BRUNSWICK — In 1985, a group of Brunswick neighbors banded together to protect the 16-acre Pennellville Meadow from development.
“They thought [Pennellville Meadow] was a fantastic and important habitat, and they thought, ‘What if we got together, and we instead conserved this piece of land, didn’t build on it and kept it the way it is, forever?’” said Kristi Hatrick, executive director of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust.
Four decades later, the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, the organization born from the Pennellville easement fight, has conserved more than 3,400 acres in the Midcoast communities of Brunswick, Topsham and Bowdoin.
The land trust is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an eye toward the future of conservation. This year also marks 25 years since the founding of the Cathance River Education Alliance, BTLT’s education arm. Longtime partners, CREA and BTLT officially merged in 2023.
In addition to acquiring and supervising land, the land trust maintains trails on its properties, runs summer camps, hosts community programs and has an ecology center at the Cathance River Nature Preserve.
BTLT is also known for its farmers market at Crystal Spring Farm, which has been voted the best farmers market in Maine three years running by the American Farmland Trust.
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Now in its 26th season, more than 40 vendors set up shop at the farmers market each Saturday from May through October.
To keep up with demand, the land trust is planning on moving the market from Crystal Spring Farm to Dionne Farm — a property it acquired last year located just across the street from Crystal Spring. The historic house, barn and surrounding 25 acres at Dionne Farm will offer more parking and space for the market and will become the new home base for the land trust’s other day-to-day operations.
The organization is accepting responses to an online survey to guide the future of the market.
“At Dionne Farm, we’ll have the space to really grow [the farmers market] in the way the community really needs,” said Julia St. Clair, BTLT agriculture programs manager.
For the next 40 years and beyond, the land will continue to focus on “connecting people to the land,” Hatrick said.
For example, BTLT’s Cathance River Education Alliance partners with the Brunswick School Department and Topsham’s School Administrative District 75 to run ecological field trips and offer hands-on educational experiences.
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Last school year, K-5 teachers at Kate Furbish and Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary schools rolled out new units they created alongside BTLT educators that challenge kids to dig in the garden, hunt for decomposers (things like worms and fungus) in the woods, track the sun’s path and more.
In August, the land trust added 240 acres in Brunswick’s Maquoit Woods, a town-owned property located south of the intersection of Maquoit and Mere Point roads. The town accepted an offer of $2 million from the BTLT to create a conservation easement on the land, which allows public access, trail construction and wildlife management, but prohibits activities like hunting and unnecessary tree removal.
“We are always conscious of conservation opportunities that arise,” Hatrick said. “When a landowner has an interest in putting a conservation easement on their property or selling us their property, we want to be in a position to say yes.”
BTLT’s efforts are supported by roughly 1,300 individual donors, Hatrick said.
Beyond donations, the organization is always looking for volunteers to monitor trails, tend to the community garden, staff the CREA ecology center and more.
“The best way to get involved is to just be out on our trails, come to the farmers market, go to the garden, go to the ecology center, come to one of our events,” St. Clair said. “There are a lot of opportunities for folks to get engaged on all scales.”
