A Wonderful New Gift

by Bob Cummings, Member, Phippsburg Land Trust Board of Directors

From the Parker Head Road a wonderful new gift to the Phippsburg Land Trust looks a bit routine, lying as it does behind a power line, a cleared utility right of way, and up a steep hill with minimal vegetation.

But walk a few feet up Elbow Hill road and you’ll see a magnificent mature forest of big oaks and maples, punctuated with an occasional spruce. A  tiny spring fed brook, now encased in ice, soon will bubble over rocks and down a steep ravine.

Visitors who explore further will find views of a beautiful salt marsh and tidal basin that stretches all the way from Parker Head village to Phippsburg’s Morningside Cemetery, ancient stone walls, and a right of way leading to more than 10 miles of maintained walking trails on the land trust’s Center Pond Preserve.

Best of all this 10.4 acre wild gem is now protected for all time through the generous donation this week by a longtime summer resident of Phippsburg, who wishes to remain anonymous.

The gift, which has been appraised at $90,000, expands the Land Trust’s 253 acre Center Pond Preserve. The new parcel borders on the Parker Head and Elbow Hill roads on the east, north and west, and skirts the summit of Elbow Hill to the south.

The gift includes more than a thousand feet of the Elbow Hill summit ridge, providing spectacular views though the trees to the Mill Pond. The pond nestles between Parkers Neck, the Phippsburg mainland, and the remains of an old tidal dam that once provided power to a mill that sawed timbers for Bath and Phippsburg shipbuilders.

The gift is the second important acquisition by the Phippsburg Land Trust recently. A few days earlier, the land trust purchased for $15,000 four acres off Route 209 in Phippsburg to improve access to its 46 acre Ridgewell Preserve.

The Phippsburg Land Trust will discuss the feasibility of building a small parking lot to improve access to the elaborate network of trails on its Center Pond preserve. The trust also hopes to build a new trail along the high bluff that overlooks the Mill Pond tidal basin.

The gift stemmed from letters from Phippsburg Land Trust Conservation Chair, Dan Dowd, to landowners who owned large tracts abutting the Center Pond Preserve. He asked if they had an interest in helping the land trust provide buffers to its Center Pond Preserve. The donor responded generously.

The Center Pond Preserve was purchased by the land trust in 1995. It was the first large acquisition after the Phippsburg Land Trust was reorganized in 1989 following more than a decade of inactivity. The 253 acres had been listed with a real estate agent by Mrs. Eleanor Cooley, a former seasonal resident.

The new gift is especially valuable to the Phippsburg Land Trust’s “New Initiatives Committee,” which is working with the Phippsburg Recreation Committee and the Phippsburg Sportsmen’s Club to further opportunities for youth to participate in outdoor activities. This winter the committee began a Tuesday Nordic skiing program for 3rd and 4th graders at  Phippsburg Elementary School. Another Nordic ski program involving several parcels of protected land in Phippsburg is open to all mid coast residents on Saturday mornings from 9-12.

The new access to the Center Pond Preserve opens up the several miles of trails at the southern end of Preserve to easier public use. These trails are ideal for the new Nordic skiing activities, since the gentle terrain is almost perfect for such skiing, especially by children.

The Phippsburg Land Trust is among the more successful small land trusts in the state. Since 1989 it has acquired 500 acres of totally protected land, and has acquired another 300 acres of easements that prevent development and generally provide for public access, while retaining private ownership and allowing the lands to remain on the town tax rolls. Phippsburg Land Trust has built and maintains more than 20 miles of trails on its lands and easements. Another 10 miles of walking trails in Phippsburg exist on lands protected by others. The new acquisition, coupled with the Center Pond Preserve, offers opportunities for a mile or more of new walking paths.

Other large parcels of protected Phippsburg lands include Popham Beach State Park, nearly 2,000 acres donated a few years ago to the Nature Conservancy, the 600-acre Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, state Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Department of Conservation holdings outside the Popham park, and important lands that are either owned in fee or protected through easements by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

Together these parcels provide Phippsburg with more than 5,000 acres of protected land and more than 30 miles of hiking trails.

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