Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 J U N E 1 5 , 2 0 2 0 F O C U S Preserving the land isn't a hard sell for many landowners who are looking to sell an old family farm or other land, even if climate change isn't top of mind, Glidden and Gabrielson say. "Maine has a longstanding conser- vation ethic," Gabrielson says. "A lot of [the marsh upland] is farmland, and Maine farmers have always felt a con- nection to the land." He says the state is built on farming, fishing and working in the woods. "Over the last 50 years, people are seeing that that way of life is at risk." Glidden quotes conservationist Aldo Leopold: "e first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces." How things play out in the future will depend on a lot of factors, he says. "But if we don't save the pieces now, it's all irrelevant." Maureen Milliken, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at mmilliken @ mainebiz.biz E N E R G Y / E N V I RO N M E N T Largely unchanged since the gla- ciers receded, Maine's marshes will disappear as the global sea level rises in the next 100 years. e rocky parts of the coast are immovable, so much of the higher sea level will flow into the tidal marshes. While the three to six feet the sea will rise may not seem like much, it will be enough to flood the state's 22,000 acres of tidal marsh- land. By conserving the land around the marshes now, there will be room for new marshes to form. An imminent threat "Natural systems are incredibly resilient, and have been for thousands of years," Glidden says. "When given the chance to regenerate themselves, they're back at it, and the results are immediate." e trust, through partnerships with landowners, municipalities and other land trusts, has conserved more than 1,600 acres of marsh in Maine. It has identified 67 parcels in the state that, like the Cousins River marsh, meet the crite- ria of being relatively large, with a variety of plant species and having adjacent upland that hasn't been developed. While the sea level shifts that would flood the marshes may seem a long way off, acting now is vital, con- servationists say. "Look at how people responded to COVID-19," says Jeremy Gabrielson, MCHT senior conservation and com- munity planner. "It was immediate, because the threat was immediate. But P H O T O S / C O U R T E S Y O F M C H T Look at how people responded to COVID-19. It was immediate, because the threat was immediate. But climate change is even more of a threat. — Jeremy Gabrielson MCHT climate change is even more of a threat. We're looking at what we can do now." e state marsh areas ranked at the top for resilience by the MCHT are: York County's marshes, the state's largest; Merrymeeting Bay, where six rivers meet, and which spreads through Sagadahoc, Lincoln and Cumberland counties, considered one of the most important freshwater tidal ecosys- tems in the country, according to the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay; Pleasant Bay, in Washington County, which has nationally significant shorebird feeding areas. 'Luck and strategizing' e marsh along the east branch of the Cousins River is an ideal example of what the trust is looking to save, Gabrielson and Glidden say as they walk down an old tote road through a wooded grove to the marsh. A farm for generations, spruces now pepper once-empty fields along Granite Street. Closer to the marsh, decades-old deciduous and pine trees cluster on a rolling landscape. It's now owned by a conservation LLC, formed by the estate of the longtime owners. e property is in protected status while the MCHT raises the $2 million it needs to buy the land. e recently completed campaign allowed the trust to "make stunning progress"over the past six years to protect and oversee 35 new preserves and take care of them in the future, but it doesn't cover much of the direct land acquisi- tion, Glidden says. "Going forward, we continue to raise the necessary funds to buy lands like the Cousins River marsh," he says. Much more of the land around the marsh, about 180 acres on 12 parcels, is protected by the Freeport Conservation Trust. e trust, which owns or has easements on 1,600 acres in town, is completing a $185,000 deal on 12.7 more acres of the marsh upland on Old County Road, across the town line from the Yarmouth parcel. "We've just sort of slowly been col- lecting parcels," says Katrina Van Dusen, executive director of the Freeport Conservation Trust. e Royal River Conservation Trust is also a partner on the Cousins River Watershed Initiative. Once the two par- cels have been acquired, most of the land surrounding the Cousins River west of I-295 will be protected. e 12.7 Freeport acres are being paid for with grants from the National Wetland Conservation Act, the Davis Conservation Foundation, the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Kennebec Savings Bank and "a bargain sale from a conservation-minded neighbor." While development in Freeport and Yarmouth has eaten up a lot of farmland in recent decades, Van Dusen says the land in past years wouldn't have been considered that desirable. In more recent decades, it's been cut off by Interstate 295. e Maine Department of Transportation owns what remains of the land surrounding the marsh. "It's amazing now you can look at that whole undeveloped shore," she says. "It's just beautiful, with nothing on it." Preserving it has been "a combination of luck and strategizing," she says. Saving the pieces Gabrielson says that while Maine doesn't have the amount of marshland that some other states, like Maryland and New Jersey do, the state has done a bet- ter job of preserving what it does have. "Maine still has most of the salt marsh it had after the glaciers receded," he says. "As a result, the ecology has become really significant to the state." He says states that have lost huge amounts of land surrounding marshes to development are scrambling to pre- serve what they have left. S O U R C E : Maine Coast Heritage Trust MCHT PRIORITY MARSHES Maine Coast Heritage Trust's priority marshes are the places in Maine where land protection has the greatest potential as strategy to support marsh migration. Cousins River (in red) is one of 36 priority marshes. Woodard Point in Brunswick Bass Harbor on MDI

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