A lasting legacy for water quality and recreation

According to Steve and Karen O’Bryan, they had four main goals when they first approached Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust about conserving their land. “We wanted to protect the wetland and stream, provide a sustainable source of firewood for home heating, preserve the old snowmobile trail, and to continue to allow the hunting tradition in this area.”

Steve is a longtime volunteer with Coastal Rivers and its parent organizations, Damariscotta River Association and Pemaquid Watershed Association. Among other activities, he has volunteered as a water quality monitor, preserve steward, and conservation easement monitor, and has taken part in many trail and stewardship projects. Karen’s background is as an educator, and across the years she brought students to the property for multiple field trips.

The O’Bryan’s property includes a stream and wetland that absorb and filter water before it flows into Biscay Pond. The mix of forest and wetland provide habitat for a variety of wildlife. A part of the local snowmobile trail network also crosses the property, a trail used by snowmobilers as well as hikers, cross-country skiers, and others to travel between Paradise, Biscay, and Pemaquid Ponds. It was important to the O’Bryans that their conservation easement allow permanent public access along this trail.

This past December, the Damariscotta couple followed through with the donation of a conservation easement on fourteen acres of their property on Biscay Road.

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a conservation agency or organization, such as a land trust, that details how the land will be managed in the future. The agreement restricts development, though sometimes a house lot or two is retained. It describes other future uses of the land, like sustainable forestry, trails, or farming. The landowner can tailor a conservation easement to fit their needs and management goals, as the O’Bryans have done. Many conservation easements leave the choice to allow public access up to the landowner’s discretion, but the O’Bryans want to ensure that the public can continue to use the land, so this is built into their easement.

In turn, the land trust is responsible for making sure that these restrictions are followed, in perpetuity, even if the land is sold or passed on to an heir.

Trail photo by Nancy Sferra.