Programs & Collaborations 

The Common Good Garden, part of the Tom Settlemire Community Garden, is a space where anyone who wants to help grow food for the community can pitch in with no prior experience required. Dedicated to supporting the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program (MCHPP) and local food security efforts, the garden thrives thanks to volunteers. Each year, more than 50 people contribute over 400 hours to plant, tend, and harvest hundreds to thousands of pounds of fresh produce. That food then makes its way to MCHPP’s pantry and kitchen, and ultimately onto plates throughout our community. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or simply curious to try your hand at growing food, the Common Good Garden is open to all who want to make a tangible difference while enjoying time outdoors, connecting with others, and supporting neighbors in need. 

Since 2000, the Cathance River Education Alliance, now a program of the Land Trust, has partnered with local schools to spark curiosity and foster a love of the natural world. Through outdoor field trips, hands-on science research, teacher resources, and our Outdoor Learning Network, these programs help students see the world as a living classroom—one they are part of and responsible for.

 Conserving land in our region to protect ecological communities is the foundation of BTLT's work and creates opportunities for people to connect with their local land. Land conservation is made possible by willing neighbors and landowners, partnerships and collaborations between municipalities, other land trusts and conservation organizations, and support from community members, grant funders, state agencies, and more. All land and waterways are connected and influence one another beyond town boundaries, and through ongoing relationships and collaborations with partners, we can better plan and support one another’s efforts to protect and cherish the natural resources that surround us.

(Written by Mawita'nej First Nations Youth Group members) Mawita’nej First Nation Youth Group is a Wabanaki-led, intergenerational community that brings together families living in this territory. We gather around land stewardship, language reclamation, food sovereignty, and mutual care.

Our monthly gatherings create space for youth, families, and Elders to share meals, drum, learn cultural teachings, and strengthen relationships. Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust serves as our fiscal sponsor and has made one acre of land available for our stewardship. On this land, families have grown corn, beans, squash, potatoes, and other annual crops as part of our ongoing commitment to food sovereignty and land reclamation. While cultivation paused in 2025, we focused on strengthening internal capacity to ensure long-term sustainability of our growing efforts.

Food sovereignty remains central to our work as a practice of cultural continuity, collective responsibility, and reconnection to homelands.

The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust is the fiscal sponsor for the Mawita’nej First Nation Youth Group. Fiscal sponsorship is a contractual arrangement where an established 501(c)(3) nonprofit extends its tax-exempt status to an unincorporated project, group, or newly formed organization. This allows the project or group to legally solicit tax-deductible donations and grants enabling them to do their work benefiting the communities they serve while the sponsor provides vital administrative, financial, and fiduciary oversight. BTLT is proud to support Mawita’nej First Nation Youth Group in this way, and the work they do in the community.

The Merrymeeting Food Council (MFC) is a network of farmers, anglers, nonprofits, businesses, community members, and local governments working together to strengthen our regional food system.

Formed in 2015 out of a collaboration led by BTLT and Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, MFC was created to build shared leadership and support community driven actions that shape food access, farming, and harvesting across the 14 towns of the Merrymeeting Bay region.

The Council’s mission is to nurture a thriving, resilient, and equitable food system that supports both people and the land. Through programs, resource sharing, and connection, MFC makes that vision real.

The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust is the fiscal sponsor for the Merrymeeting Food Council. Fiscal sponsorship is a contractual arrangement where an established 501(c)(3) nonprofit extends its tax-exempt status to an unincorporated project, group, or newly formed organization. This allows the project or group to legally solicit tax-deductible donations and grants enabling them to do their work benefiting the communities they serve while the sponsor provides vital administrative, financial, and fiduciary oversight. BTLT is proud to support MFC in this way, and the work they do in the community.

Since 2021, the New Mainers Community Garden (located behind the BTLT office on Brunswick landing) has offered local immigrant, refugee, and asylee families a space to plant culturally meaningful crops, share traditions, and build community.

What began with 10 raised beds quickly expanded to 14—and sparked even more possibilities. Community leader Sivi Mpela, with support from BTLT and neighbors, began growing a larger plot at the Tom Settlemire Community Garden. From that space, she not only feeds her family, but also provides fresh produce and prepared meals to immigrant families in Brunswick, Lewiston, and Portland.

Together with New Mainer leaders, we continue to nurture these gardens as places of connection, independence, and food sovereignty.

Since fall 2021, BTLT has partnered with Queerly ME to create inclusive outdoor experiences that bring LGBTQIA+ community members together in nature. Their flagship collaboration, Trail Mixers, began in 2022 as casual, seasonal meetups at BTLT properties with light conversation starters designed to spark connection. Hundreds of participants of all ages have found community, friendship, and joy on the trails, sharing stories, laughter, and time outdoors. The success of this program has inspired Queerly ME to expand the model statewide, offering Trail Mixers in communities across every county in Maine. Through this partnership, BTLT demonstrates how conservation, outdoor access, and community inclusion can intersect—creating spaces where everyone can feel welcome, connected, and empowered to explore both the natural world and the bonds that bring us together.

BTLT has collaborated with numerous partners throughout our history to manage and care for the properties that we’ve conserved. These partners include easement landowners, community volunteers, other local, regional, and statewide land trusts, as well as local municipalities and community groups of hikers, skiers, mountain bikers, ATV users, snowmobilers, hunters, anglers, and more. Those who know our local lands well help take the best care of them, and we could not make a commitment to care for conserved lands forever without the partnership and collaboration of many.

Among the many past and present partnerships that have supported the stewardship of BTLT’s conserved lands, we have worked closely with Six Rivers New England Mountain Biking to steward and maintain multiuse trail access at Neptune Woods, shared staff and equipment with Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, and co-manage Woodward Point Preserve with Maine Coast Heritage Trust.