Troy Web Consulting
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!
Troy Web Consulting
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
Troy Web Consulting
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
Troy Web Consulting
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
Troy Web Consulting
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!

First Day 2020

First Day 2020

We never know how many to expect for any event, but the Greater Lovell Land Trust’s First Day hikes typically attract a maximum of nine. Today, however, we were wowed as eighteen gathered.

Before leaving parking lot #2 on Slab City Road to reach the trailhead for our loop up and down Whiting Hill at the Heald and Bradley Ponds Reserve, we all donned snowshoes and marveled at the mix of styles and colors.

Why snowshoes? Because Mother Nature dumped a foot of snow over the past two days and finally it felt like winter.

In single file, we marched along, but paused periodically, including to practice shouting. The phrase that bore repeating: Happy New Year.

Occasionally mammal prints made us stop in our tracks and for one we noted signs of urine. Hmmm, who exactly was the four-footed explorer? A red fox. And how could we be so certain? Because its pee smelled rather acrid and skunky. We initiated a few of our trekkers for they got down on all fours to take a whiff.

Stars in the Circle

Stars in the Circle

I never had the good fortune to meet John A. Segur, but I’ve given him thanks repeatedly over the years. You see, Mr. Segur left a bequest to the Greater Lovell Land Trust to preserve habitat so that native wildlife might thrive.

It was my choice today to check on how that was playing out as I circumnavigated the John A. Segur Wildlife Refuge from Farrington Pond Road.

Since the parking lot isn’t plowed for the winter, I pulled off at the cul-de-sac at the end of the road, which actually was a better spot because I didn’t want to be enticed to follow the trails.

A wise decision it was, for as I tramped along the property line on a northeasterly route to start, a grin immediately emerged. It was the downhill slide that made me instantly happy for I knew that rather recently an otter had also visited the refuge. As it should.

Laughing All The Way, Ho, Ho, Ho

Laughing All The Way, Ho, Ho, Ho

It’s an eager group, the Greater Lovell Land Trust’s Tuesday Trackers, and since we had to cancel our expedition two weeks ago, I decided to go forth with today’s plan despite the weather forecast predicting snow.

And so we gathered, most meeting at the library to carpool and another at the trailhead.

Not long into our tramp, we moved off trail and began looking for green-tinted tan milk duds. We’d barely finished describing them to some newbies when one among us spotted a pile. And then, we realized they were everywhere.

There was more for Not exactly over the river, but certainly through the woods did this group go today. And what to our wondering eyes should appear?

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!

, ,

Geocaching with the GLLT

, ,
Geocaching with the GLLT

Who doesn’t love a treasure hunt? We know we do at the Greater Lovell Land Trust. To that end, Dr. Bubby and Captain Dave have teamed up and planted geocaches on our properties so that you may go in search of them. (We do ask that you not create your own cache.)

, , , , , , ,

Giving Thanks Beside Sucker Brook

, , , , , , ,
Giving Thanks Beside Sucker Brook

Since it’s deer hunting season in the Maine woods, we decided to host a walk one Sunday in November on a Greater Lovell Land Trust property because hunting is prohibited on this day. And today happened to be that Sunday. But first, this story begins with a few other events. On Friday, I had the honor of participating in a late afternoon program at New Suncook School. Before the young girls in the program, their leaders, and I stepped outside, one of them struggled with a Hannaford bag that was splitting apart because it was full of canned and boxed food. I helped her get the bag into her backpack before she dropped all its contents and the act drove home the need to make sure my guy and I attended the second event.

The second event was the Second Annual Bowls and Brews Chili and Chowder Challenge and Beer Tasting held at the Lovell VFW Hall last night.

The land trust was well represented by participants, including Executive Director Erika Rowland who created a delicious Black Bear Chipotle Chili.

Erika’s chili didn’t win, but she and GLLT’s Office Manager Alice Bragg were still all smiles.

The real winners of the event were the kids like the young girl I helped on Friday. For what she was trying to hold was a bag full of food as is provided to her family by the Sunshine Backpack Food Program. And the Bowls and Brews event was a fundraiser to support that program. Throughout the school district, elementary students in need go home with nutritious, non-perishable, easy-to-prepare food every Friday. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the fundraiser support the program.

That brings me to this afternoon’s walk first advertised as Sunday Beside Sucker Brook. Months ago I wrote this description: Let’s get a head start on Thanksgiving, and journey the trail at John A. Segur East where we’ll take in the afternoon views of Sucker Brook, its plants in their winter forms, beaver lodges, and mountain views.

And so we did. First we stepped off the trail and took in the view to the south where Sucker Brook empties into Kezar Lake’s Lower Bay.

, ,

October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 4

, ,
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.

, ,

October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 3

, ,

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.

,

October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 2

,
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.

,

October: The Month of the GLLT Kids, Part 1

,
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.

Scavenger Hunt at Kezar River Reserve

Scavenger Hunt at Kezar River Reserve

As I walked along the trails of the Greater Lovell Land Trust’s Kezar River Reserve on Route 5 across from the Wicked Good Store today and thought about the fact that the Storybook Trail featuring Pond by Jim LaMarche will come down in another week or so, a brainstorm struck me. Why not create a scavenger hunt that you can download on your Smartphone and look for as you walk along the trail? Why not, indeed.

Meet the new Executive Director of the Greater Lovell Land Trust!

Meet the new Executive Director of the Greater Lovell Land Trust!

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.

Searching for North America's Tallest Surviving American Chestnut

Searching for North America's Tallest Surviving American Chestnut

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…

Happy Earth Day!

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…

Looking for Spring

Looking for Spring

Last night one of the Greater Lovell Land Trust‘s volunteer docents earned her certification from the Maine Master Naturalist Program. The MMNP’s goal is to develop a statewide network of volunteers who will teach natural history throughout Maine. With hands-on training, the course provides over 100 hours of classroom and outdoor experience, focusing on geology, identification of flora and fauna, wetland and upland ecology, ecological principles and teaching methods. By the time students complete the program, which includes a final capstone project, they have developed the skills to lead a walk, present a talk and provide outreach. In the year following certification, each graduate agrees to volunteer 40 hours and thereafter must continue to volunteer to remain an active Maine Master Naturalist.

The Spirits of Long Meadow Brook

The Spirits of Long Meadow Brook

People often ask me this question: Aren’t you afraid of hiking alone? My response is that I’m more afraid to walk down Main Street than through the woods, the reason being that it’s a rare occasion I encounter another mammal. Oh, I do move more cautiously when I’m alone and today was no different. But . . . there’s something uniquely special about a solo experience.