More of this, please!!!

#RockportME - #Midcoast nonprofits team up to preserve historic #farmland — and build new #housing

Maine Public | By Nicole Ogrysko
Published November 29, 2025 at 8:31 AM EST

"Two midcoast nonprofits are teaming up to preserve a historic dairy farm in Rockport — and build new affordable housing on site.

#MaineCoastHeritageTrust has owned more than 160 acres south of Route 90 for the last 15 years. The #EricksonFieldsPreserve has #WalkingTrails and a #CommunityGarden, where students have learned to grow produce for nearby #FoodBanks.

Recently, the Heritage Trust secured the farm's remaining six acres across the street, where the old farmhouse and dairy barn are located.

When a family member living in the farmhouse passed away a few years ago, Aaron Englander with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust said the nonprofit began to think about how the property could be preserved for community benefit.

Housing, Englander said, emerged as a clear need. The Heritage Trust acquired the six-acre property and plans to preserve five of them. It has donated the remaining acre to the #MidCoastRegionalHousingTrust, which plans to develop one and two-bedroom apartments.

The housing shortage is being felt throughout the region, said Jonathan Goss, president of the housing trust. Knox County needs nearly 1,300 new homes by the end of the decade.

'Services are being cut back or being lost because of a lack of employees,' he said. 'Everybody knows someone who either grew up here or had been living here who is not able to live here any longer.'

The housing trust plans to renovate the old farmhouse on site for rental housing first, and then construct eight new apartments for working families there later on. Goss said these are families with teachers, public safety officers, nurses and others who earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing, but not enough to afford a median-priced home in the region, which now surpasses $450,000.

Housing development is sometimes pitted against land and environmental conservation efforts. But Englander with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust said this project could serve as a statewide model for balancing those interests.

'[This can] show people that yes, you can conserve wildlife habitat, you can conserve farmland, soils and agricultural know-how, and you can create access to public lands and outdoor educational spaces all in one property,' he said."

Read more:
https://www.mainepublic.org/business-and-economy/2025-11-29/midcoast-nonprofits-team-up-to-preserve-historic-farmland-and-build-new-housing

#SolarPunkSunday #LandPreservation #AffordableHousing #PreservingWildlifeHabitats #Farmland #Conservation #Maine #MainePublic #PublicBroadcasting

Tonight and tomorrow night in #IpswichMA !

#CraneOutdoors: Dunes by the Light of the #FullMoon

Castle Hill on the #CraneEstate

Sunday, September 7, 2025, and Monday, September 8, 2025

About CraneOutdoors: Dunes by the Light of the Full Moon

"Transformed and illuminated by the glow of the full moon, the beach and dunes of Castle Neck are a stunningly beautiful landscape. To experience this special place at this magical time, join us for a unique hiking experience.

"We’ll start with the beauty of a sunset while taking an evening walk along Crane Beach when most visitors have packed up and gone home for the day. We’ll have ample time to take in the 'Cape Ann light' that has been the inspiration of many artists over the years. Then, we’ll then head into the dunes where we’ll explore the trails of Castle Neck under the light of the full moon. You’ll enjoy the quiet of Pitch Pine groves and catch glimpses of the Atlantic as you crest the dunes. You might even see some cranberries in the Neck’s naturally occurring cranberry bogs.

"Please note: Our standard Full Moon Hike is suited to kids aged 12+ and/or who can comfortably hike 2-3 miles. For families with smaller children, or those looking for a slower pace, please look for our CraneExplorer: Family Full Moon Hike offerings, which are shorter and go at a gentler pace.

"Bring water and dress for the weather to maximize comfort. You are welcome to bring a flashlight or headlamp, but we may ask for moments of total darkness to fully enjoy the moon and the shadows it makes on the dunes."

$30pp

https://thetrustees.org/event/441279/

#SolarPunkSunday #LunarPunkSunday #TrusteesOfReservations #CraneEstate #WalkingTrails #MoonlightWalks #Nature
#Massachusetts #MassachusettsEvents #SpendTimeInNature #LandPreservation #LandTrusts

So, the Crane Estate is the place I based my #SolarPunkSunday microfiction piece on. While it doesn't have the #SolarArray of Star Island or a #WindTurbine (yet), it is making good use of a cistern that was installed there by the original owner -- which catches rainwater off the roof for future use! Also, there was a wind turbine on nearby Eagle Hill, but it was damaged in 2018 by an electrical fire, and is being torn down rather then repaired. However, both Eagle Hill and Castle Hill would be good places to catch sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean!

The Trustees of Reservation Have A Mission…

November 22, 2011

"When Chicago industrialist Richard T. Crane, Jr. built his palatial summer home in 1928, he planned carefully for the estate’s water needs, using state-of-the-art technology-after all, the Cranes made their fortunes manufacturing plumbing supplies. As part of a plan that included wells throughout the estate, he arranged to harvest rainwater from the roof of the Great House and store it in an underground cistern next door.

"Over the years, that cistern was forgotten, says Robert Murray, superintendent of the Crane Estate, as water lines easily brought potable water up Castle Hill. The echoing chamber stood empty, just below the surface, for perhaps 60 years, until plans got underway for a major replanting on the Allee-the storied tree-lined lawn that rolls from the Great House down to the sea.

