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Meet the new Executive Director of the Greater ...

After a thoughtful search, we are thrilled to announce that Erika Rowland has accepted the position of Executive Director of the Greater Lovell Land Trust. She brings two decades of experience in the Land Trust movement, great academic credentials including a PhD in forest resources from the University of Maine, an education program background, and extensive work on climate change issues at both a local and national level.

Meet the new Executive Director of the Greater Lovell Land Trust!
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Searching for North America's Tallest Surviving ...

I am picking my way through second growth forest in Lovell, in search of the tallest surviving American chestnut tree in North America. From the deep, well-drained soil, towering white pines, like masts on a clipper ship, reach toward the canopy. Muscular red oaks vie for space in the shaded woods. I alternate between craning my head upwards, searching for a glimpse of the chestnut’s distinctive white flowers, and scanning the forest floor for last year’s burs and dropped leaves. It’s here somewhere. Maybe this time I’ll find it…

Searching for North America's Tallest Surviving American Chestnut
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GLLT Announces Opening of Storybook Trail

We are tickled pink to introduce you to the newly installed Storybook Trail along the left hand loop at the Kezar River Reserve on Route 5 across from the Wicked Good Store…

GLLT Announces Opening of Storybook Trail
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Significant Fairies

We’d made promises in the recent past that fell flat. With that in mind, when the Greater Lovell Land Trust’s Nature Explorers, a homeschool group led by Docent Juli, gathered this morning, she was smart and stuck to the life cycles of potential sightings like frogs rather than possibilities…

Significant Fairies
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Happy Earth Day!

In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis) promoted Earth Day as a call to embrace environmental causes and fight the forces that were polluting and damaging our planet. By July of that year the Environmental Protection Agency was inaugurated, with its mission to protect the environment and public health, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act were signed into law, and a global awareness of the environmental movement was begun…

Happy Earth Day!

Land Trust

Get Your Quest On

Get Your Quest On

The ME/NH Christmas Tree Quest is a fun way to get outside during the holiday season. Land trusts and other non-profit organizations in Maine and New Hampshire have a decorated tree somewhere along one of their trails.

The Quest begins December 1st. Trees will remain decorated until the end of the month.

Your job is to find the trail and the location of the decorated tree. There will be one tree per preserve. Once you find the tree, take a photo and share it with us … and your friends and family. The individual or family who finds the most trees will win a bag full of swag from the participating organizations. If we have multiple “winners,” we will draw one name for the prize. For more information, read our instructional “Join the Tree Hunt” page. Happy Questing!

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October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 4

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October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 4

GLLT/Lovell Rec Trailblazers:

Six years ago we began working with Lovell Recreation to offer nature hikes one day a week for their summer campers. That blossomed into an after-school program three years ago. Typically, we offer five session in the fall, five in the winter, and three in the spring (many more after school activities available at that time of year.)

The group may be a bit loosey goosey because after being in school all day the kids have lots of energy to release, but we just keep changing up the activities.

This afternoon, Docents Alice Goodwin and Joan Lundin had a variety of activities up their sleeves (but no salamanders).

Activities included walking like different Maine mammals, Simon Says, Following unique trail blazes to reach their after-school snack, becoming tree masters, learning about survey rods, completing a leaf scavenger hunt, and finally ironing leaves between wax paper. Phew! No wonder we're all exhausted.

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October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 3

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Molly Ockett School Maine Environmental Science Academy:

For many years, we’ve had a relationship with Molly Ockett School’s interdisciplinary 6-8th grade MESA program. This year has been no different and last month I co-led a walk along Hut Brook with Ed Poliquin from the Kezar Lake Watershed Association.

On Tuesday, October 15, 35 MESA students and their three teachers joined Brian Hammond and me to explore the fen.

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October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 2

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October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 2

GLLT Homeschool Nature Explorers:

As part of her capstone project for the Maine Master Naturalist Program, GLLT volunteer docent Juli Coombs started a monthly group for families that homeschool their children. Nature Explorers meets at 10 am on the second Thursday of each month.

Last week, Juli led the group out of bounds to explore the autumnal flora and fauna of Lakes Environmental Association's Holt Pond Preserve in South Bridgton.

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October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 1

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October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 1

Molly Ockett and New Suncook First and Second Grade Landform Field Trips:

Connecting kids to nature is one of the greatest gifts we can offer. And here at the Greater Lovell Land Trust, we love spending time exploring with them. Their eagle eyes always spy things we overlook no matter how intentional our focus. They ask questions, process what they experience, and come away with fresh learnings. So do we.

Our intention in working with local youth is not to reject technology (after all, I’m writing this blog post on a computer and you are reading it), but rather to balance that virtual world with what’s really happening outside the door, whether it be at one of our properties, another local location, or even the school yard.