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With much gratitude to you all, I am stepping down as President this summer. I have deeply enjoyed my six years spent furthering CNLT’s mission. During this time, CNLT forged new connections in the community: most notably in partnership with Maine Outdoor School, all of the Hancock Grammar School students are now participating in an outdoor education program. CNLT acquired almost 100 acres, bringing our total to nearly 500 acres for wildlife and people alike. And we stepped up stewarding our expanding preserves, beautiful trails and thriving Community Garden.

I’m proud to say CNLT is celebrating 20 years of conservation this year – from Route One down to Hancock Point! CNLT started as an idea with a core group of founders and, thanks to all of us, it has become a beloved local land trust with a strong community of hundreds of supporters.

I am delighted to announce that Judy Adelman, a founding member of CNLT and former President, will be returning to the role in August. CNLT will be in very capable hands! Here’s the latest:

Newly Hired
Shayna Nickerson, who already serves on the Community Garden Committee, will be providing essential support to CNLT in a new administrative role. She grew up in Hancock and often can be seen out on the trails with her daughter, Lucy, or digging in the garden!

Land Acquired
CNLT recently acquired 25 acres of crucial wildlife habitat in large part thanks to a generous donation from Maine Coast Heritage Trust. The property, previously owned by Vivian Foss, runs from the Point Road to Old Pond/Youngs Bay.

Education Grant Received
The Davis Conservation Foundation awarded CNLT a $20,000 grant to support the outdoor education program at the Hancock Grammar School. Many thanks to them!

Serving as President was special to me for many reasons – my lifelong love of this singular peninsula with its spectacular natural beauty, my connection with all of you who donate and work hard on behalf of CNLT and being able to carry forward an organization that my father, Steven Crabtree, helped to found 20 years ago.

I may be stepping down, but I’ll see you on the trails this summer!
Shona Crabtree

A Recent Acquisition

Crabtree Neck Land Trust is thrilled to announce the conservation of 25 acres of land connecting the edge of Old Pond/Youngs Bay (OPYB) to the Point Road. This purchase adds to existing conservation in this area and provides a critical link to the western shore of Crabtree Neck. CNLT could not have made this acquisition without a generous contribution from our partners at Maine Coast Heritage Trust. This support made it possible for us to respond in the fast-paced, competitive real estate market that exists on Crabtree Neck.

A small pond, streams, mature hardwoods and a salt marsh on this new property add to the valuable wildlife habitat and natural areas around OPYB. A CNLT board member recently spotted a bear family on the property! The OPYB area has been identified as a critical area for conservation due to its biological diversity. Bald Eagles nest there, and nearby ledges provide safe havens for seals to have their pups. It is home to a wide variety of waterfowl, wading birds and shorebirds, and the extensive tidal flats and marshlands provide crucial habitat. As sea levels rise and habitat is lost, the OPYB marshes allow for the absorption of sea water without damaging the habitat, allowing the wildlife here to move upland and survive.

The beauty of the OPYB area is of special significance to Hancock for it remains largely undeveloped even though it lies just south of Route 1. CNLT’s Old Pond Railway Trail, which once provided views across the water to travelers on railroad journeys toward Mount Desert Ferry in the late 1800s, now gives walkers the chance to access a small part of coastal Hancock that remains important to our community, much as it has to the people living near it for the last several thousand years. It is a place where the tide runs strong and marsh grasses, fish, and birds help connect us to the earth.

As CNLT celebrates 20 years of being a conservation organization, it is especially poignant for us that we conserved this particular parcel, for the OPYB area is where we first began conserving land on Crabtree Neck for all to enjoy. Acting on these crucial conservation properties when they become available requires CNLT to have financial resources at the ready. Your donations are critical to help us do that, especially in this dynamic real estate market.

Hancock Grammar Students get outside with Maine Outdoor School

Our partnership with Hancock Grammar School (HGS) and Hazel Stark of Maine Outdoor School (MOS) expanded to all grades this academic year! In addition to already providing outdoor education to all elementary school grades, CNLT is now helping the entire Middle School learn about science and the natural world.

This expansion not only allowed all grades to participate, but also for several grades to experience three seasons with outdoor school! We have worked with just over 140 students, and that number will grow before the end of the school year, as we still have an upcoming spring field trip series with the fourth grade.

What HGS teachers have to say

“I will never forget preparing my students for a MOS lesson about how animals collect food for winter, and the next day we went out and watched it live and in person. We still talk about it and I have no doubt that they will never forget it! ”
-Ellen Sprague, HGS 1st grade teacher, December 2024.

“My students are now thinking more about how to be prepared for class outside by bringing and keeping their outdoor gear at school. My students have shifted their attitudes from not wanting to work in harsh conditions, to being more open to the idea. I genuinely think that MOS opens my students’ thinking and minds up to a new world of opportunities. They are starting to notice how they can make a difference and take care of nature and the world around them. I am noticing that the time we have had with Ms. Hazel has helped my students develop critical and creative thinking, problem solving abilities, and people skills.”
-HGS teacher, December 2024

“My students’ knowledge of the outdoors is expanding. They are able to identify things in their environment. They can connect their learning during MOS time to the science we do in the classroom.”
-HGS teacher, February 2025

A Love of Wild Things in Spring

By Renata Moise, Hancock Community Garden Committee and CNLT Board member

In these early days of spring, the woods are waking up- tiny green plants, the rushing stream, bird song, and pussy willows all become a symphony.

