KLT News

In December 2007, Kittery Land Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving land and the quality of life in Kittery, permanently protected 16 acres of shorefront along Chauncey Creek in Kittery Point.  The property includes 2000 feet of frontage on the Creek, one of the longest stretches of undeveloped coastline in Kittery.  With is unaltered woodlands, sensitive wetlands and a rich intertidal zone, the property provides valuable habitat for amphibians, waterfowl and migratory birds.  The tall pines and steep slopes that line the rocky shore provide a defining view of Kittery and the coast of Maine to anyone traveling by land or water along Chauncey Creek.  Indeed, the Kittery Comprehensive Plan identified this property as one of the Town's highest priorities for conservation.  Mr. Lincoln Fairchild, whose family has owned the property since the 1930s, has long hoped to keep the property in its substantially undeveloped state.  While the property could have been subdivided into four waterfront house lots with docks and landscaping, that wasn't Mr. Fairchild's vision for his family's  property.  “I cannot imagine this land in any other state than it is today.  With the help of my family, the Town of Kittery, and the Kittery Land Trust, I am pleased to know that it will remain as is forever.”  Mr. Fairchild has generously sold his development rights to the Kittery Land Trust for $530,000, a figure substantially below market value. The Kittery Land Trust has raised over 60% of the total needed to pay for this remarkable property with funding from the Mt. Agamenticus to the Sea Conservation Initiative, a partnership of ten local, state and federal conservation organizations, as well as the Town of Kittery through the Open Space Fund,.  A capital campaign is underway to raise the remaining funds. While Mr. Fairchild will continue to own the land, the Kittery Land Trust will hold a conservation easement on the property, ensuring that it will never be developed.  The easement preserves the aesthetic and ecological values of the property forever and provides for the creation of a public walking path at the end of the property closest to Pocahontas Road.  “We are grateful to all of the individuals and organizations who made this project happen,” said KLT President Melissa Paly.  “We are indebted to our partners in the Mt. Agamenticus to the Sea partnership, (MtA2C),to the Kittery Town Council for voting unanimously to use town funds to help conserve this property, to KLT Board member Rob Nichols for his vision and persistence in structuring this agreement, and most of all, to Mr. Fairchild for his steadfast commitment to the conservation of this exceptional property that so defines our community.”

Top: A satellite view of the Fairchild easement Middle: Looking east across Cauncey Creek to the Fairchild easement Bottom: The Fairchild easement looking west

For more information about the Fairchild Easement, see the KLT Properties page.

 

Roger Cole, 2008 Recipient of the Friend of Conservation Award

At KLT's eighth annual Clambake and Annual Meeting held at Fort Foster on September 14, the highlight of the afternoon was the presentation of the fourth "Friend of Kittery Conservation Award." KLT president Melissa Paly presented the Award to Roger Cole in abstentia with this tribute: It is a particular pleasure to make this award this year to someone who has been a quiet mentor to me in the conservation business, and also the person to whom I indirectly owe my involvement with the Kittery Land Trust. 

The Board has chosen to recognize the enormous contributions that Roger Cole has made to conservation here in Kittery and throughout the entire region over the past 20 years.  He has just stepped down from the KLT Board after about 15 years of service – even he forgets when he joined.

Roger first got involved with KLT when he was hired in the late 1980s by the fledgling land trust to develop a database of landowners in Kittery.  He exhaustively researched every large parcel of land in town, searched tax maps, collected landowner information and gave the founders a place to begin the long process of building relationships with landowners, some of which would, many years later, result in gifts of land for conservation.  The database fell into disuse for a few years and when, in the late 90s we wanted to reactivate it, we had to find a computer guru who could figure out how to read the old floppy discs and the primitive software the database was created on.  It was a short lesson in both conservation planning and anticipating computer obsolescence within an organization.

After Roger earned a masters degree in planning from Antioch, he was the town planner for Arundel for several years.  He then segued to full time land conservation as the director of the Kennebunk Land Trust.  Roger played a lead role in getting the MtA2C conservation initiative off the ground, and was later hired to be its Coordinator.  In this capacity Roger was both the focal point for 10 different organizations all working with a shared vision in the 6 towns of the partnership.  He also worked as a circuit rider with each municipal government, helping each town to develop ordinances and committees, like Kittery’s own Open Space Committtee, that advance the sensible use of land and conservation of important natural areas.  Roger has been thinking creatively about using limited development as a way to finance conservation – these sorts of new tools will become increasingly important as we continue to work at conservation in the face of escalating land values.  Roger has truly been the glue for conservation efforts in this region, and kept the incredible MtA partnership moving in shared directions for 3 years.

For me, Roger has always been the voice of wisdom and experience on the Board.  I remember countless times when the board would be discussing new initiatives for education, getting involved with recycling or other community efforts, for taking on something we felt was very important but for which we didn’t have the capacity – Roger would quietly counsel us to consider whether we were suffering from the syndrome of “Mission Creep”, or reassure us that there’s nothing wrong with being a small organization that can’t take on everything all at once. 

When Bill Paarlberg and I visited Roger recently to let him know he’d be the recipient of the 2008 Friend of Kittery Conservation Award, he tried unsuccessfully to convince us that he was just a paid gun in the land conservation business, trying to do his job as well as most people try to do theirs.  We had to point out to Roger the obviousness of just why he deserved the award – conservation for Roger is a world view, it’s his day job and his night job, it’s what gets him going on inexhaustible conversation, it’s what fills his mind.  While we sat in the sun on his porch, overlooking his beautiful gardens filled with butterflies and dragonflies, he took off on another digression – PHONE BOOKS.  What a waste, think about all those trees, is it really necessary for every house to get piles of phonebooks, and how many people recycle their old ones?  Bill and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Climate change is at the forefront of our conversations locally and globally. While Dr. Cameron Wake, Research Associate Professor, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at University of New Hampshire, and KLT board member, gave the keynote address at KLT's 2005 Annual Meeting, entitled "New England's Changing Climate: What's Happening in our Backyard?", the materials he presented remain timely. Learn about our changing climate in an article that Dr. Wake co-authored with Clean Air - Cool Planet: Indicators of Climate Change.

Melissa Paly, Vice President of the Board of Directors
    (207-439-8271)
            or
Kelsey Woodward, Coordinator