2025 Workshop Descriptions
This page includes descriptions for all workshops and meetings throughout the full two days of the Conference.
For presenter bios, click here.
Tuesday, April 29 – All events except the Bird Walk take place at the Augusta Civic Center
$35 covers registration for all daytime activities and events (participant limits may apply). The evening social gathering is an optional add-on; tickets for the social gathering are $25 with a cash bar.
Early Morning Bird Walk
7:30-8:30am
- Limited to 25 people
- Meet at the “Park and Ride” lot near the corner of Capital Street (Route 9) and the Piggery Road in Augusta. (GPS coordinates 44.30199, -69.76572).
- Please arrive no later than 7:25am.
Description: Participants will explore the gentle trails of the Viles Arboretum in Augusta. The property’s diverse habitat attracts many different species of birds, including a number of early season migratory species by late April.
Leader: Jeff Romano, author of several popular hiking guides and Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Public Policy Director
Working with Municipalities for a Climate Resilient Future
9:30am-12:30pm, registration and coffee begin at 9:00am
Maine communities are facing increasing challenges to prepare for and react to climate-driven threats. Rural communities with limited capacity can be especially vulnerable and partnerships between conservation organizations and municipalities can provide innovative solutions. In this three-hour session, we will learn about how partnerships between municipalities and conservation organizations can leverage resources to achieve greater resiliency outcomes. This engaging workshop will explore the framework of relationship building, civic engagement, and mutual support as an example of climate action.
We will present information that will help land trust attendees better understand the challenges that our local governments are facing when it comes to municipal budgets and capacity. The presenters will share broader context about the funding mechanisms and constraints towns are dealing with and new research about the relationship between conservation and property taxes in Maine. We will also explore the roles land trusts can play as employers to ensure strong relationship building within our communities, which are the backbone of partnerships.
Our panelists will share from their own experience what it takes to build strong municipal-land trust partnerships. The panelists and presenters in this session will openly and honestly share their experiences of successful partnership alongside engagement failures that have led to important lessons learned. Our goal is to help land trusts think about redefining what has traditionally been a transactional relationship and find new ways to be in relationship with municipalities.
This workshop is designed to encourage conversation and collaboration. Please bring your thoughts and questions and join this conversation.
Presenters: Adam Daigneault, UMaine; Rebecca Graham, Maine Municipal Association; Matt Markot, Loon Echo Land Trust; Steve Tatko, Appalachian Mountain Club; Tony Ward, Town of Casco; and Erin Witham, Downeast Conservation Network
Wabanaki Leadership in Land Return: Building Partnerships for Land Rematriation
10:00am-12:00pm
In a historic collaboration, Niweskok led the effort in bringing together white led land trusts to return land to Wabanaki stewardship in Penobscot territory—without the use of an easement. This session will explore the process, challenges, and successes of this historic land return, highlighting how Wabanaki leadership, land trusts, and an outpouring of generosity from community worked together to center the land, rematriation and Wabanaki stewardship.
Presenters: April Costa, Maine Farmland Trust; Nicole Francis, Niweskok; Alivia Moore, Niweskok; Heather Rogers, Coastal Mountains Land Trust; and Ciona Ulbrich, Maine Coast Heritage Trust
Tuesday Afternoon Topical Cohort Meetings
Informal networking and discussion forums
2:00-4:00pm
We are dedicating this time at the Conference to bringing together groups of people from land trusts and other sectors, and providing space for them to get to know each other, share ideas, and problem solve together. Choose one cohort to join – you’ll sign up during registration – and come with an open heart and mind!
- Executive Directors – This meeting is limited to land trust executive directors and those serving in a similar role, such as board presidents of all-volunteer groups.
- Regional Conservation Partnerships – Are you a part of a Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) in Maine? Interested in learning more about people, organizations, agencies, who are working together on landscape conservation across boundaries? Join us and make connections with others who lead and participate in RCPs across the state, discuss successes and challenges, and gain new perspectives to bring back to your partnership.
- Giving Outdoor Learning a Place to LAND! – Is your land trust currently supporting or considering partnering with local schools? Discover what organizations such as the Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA), The Ecology School, and others are doing to move outdoor learning at a state-wide and legislative level through the Department of Education. Join us as we form a community of support among land trusts who are considering or currently working with schools.
- BIPOC Listening Session – This gathering is specifically for BIPOC people in conservation. Welcoming people to discuss their experience in the conservation field.