Also waking up are the handful of black bears who also call Crabtree Neck their home. During walks now we make lots of noise, and even think about bringing along an old cow bell. We all bring in our winter bird feeders, making sure our garbage is secured until Tuesday mornings- doing what we can to discourage those hungry visits!

A few weeks ago a neighbor saw the bobcat hurry out from the Ice Pond Preserve forest, her morning catch in her mouth, heading North along the tree line toward where her kits perhaps are denned.

A coyote pack inhabits the forest to the West, encompassing the Rail Trail and the Old Pond preserved lands which include; the Berry Hill shore parcel and now the parcel previously owned by Vivian Foss. On a few deep winter nights, the howling of the coyote echoed both from Old Pond and Ice Pond Preserve. Spring reveals areas of deer fur spread about the forest floor.

Hawks, owls, and woodpeckers of all sizes share this land, with visits high overhead by the bald eagle. Herons occasionally visit nearby ponds, shy and silent. I think we all proclaim “there’s a heron!” when we spot them flying slowly toward Taunton Bay or Old Pond.

Thank you CNLT for helping to preserve and protect the wild lands.

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The Story Trail is a collaboration with CNLT, Frenchman Bay Conservancy, and the Hancock Point Library. See more information here: https://crabtreenecklandtrust.org/visit-preserves/old-pond-railway-trail/.

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Climate Resiliency

CNLT is on a journey to understand how climate change relates to our conservation. The defining and urgent issue of our time, climate resiliency has become a significant lens through which we see our work and mission. A big question is what we can do to better steward our properties as climate change intensifies. Josh Ferris, our Stewardship Coordinator, is working on an overall management plan to maximize climate resiliency for our 400-plus acres on Crabtree Neck. We also are consulting with foresters and wildlife habitat experts to provide additional expertise. Stay tuned for more about what we’re doing as we progress and how you can get involved — on our land and in your own backyard!

Events Galore

Events are on! We have a full slate of fun walks and interesting talks planned for this summer. In July, join CNLT to see the Buck Moon rise along Carters Beach Corridor — the closest super moon to Earth in 2022. We also will host a kid-friendly ecology walk on the Ball Field Preserve, a trip through the Ice Pond Preserve and a presentation by Josh Ferris about climate resiliency. Visit our events calendar here.

Partnering with Maine Outdoor School

CNLT is joining forces with Hazel Stark, naturalist educator and co-founder of Maine Outdoor School in Milbridge, to bring you learning opportunities on our preserves. We also work with Hazel to facilitate outdoor education at the Hancock Grammar School.

Stopping the Salmon Farm in Frenchman Bay

CNLT would like to thank everyone who fought so tirelessly and passionately to keep this industrial fish farm out of the bay. A wall-to-wall coalition developed of year-round and seasonal residents, the lobstering community, those who farm organic kelp and bivalves (aquaculture that cleans the water rather than pollutes it), and a variety of grassroots and conservation organizations. The coalition loudly and consistently expressed its concern for the known environmental impacts, questioned the unforeseen consequences of an experimental industrial salmon farm and opposed it at every turn. Hopefully, American Aquafarms won’t continue to pursue the permits, although they just purchased 90 acres in Prospect Harbor. If they do, this strong coalition of allies is ready to defend the bay — now and always.

As Always, Our Thanks

On behalf of the board, I’d like to thank all of you for being supporters of our mission. Please know that any amount donated goes entirely to the acquisition of new property, expanding our stewardship, and running a lean nonprofit with an all-volunteer board.

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Teenagers Tackling the Trails

A group of dedicated teenagers spent a week in July making great improvements to two CNLT preserves. They first removed an old metal culvert along the Old Pond Railway Trail which was causing water damage to the trail. They then removed an old log culvert that had rotted and collapsed in the Pettengill Preserve, causing the nearby stream to back up and erode the trail. Finally they built a footbridge so hikers can now cross the stream easily. It was a huge effort to remove all the materials by hand on an especially hot and humid week for Downeast Maine! 

The teens are members of the youth group Senior PF (Pilgrim Fellowship) from Monroe Congregational Church, UCC in Monroe, CT.  The church’s Rev. Jennifer Gingras has ties to Hancock. The volunteers did not hesitate to get their hands dirty and got down to business with good cheer. CNLT thanks the teens and their leaders profusely for their time and effort.

