps that contain some of the largest red maples and yellow birches on Vinalhaven, and over 2,500 feet of frontage on Mill River. An area, still regenerating from the fires of 1933, boasts an expansive fern and birch meadow. Intriguing rocks sport toupees of naturally dwarfed balsam fir; the rocky curves of glacial erratics are softened by mosses and lichens. I confessed to Kerry that I felt this was a parcel very worthy of permanent protection, due not only to its location, but also to its varied habitats and topography that will provide climate resilience for both plants and animals as our climate changes.
Like so many conservation projects, this one proceeded slowly over the next few years, as Charlie and I explored options to help him achieve his goals for the property. The project went through several iterations, which was not unusual as landowners contemplate the legal, financial, and possible estate ramifications of conserving the land that they love. Fast forward to the fall of 2020, when Charlie announced that he would like to donate the property to VLT before the close of the year!
A new loop trail should be available for hiking by late spring, accessed from the Fish Hook trailhead on the north side of the Calderwood Neck Road. The trail all the way to Round Pond will take longer to develop, as other landowners will be involved.
If the project to create what is now VLT’s Overlook lot was a long slow waltz, our final 2020 project was a fast-paced tango. In May, VLT was contacted by Basin Land Trust (BLT), asking if we would be interested in owning their 24-acre parcel to the north of the Basin entrance, as the trust was terminating in late October, per its incorporating documents. In 1989, BLT had granted a conservation easement to VLT on this parcel, with Maine Coast Heritage Trust as “backup” easement holder. Other VLT monitors had been making annual visits to this site, but Kerry and I had never personally explored this parcel before—so we headed out again, and encountered yet another wonderful landscape. Exploring a fern meadow near the shore, we discovered several rhubarb plants, likely indicators of an early settler; old quarry works provide another clue to this parcel’s past. High ledges offer a breathtaking view over Hurricane Sound. Basin Land Trust had long referred to this parcel as the “Barton’s Quarry Lot”, as Muriel Perkins purchased it from the four Barton siblings back in 1939. VLT will be retaining that name for this parcel. It will be managed under the terms of the Basin Management Plan, a joint project of VLT and MCHT that provides consistent and informed management guidance for all the conserved lands surrounding the Basin.
With many thanks to the trustees and shareholders of the Basin Land Trust, this parcel was gifted to VLT at the end of December 2020.
Given that access to this parcel is on the Hurricane Sound side, by small boat only, and that VLT needs to be very mindful of respecting the privacy of our abutters, this preserve may not be open to the public until later in 2021.
The board and staff of VLT are incredibly grateful to these generous donors, who have entrusted their land to our care in perpetuity. We are honored by their generosity, and look forward to sharing these special places with you.
~Linnell Mather