- Hearing From Wabanaki Perspectives: Shifting Understandings from Land as a Resource to Land as Kin – A panel discussion and a conversation circle with attendees about how land trusts can and should think differently about relationships to Land and the value of reconnecting Wabanaki people to their homelands. Panelists include Nolan Altvater, Ellie Oldach, Norma Randi, Amelia St. John, and Ciona Ulbrich.
- Building Connections Between Land Trusts and Housing Trusts – Join colleagues, including some from land trusts and some from housing trusts, to get acquainted and talk about areas of common interest, particularly affordable housing.
Tuesday Night Social
A casual celebration with refreshments and Climate&Me artists and their artwork
4:00-7:00pm
Cost: $25
Come join fellow conference participants for this casual meet-up with a taco bar, cash bar, and a conservation musician jam session!
In 2024, Climate&Me launched a call for artwork submissions from Maine youth aged 9 to 22 to engage young Mainers in climate action. These original pieces explored climate solutions and reflected the artists’ lived experiences, hopes for the future, and visions for our community. We are excited to announce that these works will be showcased during our social gathering, and some of the artists will be attending the event to share the inspiration behind their artwork!
Wednesday, April 30
$100 covers registration for all Wednesday activities. When you register, you will automatically be signed up for the plenary session and the closing session and you will choose one workshop to attend during each of the two concurrent workshop sessions before and after lunch. All events take place at the Augusta Civic Center.
Conference Plenary Session
8:30-10:00am
This year our plenary session will feature an overview of the updated state climate action plan Maine Won’t Wait, released last December, by Director of the Governor’s Office on Policy, Innovation, and the Future Hannah Pingree, followed by a facilitated conversation with a panel of experts posing questions about how Maine will reach the ambitious goals laid out in the plan. The annual Espy Land Heritage Award is also presented at this time.
Panelists include: Dan Burgess, Director of the Governor’s Energy Office; Jeremy Gabrielson, Associate Director of Planning, Maine Coast Heritage Trust; Samantha Horn, Director of Maine Office of Community Affairs; and Amanda Rector, Maine State Economist
Session A Concurrent Workshops
10:30am-12:00pm
A1 2024 Maine Land Trust Census: What Can it Tell Us About The Future of Land Conservation in Maine?
In late 2024, the Maine Land Trust Network (MLTN) fielded the third in a series of every-five-year Maine Land Trust Census with the help of consultants Elizabeth Hall and Gary Stern. The resulting data reveal trends over a 15-year period, highlight areas of success, and point out opportunities for improvement. Hear about the growth of land trusts’ conservation results, staffing, and impact, as well as common concerns and challenges. Get inspired by what the collective land trust movement has accomplished over the past years and what new perspectives and areas of endeavor are emerging. Learn what the census analysis can tell us about our work today and help identify strategies for the future that can be acted on by MLTN in the next five years and beyond.
Presenters: Elizabeth Hall, Hall Collaborations, and Gary Stern, Stern Consulting International
A2 Tributary Land Return: Working Together to Return Land to Wabanaki Care
Wabanaki land care has persisted through millennia of climate, ecological and social changes. In this time of accelerating change, Wabanaki land care and its focus on relationship offer a critical pathway forward. In this workshop, we’ll share the work underway to expand Wabanaki land return and access so these long histories, lifeways, and relationships with land can thrive.
Right now, eleven land return projects are underway that will return over 50,000 acres to Wabanaki communities across the landscape now called Maine. This collective effort, Tributary Land Return, will amount to the largest return of private land in the history of the United States, but it is more than this. This effort demonstrates an unprecedented level of coordination across multiple conservation organizations and Tribal communities and offers a new paradigm of what land return can look like. Each one of the projects in Tributary is deeply meaningful.
Importantly, these projects happen without restriction, meaning land care choices are wholly determined by Wabanaki people and communities. Tributary Land Return projects also demonstrate Wabanaki-determined models of land care in the face of climate change. Land return and access creates the conditions for these practices to once again have a foothold across myriad ecosystems in the land now called Maine. Finally, Tributary Land Return also offers a new way for conservation organizations to work with one another and Wabanaki Nations, expanding what’s possible for our entwined goals of sustaining earth, water, creatures, humans.
