Category: What’s New

On November 13th, Anne Tibbetts, a fourth-grade teacher at Great Salt Bay School (GSB) emailed me, “Thank you both for putting up with our boisterous group. They do get so much out of the experience. I found some cool related material about what we learned today and I will extend it in the classroom.” Few comments from teachers are more exciting to me than this kind of message. Anne’s enthusiasm for the experience, and her willingness to help the kids draw connections between what we learn and other concepts in the classroom, have the capacity to greatly magnify the educational value of what we can offer during one class. 

On Friday, November 1, staff and volunteers from over a dozen local businesses and organizations took time off from work to pick up trash along the shoreline of the Damariscotta River. Representatives from Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust, University of Maine Darling Marine Center, First National Bank, First National Wealth Management, Cheney Insurance, Blackstone Point Oysters, Dodge Cove Marine Farm, Glidden Point Oyster Farms, Heron Island Oysters, Mook Sea Farm, Norumbega Oyster, Pemaquid Oyster Company, and Pleasant Cove Oysters split up in boats belonging to local shellfish farms to cover different areas of the river. Together, participants collected over 1,320 pounds …

Annual River clean-up brings in over 1,320 pounds of trash Read More »

  Years ago, when now Executive Director Steven Hufnagel was still “the stewardship guy” for Damariscotta River Association, he recalls stopping by Whaleback Shell Midden State Historic Site to check the visitors’ log. At the time, there was a 200-foot handicap accessible trail from the parking area to a small overlook above the apple orchard. On that day, as he flipped through the log book, one note in particular caught his eye. “Thank you, thank you, thank you for making a wheel chair accessible trail,” a man had written. “Mary Alice, whose passion was backpacking in the mountains, has had …

Accessible trail makes new connection in Damariscotta Read More »

Keep your noggin warm in style this winter with a Coastal Rivers logo patch beanie! Available in four colors: blaze orange, neon fuchsia, forest green, and heather royal blue. Hats are $25 each. Pick yours up at our office in Damariscotta for free, or let us send you one for a flat $8 fee.

Coastal Rivers is one big step closer to bringing the shared community vision of a fully accessible, mile-long trail connecting Round Top Farm to Salt Bay Farm in Damariscotta to fruition, thanks to the update of a conservation easement owned by Laura and Vanessa Shields-Haas in early November. After more than twenty-five years of dreaming and planning, permanent legal access is now in place along the entire route of the planned trail.

What does it mean to be a “nationally accredited” land trust?

To achieve accreditation, a land trust must complete a rigorous review process by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission to demonstrate it is following the highest standards of fiscal accountability, governance, organizational leadership, and lasting stewardship of the lands they conserve. The commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, conducts an extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs. 

Michael Hope’s family bought a plot of land on the East Branch of Johns Bay in Bristol back in 1947. Not long afterward, local shellfish harvesters stopped by to ask permission to drive to the shore of the Hope’s farm to make it easier to haul heavy loads of clams up from the shore. Bristol clammers have been using the field for access to the clam flats ever since.

Their access to the productive clam flats on the East Branch is now permanently protected, thanks to the donation of a 5-acre conservation easement by Margo and Michael Hope to Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust in July. (…)

At a bend in the Damariscotta River just below Glidden Ledge, a cove reaches inland along the Edgecomb shore. On the north side of this cove, the terrain rises steeply up a forested hillside, making it a prominent landmark on the river. This ridge is the site of a new 39-acre conservation easement, donated to Coastal Rivers by Helen Weld and Robert Strachan of Edgecomb in early August. The land includes 1,100 feet of shoreline in and around Salt Marsh Cove – a shallow, sheltered cove rich with wildlife, including clams, tidal waterfowl, and wading birds. The conservation easement will …

Edgecomb couple donates conservation easement on Salt Marsh Cove Read More »

Two free summer programs expand horizons for local schoolkids Imagine a free, outdoor summer adventure program for kids that includes transportation, snacks and lunches. This summer, for the first time, local kids from the AOS 93 school district were invited to participate in just such a program, the result of a partnership between the school district and Coastal Rivers. Free of charge thanks to grant funding, the programs took place three days a week from mid-July through mid-August. Participating schools included Great Salt Bay Community School, Jefferson Village School, Nobleboro Central School, and South Bristol Elementary School, which also hosted …

Outdoor adventures for every child Read More »

In April of 2022, Coastal Rivers made its biggest single-day purchase in the organization’s history: a total of 487 acres along Poor Farm Road in Bristol.

Named for the pristine, crescent-shaped pond at its center, the Half Moon Pond Conservation Area occupies an undeveloped habitat block of nearly 4,000 acres – the largest, and perhaps the richest in diversity of species, on the Pemaquid Peninsula.