Steering Committee

During the 1970s, with development pressures on the rise, groups of concerned citizens around the country were banding together to protect and conserve the special places they loved. Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) was one of those groups, and there were others in Maine – about 15 local land trusts existed here by the early 1980s. The organizations were learning the rules of the conservation trade as they went, and MCHT believed a need existed to “build relationships between land trusts statewide to allow for sharing of ever-growing knowledge and experience” (from a memo by Earl Ireland, April 1983). MCHT offered to take the lead, providing staff time for research, training and materials, technical assistance and “special assistance to local citizen groups wishing to create land trusts.”  That effort became known as MCHT’s Community Lands Program.

By 1991, the number of land trusts in Maine had quadrupled to about 61. Based on that success, MCHT decided to continue and expand this effort under a new title, the Maine Land Trust Program. 

A key mechanism of this work was the Maine Land Trust Network (MLTN). MLTN members pay annual dues to join the Network. With guidance from the steering committee, MCHT administers and coordinates the Network, providing resources, training, and technical assistance to its members.

The MLTN Steering Committee meets three times a year; it makes recommendations to MCHT regarding MLTN programming and advises MCHT on issues related to land trusts and land conservation in Maine. It is made up of up to 25 members, including representatives from Maine Coast Heritage Trust leadership and representatives from MLTN member land trusts. 

New steering committee members are considered when seats become available, typically at the first meeting of the year in February. Interested individuals from member organizations may contact the Land Trust Program Manager at .