Presenters: Betsy Cook, Trust for Public Land; Shannon Hill, Mi’kmaq Nation, Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship; Nancy Kennedy, Chewonki Foundation; Chuck Loring, Penobscot Indian Nation; Otto Muller, First Light; and Adam Pereira, Maine Coast Heritage Trust
A3 Alternative Land Acquisition Strategies to Achieve Community and Conservation Outcomes
Fundamental to achieving conservation and community outcomes is the ability to buy land in competitive markets. Land trusts are frequently having to engage new partners to serve as interim buyers, provide financing, and other types of capital to achieve success and secure priority projects at the pace and scale required by the market. Come hear from a panel about how they and their organizations are supporting land trusts and community organizations with funding and acquisition tools that might help you get your organization’s deal done on time.
Presenters: Kelsie Bouchard, Coastal Enterprises Inc; Reggie Hall, Legacy Works Group; and Ciona Ulbrich, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and CLD, LLC
A4 Toward a Maine Landscape Conservation Blueprint: Lessons Learned from Conservation Planning across Maine
Maine Won’t Wait notes that “interconnected ecosystems sustain our state” and establishes a goal to increase the total acreage of conserved natural and working lands in the state to 30 percent by 2030. The Beginning with Habitat program is working with partners across Maine to develop new mapping tools, assist with conservation planning, and track our collective progress toward that goal. Justin Schlawin, Program Coordinator for Beginning with Habitat, will moderator a panel with participants from across Maine sharing examples of how organizations working at different scales are working to incorporating landscape connectivity into their conservation goals. Kristen Puryear from the Maine Natural Areas Program will provide an update on new Focus Areas of Statewide Significance. Jason Latham from Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust will focus on how stakeholder engagement and landscape scale mapping leads to successful land trust conservation projects. Christine Parrish from the New England Forestry Foundation will discuss how forest management incentives for smaller private ownerships can lead to landscape scale conservation. Matt Markot of Loon Echo Lands Trust present on his role as assisting the Town of Bridgton develop an Open Space plan to inform landscape scale conservation actions.
Presenters: Jason Latham, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust; Matt Markot, Loon Echo Land Trust; Christine Parrish, New England Forestry Foundation; Kristen Puryear, Maine Natural Areas Program; and Justin Schlawin, Beginning with Habitat
A5 The Conundrum of Invasive Species and Climate Change – How One Fuels the Other and Vice Versa
This presentation will help land managers understand which invasive species (IS) are already on their lands, how those species could impact carbon sequestration and storage, how climate change is exacerbating the range expansion of IS already on your land and the establishment of new IS from states to your south and west. A discussion will follow to answer questions like: How do we prevent new invasive species from establishing in Maine? How do we prioritize which species to manage? How do we fund that management? How do we identify range-shifting invasive species?
Presenters: Gary Fish, State Horticulturist, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
A6 Assessing Coastal Flood Risk with Communities
Through a partnership with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Washington County staff launched and facilitated engagement in an intergenerational community science project to collect data about flood impacts in Machias and Lubec. This networked water level monitoring system and community science platform collects data to determine what water level and weather conditions lead to local flooding and which areas of shoreline are most vulnerable and critical to our community. MCHT hosted local coastal meet-ups to engage residents in witnessing current coastal climate impacts and to gain experience collecting and contributing data. Data is being used by town planners, the National Weather Service, and the land trust, and is proving extremely useful.
Join MCHT and GMRI for an interactive session – including presentation, small group activity, and discussion – where workshop participants will learn about the Coastal Flood Community Science project, how this work has supported coastal resilience in Machias, be trained on the data collection protocol, and explore how this project, and community science more broadly, can support land trust goals with respect to near term preparedness and long term planning.
Panelists: Gayle Bowness, Gulf of Maine Research Institute; Meggie Harvey, Gulf of Maine Research Institute; Cathy Lookabough, Maine Coast Heritage Trust; and Kyle Winslow, Maine Coast Heritage Trust
A7 A Blueprint for Better Boards: Three Strategies for Board Recruitment
Board recruitment is essential for the sustainability of any organization. In this session, we’ll cover effective strategies to build the board you need, including identifying gaps on your board, drafting clear roles and expectations for new board members, and establishing an onboarding process. This workshop will introduce these critical concepts and provide practical tools you can bring home.
