2026 Maine Land Conservation Conference Brought Conservationists Together and Looked to the Future
This year’s Maine Land Conservation Conference on April 28 and 29 at the Augusta Civic Center was notable in many ways. We broke our
previous record with 500 registrants – more than 300 people attended on Tuesday and around 450 on Wednesday. The popular Tuesday night reception was sold out. The packed house enjoyed food, drink, and lots of conversation, and we’re immensely grateful to our Lead and Reception Sponsor The Nature Conservancy in Maine for their support and participation. In fact, none of this wonderful event would be possible without the generosity of all our generous sponsors, including our additional lead sponsors L.L.Bean and Norway Savings Bank.
For the first time ever, Land Fair exhibitors could participate on both days of the Conference. Exhibitors, many of whom were with us for the first time, enjoyed the extra opportunity to interact with participants. This year we were especially pleased to welcome Wabanaki Youth in Science, Bomazeen Land Trust, Wabanaki REACH, and Ash Protection Collaboration Across Waponahkik as exhibitors!
Our plenary session on Day 2 featured Forrest King-Cortes, Director of Community-Centered Conservation for the Land Trust Alliance. Forrest provided the national perspective during a plenary panel conversation with Matt Markot, executive director of Loon Echo Land Trust, and Ciona Ulbrich, Associate Director of Community Relations at MCHT, on how land trusts have evolved over the years, and how we can continue that evolution to serve the land, animals, people, and communities where we work.
Each year, at the Conference plenary session, MCHT awards the Espy Land Heritage Award, which honors an individual or organization whose innovative, forward-thinking leadership has strengthened land conservation across 
Maine. This year the award went to Karin Tilberg, who recently retired from the Forest Society of Maine after a lifetime of successful conservation work, and she is still going!
On Tuesday morning, experts led two half-day workshops: one on Leadership Strategies for Navigating Change and the other on Trail Project Success: Life Cycle, Contracting, and Maine Trails Program Strategies. In the afternoon, we hosted eight topical cohort gatherings, including land trust executive directors, environmental educators, regional conservation partnerships, building relationships between land trusts and housing trusts, and Wabanaki learning. These opportunities to converse with peers on timely topics were once again a highlight of the Conference.
On Wednesday, participants chose from among 16 workshops during two timeslots before and after lunch. Some of the most popular sessions focused on Community Forests, Wabanaki and Salt Marshes, Crafting a Compelling Conservation Story, Web Tools for Conservation Planning, and Co-stewardship of Wabanaki Cultural Sites on Conservation Lands.
Graphic notetaker Karen Knight Detering of Ideas Take Shape was with us both days and created beautiful graphic representations of themes and highlights that came up throughout the Conference. Karen also visually captured answers that conference attendees provided to these four key questions:
- Why is conservation important to you?
- What’s a conservation success that inspires you?
- What’s a dream you have for conservation?
- What’s essential to realize the dream?
The resulting boards (there are 7 of them!) produced a unique record of the event and will be very useful to reference in our future work.
We were ably assisted throughout the Conference by consultant Cathy Kidman, who led the leadership workshop on Tuesday, facilitated the plenary session, and led a panel discussion on final reflections to close the conference on Wednesday afternoon. Cathy’s warmth, wit, and insightful guidance provided a helpful framework for our learnings.
Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), which has presented the Conference for more than 40 years, is proud to offer this event in service to Maine’s land trust community.