Studying the Salt Marsh for Clues to Climate Change

This June, CNLT benefited from the expertise of Beverly Johnson, a Bates College professor of Earth and Climate Sciences, who examined the rare salt marsh along the Old Pond Railway Trail. Dr. Johnson and her students took core samples of soil to estimate the carbon sequestration in the salt marshes. She also will be looking at methane emissions and salinity levels to better understand the current status of the marsh, including how sea level rises and other human-caused changes such as past drainage of the salt marshes have affected the marsh. This also may provide useful information on understanding how any changes in the current layout of the causeway could affect the marsh north of the rail trail.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which holds a conservation easement on our property, funded her research and staff members Bob DeForrest and Jeremy Gabrielson helped with the samples. Thanks to all for this joint effort! 

Working Sink at the Community Garden

CNLT would like to thank Sam DiBella, Hancock resident and Community Garden plot holder, for installing a working sink at the Community Garden! The materials were funded by University of Maine Cooperative Extension as part of the requirements for the Harvest for Hunger program. The sink has proven very handy for washing hands and rinsing vegetables.

Keep it Clean! Scoop the Poop!

Poop PSA: Please remember to bring a bag and pick up after your dog when on our trails. Dog feces may seem innocent enough to leave in the woods, but they can carry bacteria that harm wildlife. Of late, dog poop has been found on trails and by the side of Carters Beach Rd. Big and little feet will appreciate it!

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Why We Need To Stop The Industrial Fish Farm Proposed for Frenchman Bay

It Will Hurt The Lobster Industry

The dozens of men and women who fish the bay and contribute to Hancock County’s $128M lobster catch are deeply concerned about their livelihoods and the loss of more than 120 acres of prime fishing ground, as well as the water pollution and disease that will harm lobsters and other species in the bay. In addition, ship traffic will destroy gear and further reduce fishing ground.

Industrial Development Has No Place Next To Acadia National Park

Millions of people from all around the world visit Acadia National Park and Downeast Maine each year. This massive industrial fish farm, located right between the two sections of the Park on Mount Desert Island and the Schoodic Peninsula, will destroy viewsheds and recreational activities associated with the Acadia experience. Furthermore, the daily ship traffic hauling diesel fuel and fish waste between Prospect Harbor and the salmon pens will pass right by Schoodic Point and many of the islands in the bay that are owned by the Park or protected by conservation easements.

Massive Water Pollution Will Harm The Bay’s Ecosystem

The effluent from American Aquafarm’s pens will degrade water quality and negatively impact the environment. The two sites will discharge 4.1 billion gallons of untreated sewage a day — 2000 times greater than the amount of treated sewage from the Bar Harbor treatment plant and 3x the combined discharge from the 14 sewage plants serving all of New York City. An additional 5.5 million gallons will be produced and discharged after squeezing and ‘dewatering’ fish feces and unused food.Moreover, while American Aquafarms claims there will be no antibiotics used to treat their fish, their application to the Maine DEP specifically leaves that option open with dosing volumes that could be very large considering the volume of fish.

Air, Noise and Light Pollution Will Harm The Environment & Quality of Life

Ten large generators (plus 30 back-up generators) will run continually to burn 4 million gallons of diesel annually, producing constant air and noise pollution, and lights from each pen will pierce the night sky. Steady truck traffic hauling fish, feed, fuel,sludge and liquid oxygen will overwhelm the local roads. All together the project has a huge carbon impact that runs completely counter to state and national climate action initiatives.

They Could Not Build This Fish Farm In Their Own Country

American Aquafarms wants to build this project here because their home country of Norway would never allow a development like this. Strict regulations there limit the size of fish farms and adverse impacts to water quality and ensure biosecurity and protections for working waterfronts. Unfortunately, Maine needs updated regulations to limit industrial-scalefish farming in state waters and to assess cumulative impacts from multiple lease sites. Currently there is no funding to adequately oversee such large, complex installations.

Their Proposed Technology Is Totally Unproven At This Scale

Because no one has ever attempted to build a project this size using experimental semi-closed pens, there is no data to allowinformed decision-making about their impacts to water quality and the bay’s eco-system. The company’s claims are basedsolely on hypothetical models. American Aquafarms hopes to validate their models after construction by ongoing monitoring.That’s far too risky. Accurate data must be collected to validate their models before anything gets built.

The Promise Of Good Jobs Is An Empty One

It seems that every developer with big plans for this part of Maine holds out the promise of lots of new jobs, but they rarelydeliver. This one will be no exception. Few of the benefits will flow to local workers and local communities as advertised. Incontrast, many people from across all sectors of the local economy will likely see a net loss of jobs due to declines in fisheries,recreation, tourism, and hospitality that all depend on a pristine natural environment, historic views and the unique, high-quality experience for which our region is famous.

It Upsets The Balance That Has Existed In Frenchman Bay For Generations

This industrial fish farm will destroy the balance that has existed for generations among the many users of the bay: the people who fish for lobsters, scallops and mussels; clammers and worm diggers; small-scale aquaculture entrepreneurs who grow mussels, oysters and kelp; year-round and seasonal residents; tourists and tourism-related businesses; research and educational institutions; and recreational boaters from Maine and around the world. State rules and regulations make it too easy for industrial fish farming projects like this one. We must balance the needs of all those who live, work and recreate on Maine’s beautiful coast.

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