NORWAY – The Western Foothills Land Trust will hold its annual meeting and a presentation on rural land protection at 7 p.m. tonight in the Fare Share Commons on Main Street. The public is invited.
The Western Foothills Land Trust, created 17 years ago, completed its 11th easement this year. The conservation easement was created to protect the 1845 Asia Keene homestead in Sumner, and will ensure that the 185 acres of fields, woods and wetlands remain relatively undisturbed.
The land, on the East Branch of the Nezinscot River, is now protected against subdivision and development. Lee Dassler, president of the land trust, explained that “the easement lives with the deed of the property.” If the property is sold, future owners must use the land in accordance with the easement.
Although the land trust does request a financial donation to the stewardship fund, which helps with legal fees should the easement need to be defended in court, no other money or property changes hands with the creation of an easement. In effect, Dassler said, property owners who create easements “are donating their development rights.”
Easements are designed by the property owners, with help from a lawyer and a land trust, “to protect certain aspects of a parcel of property,” Dassler said. They can be created to protect historic property, wildlife habitat or views. There are potential tax benefits to property owners if limiting development changes the value of the property.
Another of the trust’s accomplishments over the past year is the purchase of the 141-acre Witt Swamp, between Crockett Ridge Road and Pleasant Street in Norway. The white cedar swamp with mature hemlock was part of the Cummings mill property. The purchase was made possible by the sale of property bequeathed to the land trust.
Funds from that sale will also be used to have the trust’s easements mapped. The project will create computer-generated maps that can be compared to maps of other protected property in the area. “We’re shifting into a more proactive mode because of sprawl issues,” Dassler said.
After the meeting, Will Johnston, water program manager at the New England Environmental Finance Center, will speak about rural land protection and issues arising from sprawl in rural areas.
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