MCHT Publication Conservation Options: A Guide for Maine Landowners has been updated!
MLTN is so happy to share the news that our update of the popular guidebook Conservation Options: A Guide for Maine Landowners is complete. This lovely booklet, first published in 1994, is a wonderful resource for both landowners looking to explore options for conserving their land and land trusts working with landowners who are new to land conservation.
This latest version is the first major update to the booklet since 2003! We’ve freshened up the photos and layout, but more importantly we’ve incorporated shifts in land conservation practices and techniques, to help landowners make the best decision possible about how to care for their land. To start with, we are releasing this new version in PDF form only. Anyone is welcome to print off their own copy. Early next year, we plan to produce printed copies that will be available for sale.
Each year, MLTN gathers land trusts and their partners together in each region of the state to connect and discuss issues of common interest. Sadly, we couldn’t hold these meetings last fall, but we’re not going to let COVID stop us this year! Downeast and Penobscot Bay region meetings have been scheduled, and will be held virtually via zoom. Dates for meetings of the Western Mountains and Inland, Midcoast, and Southern Maine land trusts will be firmed up soon. These meetings are open to all and anyone can attend whichever session they like, though some discussion will be region-specific. Visit the Upcoming Events page of the MLTN website for dates and times. If you’d like to attend, email us and specify which regional meeting you’d like to attend.
Wabanki REACH Virtual Events
This fall, Wabanaki REACH is offering virtual events for those looking to learn and explore Wabanki history and more. These events are filling quickly, so sign up soon. Visit the events page on their website here.
Can’t make the workshops but still ready to learn? Check out Wabanaki REACH’s Educational Resources, information about Truth-Telling, and efforts underway to support Wabanki Wellbeing. Doing your own research, learning, and un-learning can be powerful and life-changing, and you can start today!
Maine Music and Nature Videos with Salt Bay Chamberfest
Salt Bay Chamberfest would like to partner with your organization to help raise awareness and appreciation of our beautiful environment
Last summer, Salt Bay Chamberfest created four short videos pairing solo cello music to local vistas in a project called Harmony on Land and Sea: Finding Music in an Exalted Maine Landscape. The goal of the project is to connect the arts with the incredible land in New England, with an eye toward appreciation, land awareness, and conservation. You are invited to share these videos through your website or social media channels. The organization is also currently offering land trusts the opportunity to set up a free online screening and talk with one of the creators for your community and supporters. Contact Wilhelmina Smith, Artistic & Executive Director, Salt Bay Chamberfest at or . For more information on Salt Bay Chamberfest, visit saltbaychamberfest.org.
The State-of-the-Beaches Webinar & Field Trips
Webinar: Tuesday, October 5, 2021
11:30am – 1:00pm
Geologists from Maine and New Hampshire will provide a 2021 update on the State-of-the-Beaches. Thanks to beach profiling volunteers who continued to collect data during 2020, there are new findings to share. Highlights will focus on the impacts of human activities, including dune restoration, dune creation, beach nourishment, and nearshore placement of sand.
In Person Beach Field Trips: October 8, 2021
8:00 – 10:00 am
Walk and talk with geologists from your state about beach change and how beach profiling efforts can help us understand trends and inform beach management decisions. Participants must provide their own transportation.
Option 1: Camp Ellis and Saco beaches, Maine
Learn about beach nourishment, dune restoration, and other engineering approaches with Steve Dickson and Pete Slovinsky from Maine Geological Survey.
Option 2: Hampton Beach State Park, New Hampshire
Learn about the dynamics of Hampton beach, recent beach nourishment efforts, and sand dune restoration efforts in the state with Alyson Eberhardt, New Hampshire Sea Grant and Larry Ward, University of New Hampshire.
Field trips limited to 15 people so register early by clicking here. (You will have the opportunity to sign up for both the webinar and a field trip during registration.)
