Dear Friends,
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.
