JAY — Now that the Androscoggin Land Trust conserves and owns 1,500 acres in Jay and Canton, the next step is getting community input for how it should be managed, Androscoggin Land Trust Executive Director Mike Auger said at a community forum at Spruce Mountain Middle School on Tuesday.
“The last thing we want to do is tell the community we want to manage a certain way. We want input,” he said.
Jennifer Claster, Landscape Architect at Wright-Pierce, facilitated the meeting. She explained that the community meetings were taking place to celebrate the creation of the forest, learn from the successes of other community forests, share information about the community forest proposal, and seek residents’ input about what the forest is.
Auger said the ALT had a similar stakeholder meeting in May and is going through management plan updates. The next step is the establishment this summer of a five- to 11-member advisory board that will be under the ALT’s leadership and will meet four to eight times per year, he said.
Volunteers serving on the board will include representatives from Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls. Auger said that he hoped to have representatives from the schools, public health, the conservation-minded and those with interest in motorized and nonmotorized recreation.
Auger added that he was especially interested in involving schools with field trips to the conserved areas, “getting out and seeing what we’ve done.” The activities, Auger said, could involve creating signs on the trails or maybe using a vernal pool as a teaching tool.
Androscoggin Greenway conservation properties include Academy Hill, Alden Hill, the Canton Rivershore, Stevens Island Preserve, LeBlanc Rivershore Preserve and the Old Ferry Landing in Canton and French Falls, Otis Falls Mill, Seven Mile Stream and Spruce Mountain in Jay. In 2011, the ALT applied for a Land for Maine’s Future grant, and closed on the purchase in 2014. The land the ALT owns in the region includes the Whistle Stop Trail, a multi-use recreational trail running from Livermore Falls to Farmington.
A report will summarize the planning process, and forest management plans will be completed this month. The ALT board will adopt conservation management plans, and these will be updated with community input, Auger said.
Attendees listened to a presentation of what a community forest is from the Northern Forest Center Director of Forestry Julie Renaud Evans. She provided examples of other community forests in New England and the benefits they provide to communities.
“Overall, our mission is to work to keep a healthy northern forest so it can support local people and local economies,” she said.
There are 45,530 acres protected by the Northern Forest Center throughout New England. A community forest, said Evans, includes community ownership, meaning it has to be owned by the town or benefit the town. The community participates in the management of the land, and benefits economically from it through activities such as wood harvesting, she noted.
Citizens attending envisioned that in 40 years, the community forest will be a bigger part of school and community education programs.
Jay resident Justin Merrill said he was happy to see local schoolchildren in attendance, saying that they “are the next generation of stewards of our land.”
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