NORWAY – Plant ecologist Dr. Charlie Cogbill of Plainfield, Vt., led a “Forest to Wetlands Walk” toward Witt Swamp with a group of 28 Western Foothills Land Trust supporters on July 22. The event raised $700 to aid the trust’s $75,000 drive.

The trust intends to preserve the first-growth cedar swamp, to protect wading bird habitat, to preserve carnivorous plant habitat and to preserve a natural shoreland view-scape from Lake Pennessawassee, Crockett Ridge Road and Pleasant Street. Future goals may include exploring the educational potential of the resource via tours, talks and paddles.

The trust has been watching and working toward a Witt Swamp project for years, due to its ecological, historical and educational value. The property, comprised of white cedar swamp and forested uplands with massive hemlock and pine, provides and protects an extensive wildlife and botanical habitat for wading birds, mammals, woodlands plants and carnivorous bog plants.

Cogbill walked the land for the first time with the assembled group. As he went he talked about his observations regarding the lay of the land, trees, plants and evidence of human interventions.

The walk began at the wooded uplands, forested with hemlock, birch and pine primarily, and proceeded downhill through a cedar forest toward a thick ash and cedar fen where sedges and ferns were thriving.

That evening, at the 16th annual meeting of the trust, Cogbill presented a program on his recent work in progress – the pre-European settlement forests of New England.

He began by presenting what is known about the composition and changes in plant communities in the New England region over the past 10,000 years.

On a much more recent time scale, using early proprietor’s records, town records, surveyor’s notations, census and tax records, Cogbill and other scholars have assembled an overview of the makeup and evolution of New England’s forests from the 17th century on.

The land trust has an overall goal of raising $75,000 for the purchase of the 141-acre Witt Swamp, a goal that includes funds for paying town taxes, maintenance and other stewardship costs.

Anyone interested in additional information or in making a tax-deductible contribution should contact the campaign manager, Russ Florenz, at 743-9019, or send a check payable to the Witt Swamp Campaign, Western Foothills Land Trust, PO 107, Norway, ME 04268.