NORWAY – The Western Foothills Land Trust now owns a corridor of land leading into its Witt Swamp property on Lake Pennesseewassee.

Lee Dassler, program coordinator with the trust, said the move came as a result of cooperation between the land trust, developers and the Norway Planning Board.

“We’re just thrilled,” Dassler said. “It’s a really wonderful situation.”

The trust purchased the 141-acre Witt Swamp, which is on the lake near Pleasant Street, in 2004 for $55,000. The land trust had a 66-foot wide easement to Pleasant Street to allow access to the parcel.

Recently, land around the parcel owned by Betty Cullinan went up for sale. Mike Noble and Jerry Dodge of Keys North LLC purchased 19 acres for development along Pleasant Street. Noble said they are planning to put in three house lots on the property.

According to Dennis Gray of the Planning Board, the land trust would have retained access to the swamp over any new lot.

“That was a permanent easement, obviously,” he said.

Since the Witt Swamp parcel abutted the purchased land, the trust was informed of the new situation. Dassler contacted Keys North to try to work out an agreement regarding the access corridor.

Dassler described the result as exemplifying “mutually agreed-upon generosity and foresight.”

Noble said he was aware of the corridor, but did not need the land it ran across.

“We had no plans to develop that,” he said, “so we decided to gift it to the Western Foothills Land Trust.”

The corridor, which encompasses about three-quarters of an acre, was donated to the trust on June 6.

“We’d always wanted to get some sort of permanent access into Witt Swamp,” Dassler said. “It’s the first time a developer has worked with our land trust, which is great.”

Noble said there is a need for public access in the town, and the corridor, which comes onto Pleasant Street across from Emerson Road, is close enough for people to walk to.

“I think the Planning Board was perfectly happy to see it happen,” Gray said. “We thought it was an ideal solution.”

Dassler said the donation will enable the trust to start building trails on the Witt Swamp property. The trust is completing an inventory of trees, plants and wildlife on site through a $2,000 grant from Project Canopy, which will enable it to create an ecological forest management plan.

“I think that plan is going to help us know where we should put in trails and where we shouldn’t,” Dassler said.

She said the swamp is home to brown ash, white cedar and hemlock trees, as well as carnivorous plants and wading birds.

The trust plans to put in a cedar plank walkway through the boggier areas and standard trails on the higher ground. It also wants to put in an unpaved parking lot and informational sign at the access corridor’s frontage on Pleasant Street.

A workday for developing trails has been scheduled Aug. 18. For more information, contact the Western Foothills Land Trust at 739-2124 or [email protected].