" 'As we were planning for the Allee restoration, we knew that we had to make provisions for irrigation in the event of a mandatory town-wide water ban,' Murray says. A drought would be the undoing of the substantial investment in new trees along the half-mile landscape. The organization estimates they could collect 180,000 gallons of rainwater a year from the roof-enough to take care of those young trees until they can stand on their own.

"The cistern revival is symbolic of a rethinking of the mission and goals of the Trustees of Reservations, a 120-year-old organization dedicated to preserving and protecting more than 100 special places in Massachusetts-some 20 of which are found on the North Shore. It was one of the first land trust organizations in the country, so shifting its time-honed methods wasn’t a natural move. But in response to changing times that demand more agile environmental action, the Trustees launched its 2017 Strategic Plan to make the organization more relevant in an age of eco-upheaval. The emphasis on the environment is not just a feel-good plan-the Trustees have 75 miles of coastline property that they are the first to admit could very well be radically altered by global warming."

[...]

"These properties feature, in a relatively small geographic area, a range of natural, cultural, and historic resources that are representative of the Trustees’ broader network of properties: historic structures like the Great House on Castle Hill, the Paine House on Greenwood Farms, and the Old House at Appleton Farms; important historical collections; significant natural and planned landscapes; coastal habitats, grasslands, marshlands, and agricultural lands."

Read more:
https://www.nshoremag.com/faces-places/the-trustees-of-reservation-have-a-mission/

#SolarPunkSunday #LandPreservation #Massachusetts #LandTrusts #HistoricBuildings #WalkingTrails #NewEngland

#Maine - #Agricultural #ConservationEasements

"The primary purpose of an Agricultural Conservation Easement is to protect the agricultural soils, agricultural viability, and agricultural productivity of a property in perpetuity by limiting non-agricultural uses of the property.

What is it?

"It is a voluntary, legally recorded permanent deed restriction place on the property. The easement or 'development right' may be donated or sold (or a combination of the two) usually to a land trust which then holds (and manages) the easement. Land protected from development with an easement remains in private ownership.

Agricultural easements help farmers balance goals of:

- generating revenue for farming or retirement;
- making their land more affordable to future farmers;
- keeping their farmland in farming;
- maintaining a treasured legacy of #SustainableFarm #stewardship.

"Agricultural conservation easements are private transactions, entered into for perpetuity, and thus harder to undo compared to other land protection land use strategies.

"The process can take some time to negotiate and carry out. The cost of buying easements on a significant scale can be prohibitive. It is also important that the 'holder' of the easements has the capacity to ensure that the agricultural land is managed as intended.

"You can contact your local #LandTrust or the statewide #MaineFarmlandTrust when considering easements as a farm viability and farmland protection tool."

Read more (via #GrowSmartMaine):
https://growsmartmaine.org/agricultural-conservation-easements/

Learn more about Maine Farmland Trust:
https://www.mainefarmlandtrust.org/farmland/protect-farmland

#FarmsForMainesFuture #SaveTheFarms #Sprawl #LandPreservation #SolarPunkSunday #Farmland #FoodSecurity #MaineFarms #GrowLocal #EatLocal

What if you found out that a #bird you saw today is scheduled to completely vanish from its #habitat in a few years?

How would you react if you learned that the key reason why that bird's #species will vanish is due to wide scale, global #deforestation ?

https://medium.com/student-conservation-corner/deforestation-the-enemy-of-the-avian-dating-scene-3a9a86895ec2

#ClimateChange #landpreservation #wildlife #WildlifeConservation

It stinks when you go #hiking to enjoy green pastures and try to get away from it all, only to find yourself confronted by heavy machinery cutting down #trees and scarring hiking #trails. Isn't that escape the reason you go hiking in the first place?

Click below to learn about commercial #logging at Merrill Creek Reservoir, Warren County, #NewJersey #NJ, its negative impacts, and how you could help.

#NYC #climatechange #landpreservation #wildlife #cleanwater

https://blog.srrpnj.org/723645298068602880

🚵‍♀️Love exploring the outdoors? Join the #NewJersey Highlands virtual Hike-A-Thon this June! Let's hit the #trails, raise funds for #conservation, and top the mileage leaderboard. Get a 2023 Hike-A-Thon sticker & 1-year NJHC membership. Join Team SRRP to protect the places we love, such as Roaring Rock Park!

#NJ #NYC #hiking #health #fitness #landpreservation #wildlife #cleanwater #climate #climatechange

Learn more here: https://blog.srrpnj.org/716687010465710080

Did you know that Roaring Rock Park has mature trees that provide an enjoyable hiking experience, shade for the trout in Brass Castle creek, AND assist in sequestering carbon in the fight against #ClimateChange?

It is a shame that there are initiatives to cut down mature trees on public lands, across the USA and in NJ.

Read on about this issue and what you can do to help.

#deforestation #logging #landpreservation #trees #wildlife #cleanwater

https://www.srrpnj.org/2023/03/Young-Forest-Initiative-harms-mature-forests.html