BTLT Conserves Additional Lands on Maquoit Bay & the Cathance River

By Angela Twitchell, BTLT Executive Director

Stream on Atwood Property

The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust (BTLT) has been working with partners and landowners in Topsham for more than twenty years to conserve a conservation corridor along the Cathance River.

In January, BTLT conserved two additional parcels: the 10-acre Atwood property and the 23.5-acre Brannigan property. These properties are located across the river from the Cathance River Nature Preserve and conserve important wetland, stream, and wildlife habitat values. With these additions, BTLT has conserved a total of 1,140 acres and 43,000 feet of Cathance River frontage. These combined conservation efforts have protected vital wetlands and wildlife habitat, allowed the creation of miles of well-used public trails, and helped to protect the water quality of the Cathance River and Merrymeeting Bay.

We would like to thank the Atwood and Brannigan families for working with the Land Trust to conserve their land and the Merrymeeting Bay Trust whose funding made the conservation of these properties possible.

Cathance River viewed from Brannigan Property

Also in January, BTLT conserved the Alan Eckert Preserve on Maquoit Bay in Brunswick. This preserve is a 21-acre property with 2,850 feet of shoreline abutting an extensive (more than 50 acre) salt marsh at the head of Maquoit Bay. This preserve is located within the Maquoit and Middle Bay Focus Area of Statewide Ecological Significance and contains frontage along the upper marshes and tidal creeks of Maquoit Bay. The Eckert Preserve is part of a core area of undeveloped land between Maquoit and Rossmore Roads. Conservation of this property will protect the wetlands and buffer areas, allowing the land to continue to provide clean water to the abutting marsh. Moreover, the marsh is expected to migrate onto this property as sea level rises. Conservation allows for accommodation of this future marsh migration.

BTLT volunteers on a site walk of the Atwood and Brannigan Properties

We would like to thank the Eckert family for their good stewardship of this special property and for working with BTLT to conserve it forever.
Deep appreciation also goes out to Maine Coast Heritage Trust for being our steadfast partner on this project and for making it possible in a multitude of ways, and the Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program and Casco Bay Estuary Partnership for providing funding to this project. And, most especially, we want to thank the more than 1,100 members of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust who make all of the work of the Land Trust possible.