Presenters: Karen Grey, Wildlands Trust, and Jennifer Plowden, Land Trust Alliance
Session B Concurrent Workshops
1:30-3:00pm
B1 Hope for Healthy Planet: MIT ENROADS Climate Solutions Simulator
This workshop will explore a wide variety of potential climate change solutions via an interactive session that leverages the MIT ENROADS Climate Solutions Simulator. The ENROADS simulator is a powerful educational tool, that allows workshop participants to explore and discover for themselves the likely impact of climate actions on temperature rise and dozens of other outcomes, such as decreased crop yield from warming, fire threat, species loss, ocean acidification, etc. The goal of the interactive workshop will be to construct a scenario that will meet the Paris Accord goals of keeping warming below +2.0oC and ideally no higher than +1.5oC by 2100. The model will illustrate the important role that land conservation and land use practices will have on achieving this healthy vision of the future. Participants will see that there is hope for a healthy planet!
Having explored the range of climate actions necessary to keep warming to healthy levels, Peter will then talk about what actions participants can take as individuals, or within their organizations to drive toward those goals, many of which are aligned with the goals of Maine Won’t Wait, and the land conservation goals of MCHT and other land trusts across Maine and the United States.
Presenters: Peter Dugas, ENROADS Ambassador and Northeast Regional Director, Citizen’s Climate Lobby; and Laurie Manos, Citizen’s Climate Lobby
B2 Listening as Land Conservation
This presentation by the Island Soundscape Project will share out the results of their current research project undertaken with the partnership of Maine Coast Heritage Trust. By providing examples of soundscape conservation initiatives throughout the U.S. and globally, as well as coastal Maine data gathered over the course of this project, we will impart baseline information that can be adapted to various environments and organizations. This will include suggestions and examples, including from our research, for incorporating best practices for utilizing concepts of the soundscape in the contexts of land acquisition, stewardship, outreach, and education. These practices can provide a valuable metric for evaluating the local impacts of climate change over time, and innovative ways to improve access for diverse audiences to connect with conserved lands.
We expect that the Maine land conservation community will find that soundscape studies provide both contrasting and complementary ways to understand their ongoing work. It has become evident through our research that the ideas surrounding the soundscape and its implications are not currently a consideration in the land trust community in general. Our work is focused on this community specifically, and we use our understanding of it as a model for a broader understanding of conservation work at large. Thus, this presentation can provide new approaches for land trusts to engage in conservation practices which address issues previously overlooked.
Presenter: Gamma Bellenoit, UMaine Orono; Karen Beeftink, University of Maine Machias; and Steve Norton, Island Soundscape Project
B3 Scoping, Siting, and Funding Resiliency and Restoration Projects
It can be daunting to understand how to best locate and scope appropriate projects and access the available funding. Using facilitated small group roundtables combined with larger group reviews and discussion, this workshop seeks to help participants gain an understanding what makes projects successful, starting with site selection and initial project management. This workshop will be geared to those who do not have a background in project identification for grant funding and will include discussing topics related to project management and budgeting challenges, balancing schedules, what makes a good restoration/resiliency project, site selection tips, understanding when and what to outsource, monitoring and adaptive management, potential collaborations, balancing stakeholders wishes with project goals and budget, and discussion on the level of outreach participation. A sample project will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring ideas from their community or group and workshop through a relevant project to have a more tangible takeaway.
Presenters: Laura Hatmaker, Claudia Mendoza, and Susie Salois, SWCA Environmental Consultants
B4 Long-Term Thinking in a Short-Term World: Implementing Lessons from Long-Term Conservation Easement Stewardship to Improve Land Transactions
We will address common stewardship dilemmas that can be prevented with careful planning in advance of conveying a conservation easement. Presenters include stewardship and land transaction staff at Maine Farmland Trust and attorneys from Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Drummond Woodsum, who provide counsel on stewardship dilemmas, enforcement issues, and land transactions. The presenters will discuss several common stewardship issues, using examples derived from MFT’s and MCHT’s experience managing conservation easements across the State, including over working lands. The presenters will provide methods of addressing these common issues in real time, along with recommendations for how certain stewardship issues may be prevented by careful drafting of the transaction documents, upfront conversations with landowners and their counsel, and other preventative measures during the easement conveyance process.
The panel format will allow for input from stewardship and acquisition staff at a land trust as well as stewardship and acquisition counsel. We expect to discuss hands-on examples and legal solutions to smooth over dilemmas before easement acquisition and after-the-fact.
