Looking to see what’s blooming, we will make the loop from Bliss Woods to Sayles Field. Meet in South Freeport Village at noon on Thurs., May 17. Walk will take about 1 1/2 hours over road, woods and field. Could be some mud; hoping for sunshine.
Plan to attend FCT’s 2012 Annual Meeting, June 7, 7 pm, at the Freeport Community Center. We are pleased that local author Melissa Coleman will will be speaking about growing up on Cape Rosier with her parents, Eliot and Sun Coleman, pioneering back-to-the-landers. Melissa’s book, This Life is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family’s Heartbreak recently came out in paperback. Together we will also talk about an exciting pending farm protection project in Freeport. FCT is working to purchase an easement on Winter Hill Farm, ensuring that this land will forever be available for farming and that we will have even more access to locally grown food.
You are invited to a Royal River Conservation Trust (RRCT) event on Wednesday, April 25th, 7 to 9pm at Westcustogo Hall, Route 115, North Yarmouth.
John Piotti, Executive Director of the Maine Farmland Trust will moderate a panel of farmers including Sarah Wiederkehr of Winter Hill Farm CSA in Freeport, Steve Sinisi of Old Crow Ranch & New Leaf Farm in Durham, and Justin Deri of Deri Farm CSA located on the Skyline Farm in North Yarmouth. Join us RRCT as it initiates a dialogue on what should be the role of the regional land trust working with a network of players toward a collective goal of preserving farmland for Maine’s future.
Freeport Conservation Trust (FCT) is working with the Land for Maine’s Future program and many others to secure an agricultural conservation easement on the Winter Hill Farm (above), in the upper reaches of the Royal River watershed. FCT will be looking to a variety of sources for matching funds. The Skyline-Deri farms and the Old Crow Ranch are already protected by agricultural conservation easements held by the Royal River Conservation Trust.
Join us Sunday, April 15, 9 am at Freeport Cafe to walk on the Cousins River Trail. Fun to go out for breakfast before or after. More info on the trail, which is also accessible from the YMCA, on the Cousins River trail map. We are grateful that Freeport Cafe and Inn is an FCT Business Partner.
On Wednesday, April 18 at 4 pm we be walking at Tidebrook and hoping that the daffodils have bloomed. Look at the Freeport Center trail map for directions and description.
Join us for a hike up Hedgehog Mountain (hoping for views of Mt.Washington) followed by a walk along the trails behind the Pownal Road playing field to see the new Hunter Road playing fields and the proposed site of the Seacoast United facility. Walk will take about an hour. Optimal footwear is hard to know yet: boots, grippers or snowshoes (we can only hope)??? Meet at the Hedgehog parking lot just before the Recycling Center gate on Hedgehog Mountain Road.
The new downtown trail map includes trails at and directions to Gorman Park, Quarry Woods, Mast Landing Sanctuary and Pettengill Farm, as well as directions to Tidebrook. It is a collaborative effort of Freeport Conservation Trust, the Town of Freeport, Freeport Historical Society and Maine Audubon. You can download yours here at the FCT website or get in touch to get a color, double-sided copy: info@freeportconservationtrust.org, 869-1012.
This has been a bust of a winter, but it has been good for walking.
If you are reading this, you have found FCT’s new website. On it you can access our improved trail maps, now in color, with complementary backside directions and photos. You can now make a donation online.
The website is a work in progress. Keep checking back, and let us know what you think. Are there resources you would like to find here?
FCT’s Annual Membership Appeal was put in the mail on Monday, December 1, and should reach all Freeport households this week. “We rely on Freeporters to fund FCT’s operating budget, which supports our work to preserve open space, farmland, views and wildlife habitat, and to make woods, fields and shoreline accessible to everyone. I encourage people to join us by making a membership donation,” said Mary Sauer, FCT President, about the annual appeal.
Donations received before the end of 2011 will be entered into a raffle for a $100 gift certificate to Mediterranean Grill, one of FCT’s Business Partners.
For the first time, FCT is accepting donations online through a secure service. Go to Join Us at www.freeportconservationtrust.org.