2026 Annual Meeting & Member Celebration Recap
FCT Board Members Dan Lyons, Tom Boutureira, Ginny Lee, and Ethel Wilkerson (from left to right)
In May, the Freeport Conservation Trust Board of Trustees and staff were delighted to welcome 80 members to our 2026 Annual Meeting and Membership Celebration. It was wonderful to see many familiar faces, as well as new attendees, enjoying the evening with us. We are grateful to our members who participated in the important business of FCT and learned from the two engaging presentations.
Next year will be especially meaningful as Freeport Conservation Trust celebrates its 50th anniversary. We look forward to sharing this milestone with our members and community.
Voted to Approve New Bylaws
Current members voted to accept the new proposed bylaws. The updated bylaws allow FCT to have a clearer governance structure, stronger financial and legal protections, an overall better operational flexibility, and practices reflective of today’s non-profit standards.
Voted to Approve New Board Member, Dan Lyons
Join us in welcoming Dan Lyons to our Board of Trustees. Dan is an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer and producer whose lens has captured some of the most compelling documentary content of our time. With over two decades of experience working with premier networks including HBO, National Geographic, PBS, Discover Channel, and the Smithsonian Chanel, he has established himself as a master visual storyteller whose work spans continents and cultures.
Outside of the production world, hiking and walking are his sole pursuits and deepest passions- he has walked nearly every trail in and around Freeport, exploring the land with the same attentiveness he brings to his camera work. That connection to the trail system has made conservation a personal cause: Lyons is a committed advocate for the preservation of natural lands and public access to the outdoors, values that quietly animate his environmental documentary work. His ongoing work with major networks and independent productions ensures that crucial stories continue to be told with the depth, nuance, and visual excellence that have become his hallmark. Welcome Dan!
Wet Smack Oysters were served thanks to Maine Ocean Farms
Keynote Speakers presented on Local Conservation Projects
We had the pleasure of hearing from both Maine Ocean Farms and members from the Cousins River Marsh Collaborative on their recent work in town. For those that could not attend or would like to view again, recordings of the presentations are available on our YouTube channel with links below.
Maine Ocean Farms, a Freeport-based oyster operation founded by Willy Leathers and Eric Oranksy, is charting a new course for sustainable aquaculture in Maine. In July 2025, the farm launched Heron, a custom-built electric workboat designed and built by Fogg’s Boatworks in North Yarmouth, making it the first fully electric aquaculture vessel in the state. The project was made possible through a US Department of Energy grant and is being closely studied as a replicable model for other coastal operations.
Attendees were excited to learn more about Maine Ocean Farms’ fully compostable shellfish harvest bag woven from beechwood fiber, replacing the single-use plastic mesh bags that have filled the industry for decades. Together, these innovations position Maine Ocean Farms as a pioneering example of what inspired eco-conscious aquaculture looks like.
Cousins River Marsh Restoration Update
The Cousins River Marsh, stretching across Yarmouth and Freeport, is one of Maine’s most important tidal wetlands- filtering pollutants, absorbing storm surge, storing carbon, and providing critical habitat for fish, birds, and shellfish. On average more than 54,000 cars travel over the marsh on I-295 and over 7,500 cars pass the marsh on Route 1 each day. Centuries of salt hay farming left behind networks of ditches and berms that disrupted the marsh’s natural flow, causing water to pool for long periods, killing vegetation, lowering marsh elevation, and degrading wildlife habitat.
FCT as a partner in the Cousins River Marsh Collaborative, formed in 2023, is working to reverse that damage by reconnecting standing water to existing flows and restoring the natural tidal movement. As Tatia Bauer and Matt Craig explained in the presentation at the Annual Meeting, the biggest focus is to restore the marsh’s flow to save the habitat.