Coastal Mountains Land Trust is grateful to the residents of Lincolnville for their overwhelming support of a land exchange proposal that they successfully voted to approve.  Nearly 90% of voters were in favor of trading a beautiful 4-acre park on Penobscot Bay, owned by the Land Trust, for a 69-acre parcel on the Ducktrap River owned by the Town of Lincolnville. We look forward to moving ahead with this creative transaction.

The Land Trust has been working since 1995, as part of the Ducktrap Coalition, to conserve the corridor of this important river, home to a population of endangered Atlantic Salmon and other species. Our Ducktrap River Preserve is currently 1,941 acres, and with this addition, will grow to 2,010 acres.

The parcel of land is nearly surrounded by other conserved land, and will be permanently conserved, including 3,000 feet of riverfront.  Just like all our preserves, this land will be open to low-impact recreation and maintained in a natural condition forever.  We will be inviting people to explore this preserve once the transaction is complete.

The Land Trust has held a conservation easement on the Penobscot Park private park for a number of years, and it was recently given to us to own and manage. We immediately realized it could be better cared for as a municipal public park than as one of our preserves which, while open to the public, would not provide a park experience like the town could offer. 

This unique land exchange was only made possible with the support of the donor of the land who expressly agreed that trading it to the Town of Lincolnville to achieve additional conservation along the Ducktrap River was a good purpose. 

The Land Trust never trades or sells land that it is gifted without the explicit permission of the donor. And our motivation for such an exchange would only be to achieve additional conservation.  We look forward to the day when the park is fully open to the public.

While the transaction is not quite complete, we didn’t want to wait to say a sincere and heartfelt “Thank- you” to the Lincolnville residents!

Please reach out to us if you have any questions or thoughts on this innovative land exchange.

Gratefully,

Judy Wallingford, Board President

Ian Stewart, Executive Director