RLHT Board President Paul Reynolds shows map that indicates the status levels of area land conservation. Stephanie Dellavalle/Rangeley Highlander

RANGELEY — “We’re lucky we have a very coherent and creative mission to conserve, restore, and steward the Rangeley region. That compels us day in and day out to do what we can do, to that end,” explained Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust (RLHT) Executive Director David Miller, at Friday evening’s annual picnic.

Held at the base lodge of Saddleback Mountain, the ticketed dinner event was attended by approximately 100 RLHT members, supporters, and guests.

Miller recalled that when he first joined RLHT he would try to inspire the troops so to speak, but in contrast, now that so much action had been taken, it was no longer required, as goals were steadily being met.

“We make history where we are, and most people never will know our names or care, but for us, it’s our life, and it’s inherently meaningful that way. And so, thank you again for all your support, passion, and the love you have for this place and the community,” Miller concluded.

A large group attended RLHT’s Annual Picnic held at Saddleback on August 9. Stephanie Dellavalle/Rangeley Highlander

RLHT Board President Paul Reynolds made an announcement that RLHT would go public by sharing details of a plan that was conceived five years ago.  The project was given the name Headwater’s Campaign and consisted of three major parts: conservation or land acquisition, restoration, and stewardship.

“This campaign started back in 2019. We had an off-site, as a board, and we talked about what are our big goals, what do we want to accomplish. And we knew how special this area is, but we knew that it was important for more and more people outside this region to understand how important the ecosystem in Rangeley is, and the lands that are still undeveloped. And so, we came up with a strategy back in 2019 to expand our community,” recalled Reynolds.

The plan involved members of the RLHT staff inviting people to Rangeley and hosting educational conferences. The goal was to enlighten them on significant environmental issues and encourage various kinds of support. Reynolds recalled the dedicated conservation efforts of the late Ed Kfoury.

“Ed Kfoury had been waiting for a long time to make something happen up in the Kennebago. In fact, he tried, but the price that they were asking was just crazy. And so, like a smart businessman, he walked away from it. But as a Land Trust, we’re very focused. When that didn’t happen, we didn’t go off somewhere else 50 miles, 100 miles away. We stayed focused on this area.

“And there weren’t a lot of opportunities for us to conserve large pieces of land, but we knew there would be at some point. So, when the opportunity came for us to talk to the owner of the land north of Kennebago, we jumped at the opportunity. The land is a very important watershed. It’s the watershed for the Androscoggin River. And that river is incredibly important to the state of Maine and everybody down the river from us. One of the things that we’ve learned in this effort was that not only conserving land, but restoring it, is very important for the ecosystem, and for the quality of the water and the woods.”

He revealed that they could get funding for restoring the rivers as there was a lot of interest in it.

One aspect of this involves renovating existing bridgework in Kennebago.

“We’re putting in open bottom bridges which allow the trout to swim upstream and uninhibited. Before there were culverts and the culverts restricted that migration. And there’s already been an incredible change in the wildlife up there,” said Reynolds.

Another part of the campaign focuses on conservation of what they call the one-million-acre backyard. Miller noted they anticipated the conservation of land to go from 14,000 acres to 40,000.

Reynolds proceeded to discuss the acquisition of land donated by the Chodash family, owners of Mingo Springs Golf Club, which would allow for the ensured safety of the Mingo Springs Bird Walk trail.

Another topic Reynolds highlighted, was the importance of other means of river restoration besides open bottom bridges.

“The other thing is that over the years, logging straightened the river. So, we’re in the process of changing and trying to go back to the original path of the river. What that does, is it helps to keep the water in the watershed. We’ve seen a lot of heavy rain events in the last few years. I’m sure if you’re on a lake you’ve seen silt coming into the lakes because of those heavy rain events. That’s because it just goes straight down the river and it’s just bringing everything with it.

“By changing the river and going back to its more original path, the water will stay more up in the watershed and come down more slowly. It’ll still come down pretty fast, but it’ll [move] more slowly. The other thing that happens when you do that is that it allows the water to feed the aquifer. And since we have someone putting our water in little plastic bottles, it’s important for us to keep that aquifer going and reenergizing that aquifer.

“And I don’t know if anybody was around last December, when we had the big rains, and essentially Rumford was underwater, but these restorations should help with those rain events and help flooding downriver. So there’s a lot of downriver benefits to the restorations that we’re doing,” Reynolds concluded.

Following his update on conservation and restoration, Reynolds spoke about stewardship, the third part of the campaign.

“The stewardship is really sustaining our future. We’ve already, through this campaign, doubled the size of our endowment. And we hope to keep going with that, so that this organization can be around in perpetuity, and take care of this region,” explained Reynolds.

Reynolds then revealed RLHT noteworthy statistics to date, such as 26,000 acres of land conserved, and 40-plus miles of stream restored. He then reminded attendees of the recreational opportunities this allows for, pointing out the direct impact this has on the health of the economy.

Then Reynolds revealed the celebratory announcement that they have raised $22 million of the $25 million goal, offering clarification that the comprehensive plan includes monies received, future pledges, and grants for future river restorations.

“So, it’s coming from many different areas and probably one of the things that I’m most proud of is where this money so far has come from. Thirty-one percent has come from public money and a lot of that is going toward the restoration; 69% has come from private donors. It’s to me incredible that we’ve been able to get almost 70% of our entire campaign so far from private.

“And 14% has come from corporate. To me this really is a representation of what the Trust is about. You can’t rely on someone else to do what you think is important in your own backyard. You have to go do it yourself. And that’s what we’ve done as an organization and with you as members, and that’s what we hope to continue to do,” said Reynolds.

Reynolds iterated Miller’s statement that the mission is clear but that everybody needs to get involved and contribute, as every dollar counts.

“We need to close out this campaign, but we’re going to have a lot of help because people now understand how important this region is from an environmental standpoint,” stated Reynolds.

Reynolds shared RLHT’s hope that the celebration of the completion of campaign fundraising could complete within a year.

RLHT Executive Director David Miller encouraging involvement in the Headwaters Campaign Stephanie Dellavalle/Rangeley Highlander

Miller added, “One facet that is critically important, we believe, is the ability of the public, like us, to access land around the region. There’s actually a growing trend in the nation, and in Maine, of large landowners, very wealthy people, buying big tracts of land and then shutting it down. And Maine has a tradition of people being able to hike, hunt, fish, snowmobile, across these lands because of the graciousness of the commercial landowners. Historically, that could go away. So, when we say conservation, we’re talking about serving our own ability to be humans on the landscape and take care of the land and enjoy.”