Presenters: Stacey Caulk, Drummond Woodsum; Hannah Chamberlain, Maine Farmland Trust; Laura Hartz, Drummond Woodsum; Karin Marchetti, Maine Coast Heritage Trust; and Amanda Wheeler, Maine Farmland Trust
B5 Actively Managing Forests for Climate Resilience
In this roundtable discussion, we will share examples of land trusts and other conservation-minded landowners that are actively managing forests in the face of changing climate conditions. Changing climate is bringing a rapid expansion of multiple forest pests and pathogens, challenges for existing tree species composition, and other system stressors. Active management can enhance resilience and create adaptation pathways for the future. After a brief introduction to Climate Smart Forestry, you will learn the where, why, and what each group is doing in forests across Maine and eastern New Hampshire. There will be lots of time for Q&A to dig into any details of the groups’ projects that interest you. We will wrap up with a conversation about resources available for the planning and implementation of these kinds of forest treatments.
Presenters: Nancy Olmstead (facilitator), The Nature Conservancy Maine; Rose Gellman, University of Maine; Jw Harriman, Blue Hill Heritage Trust; Malcolm Richardson, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust; Nicole Rodgers, Maine Forest Service; Erika Rowland, Greater Lovell Land Trust; Carolyn Ziegra, Appalachian Mountain Club
B6 Restoration: Land Trusts Leading Projects that Increase Community and Habitat Resilience
Restoration projects are a great opportunity for land trusts to take stewardship to the next level, supporting habitats and people in their communities. Learn about projects that small land trusts around the state are undertaking in partnership with local communities. These projects increase flood resilience of infrastructure, while improving health and habitats for fish and wetlands. They provide the opportunity to bring in grant funding that supports the work of land trust staff as well as local contractors and engineers.
Land trusts have the ability to play key roles in restoration projects both on and off their properties, bridging conversations between federal and state agencies and local communities. On land trust properties, restoration projects can serve as examples and model demonstration projects. Off land trust properties, many communities around the state are focusing on community resilience, often as a part of the state’s Community Resilience Partnership program. Addressing vulnerable roads and bridges is one key way for communities to increase their resilience to disaster events, but many small communities lack capacity and expertise to incorporate considerations for both flood resilience and habitat needs into a structure. Land trusts are trusted groups that can bring that expertise to the table.
Some of the roles land trusts can play include:
- Goal setting, to ensure that community goals and habitat resilience goals are combined in projects
- Capacity building, facilitating projects in small municipalities that have limited town staff
- Grant writing and administration, applying our skill-set to community projects
- Outreach and education in their local communities about restoration options and benefits
- Connecting local leaders with habitat and restoration experts at the state and federal level
- Rallying volunteers to assist with monitoring and on the ground work
Presenters: Cheryl Daigle, Sebasticook Regional Land Trust; Aaron Dority, Frenchman Bay Conservancy; Ruth Indrick, Kennebec Estuary Land Trust; and Jason Latham, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust
B7 Building a Resilient Financial Future to Conserve More Land
All too often, land trusts may not be prepared to address economic recessions, adapt to volatility in federal or state funding programs or they may simply be under-capitalized to pursue their priority projects all because of a weak balance sheet. This training will explore steps that a land trust can take to improve their bottom line while simultaneously enhancing their resilience and ultimately their ability to conserve more land. We’ll leave the jargon behind as we explore the fundamentals of financial health and identify ways to enhance organizational resilience and improve functionality. Along the way, we’ll highlight innovative tools that land trusts around the country are using to leverage their financial and social capital assets. Come learn how to engage your organization’s supporters and partners in new ways so that they can become key allies in the building of your more resilient and effective organization.
Presenter: Reggie Hall and James Corbett, LegacyWorks Group
Closing Panel
3:30-4:30pm
Youth Climate Action: Voices of Today to Inform Tomorrow
with introduction by Kate Dempsey
This session highlights young people who are committed to mitigating climate change and driven to take action. They will share their transformative work, personal experiences, and visions for a brighter future. By fostering the exchange of knowledge and perspectives across generations and cultures, we enhance our understanding of one another and empower ourselves to take meaningful, collective action. Together, we aim to build lasting relationships across ages, cultures, and experiences among those dedicated to climate action in Maine.
Panelists include:
- Sulwan Ahmed, Maine Environmental Education Association
- Ray Mills, Maine Environmental Education Association and The Nature Conservancy
- Kaethe Rice, senior at Waterville High School and co-lead of MYCJ’s High School Support Cohort
- Edge Venuti, undergraduate student at the University of Maine
Facilitated by: Nolan Altvater, Special Projects Cultural Coordinator, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Passamaquoddy Cultural Heritage Museum