It Starts at Hello! Making Our Communications More Inclusive
Mr. and Mrs. Who? Common greeting and salutation missteps on our communications can be the starting point in breaking relationships with our donors. Antiquated salutations, householding rules in our databases, and more can alienate donors. How do you draft correspondence that is inclusive not only of both sexes but also of non-binary gender identities? In order to foster a more inclusive world, we have to consider and be willing to shift away from “the way we’ve always done things,” and towards the way our donors deserve things to be done. How do we balance personalization with standardization? Join Lynne for a conversation about communications and inclusivity.
Register for this and more of Lynne’s webinars here.
Reimagining the Nonprofit
Wednesday, October 20th, 2021
1:00-2:30pm
Suggested Price: $49, other pay-what-you-can options available
This event is hosted in partnership with Maine Philanthropy Center as part of MANP’s Realizing Healthy Nonprofits initiative
To make real progress in advancing equity and justice in our communities, nonprofits and funders will need to reimagine how they do what they do, who does the work, and why. Join us for this important conversation with a highly respected innovator, educator, and thinker, Shari Dunn, as she discusses the current equity challenges that exist within the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors and offers us an alternative path, the social enterprise model rooted in trust-based philanthropy.
Visit MANP’s website for all the details and to register.
The New Community Project Roadmap: Lessons from Crowdfunding for Repeatable Success in Building and Sustaining Community Initiatives
Three live online sessions: January 19, February 2nd & 16th, 2022
1:00-3:00pm
Early registration discount through October 15, 2021: $425, other discounts available
In this course from The Harbinger Consultancy, you’ll learn proven approaches from the world of crowdfunding that will help you lay the groundwork for a successful community crowdfunding campaign—and for a repeatable process that you can use to create, start, finish and sustain community projects again and again, even if you decide not to crowdfund. Bring your current challenge, or a project or initiative that you’re incubating to this interactive course. Our goal? To help you see your community and its resources differently, find the gold in your networks that could contribute to the project, and tell your story to reach people you haven’t connected with before and to more deeply engage those you have.
This course is structured in three, two-hour sessions, with a few hours of homework (and a week off!) in between. An optional open forum session wraps up the course with an opportunity for diving deeper into your questions about applying what you’ve learned. By the end, you’ll have created a new roadmap for tackling your challenges or bringing a new project into being. To make it easier for community teams to participate and learn and plan together, we offer discounted course fees to two or more people attending from the same community or region.
For more information and information on additional available discounts, visit Harbinger’s website.
Jobs in the Conservation Sector
Here are the newest job postings since our last newsletter. Click here for full list.
Each year, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and LL Bean team up to provide essential support to Maine land trust through the LL Bean Maine Land Trust Grant Program. The grants are designed to support stewardship of outdoor heritage and natural landscapes across Maine and encourage collaboration. Grants of up to $4,000 will be awarded for projects and activities that enhance public access, increase an organization’s stewardship capacity, or facilitate preserve management. Applications must be submitted via email by October 1st, 2021.
Read the LL Bean Maine Land Trust Grant Guidelines here. Download the application from our Call for Proposals here.
Whole Kids Foundation Bee Grants
Application Deadline: October 1st, 2021
The Whole Kids Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) founded by Whole Foods Market, is dedicated to helping kids eat better and works to support schools and inspire families to improve children’s nutrition and wellness. To that end, in partnership with the Bee Cause Project, the foundation invites applications for its Bee Grants Program, which provides support for educational beehives and bee programming for schools and nonprofit organizations so students can observe bees up close and learn about the vital role these pollinators play in our food system. Recipients can apply for a choice of a monetary or equipment grant intended to support schools in bringing live bees to their campus or grow their existing educational hive program. Recipients will have a choice of a $1,500 monetary grant, an equipment grant: indoor observation hive, or an equipment grant: traditional Langstroth hive.
The foundation will host webinars to discuss the grant opportunity on October 4, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. PST / 5:00 p.m. CST/ 6:00 p.m. EST.
Eligible applicants include K-12 Schools or nonprofits that serve any grades K-12 in the United States or Canada.
For complete program guidelines, application instructions, and to register for the application webinars, see the Whole Kids Foundation website.
The Maine Land Trust Network seeks to promote voluntary land conservation by building the quality and effectiveness of land trusts and the Maine conservation community through communication, coordination and education. The Network is supported and coordinated by
