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CELT Receives National Recognition
On February 25th CELT received notice of attaining national accreditation through the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. This recognition enables CELT to proudly display the accreditation seal as evidence that we have met and documented compliance with indicator practices across the twelve required standards.
 Four years in the making, CELT's application ultimately weighed in at a whopping 55 pounds and contained comprehensive policies related to financial management, land acquisition programs and donor accountability, along with the related evidence of our compliance with these policies. This comprehensive effort was undertaken to ensure we are meeting our obligation to have the financial and organizational resources necessary to provide ongoing stewardship of the lands we've permanently protected.
CELT's interest in pursuing this voluntary accreditation program came both from a desire to reflect the recognized best-practice in each of these areas, as well as a desire to standardize, and optimize how CELT functions.
As a result of all this hard work, CELT has emerged as a much stronger and more confident organization primed to continue our important work now, and well into the future. To read more about the accreditation program and to read our press release, please visit our website.
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| Join Us for Some Winter-Kickin' Barbecue Tuesday Evening This coming Tuesday, March 24th, CELT will be the beneficiary of Elsmere  BBQ's nonprofit night. From 4-9 p.m., a percentage of food purchases (in-house or takeout) will benefit the Land Trust! For more information, visit our website and Elsmere BBQ's site, where you can see menus and get directions. (Elsmere BBQ is on Cottage Rd. in South Portland.) We have other events already planned for this spring - stay up to date through our Events page or the Land Trust Facebook page. |
| Paint for Preservation - Call for Artists CELT is accepting artist submissions through March 27th for our eighth annual Paint for Preservation, to be held  Sunday, July 12th. Our juried Wet Paint Auction, that evening, is one of Maine's premier art events, and will take place this year at the spectacular seaside estate, Garrison Field. During the day of the event, artists will paint on site at select public and private locations, chosen to highlight Cape's natural beauty. The public is invited to watch participating artists work on location. The newly painted artwork will be auctioned at a cocktail reception that evening. Proceeds from the event benefit the Land Trust's ongoing 'Saving Cape's Great Places' initiative. Further details are available on our website. |
| CELT Property Profile: Great Pond Like so many of CELT's properties Great Pond has a colorful history dating back beyond the early settlement of what is now Cape Elizabeth. As its name conveys, Great Pond is not only a four-season gem, it has long been considered a resource for the town. Early colonial law recognized all navigable waterways, shoreline and "Great Ponds" (those greater than 10 acres) as public resources. This distinction extended rights of public use and access to these vital areas at a time when "fishing and fowling" were considerably more important than the leisure activities they are today. As any public resource with shared use, confrontations periodically arose, including one of Cape's most notorious 'armed standoffs,' in which local residents protested a private landowner's
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photo by Sarah Beard Buckley
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attempt to close off public access to the 131-acre pond. Among Great Pond's interesting geologic features is that this largely spring-fed pond is only 5 feet deep! One of the benefits of this feature is that Great Pond is often an excellent choice for December skating before the heavy snow flies. This shallow pond is also quick to warm in the spring and offers canoeing, kayaking, and decent fishing throughout the summer. Beginning at the end of Fenway Rd., access to over a mile of trail along the pond's northeast shoreline allows for a beautiful hike, ski or bike ride through mature forest and a biologically rich area. The outlet of Great Pond (where Alewife Brook begins its short run to the ocean) is a particularly diverse area and easily accessed along an extensive elevated walkway made possible by the town's Conservation Commission. CELT owns and maintains a five-acre parcel further south on the trail system with commanding views of the pond as the trail winds its way back toward Rte. 77 where it emerges near Kettle Cove Creamery.
The Conservation Commission also manages a canoe rack at the property for which slots are awarded through an annual lottery. While Great Pond's glory days as the site of an annual winter carnival have waned (the event brought as many as 100 teams of horses out on to the lake in the early 1900's), it remains one of Cape's 'Great Places.' We hope you will explore this area to discover its many charms. For more details, go to our map of the pond, as well as trail information.
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Discovering One of the Season's Tiniest Creatures
On a recent walk in Winnick Woods, my son was enthralled by snow fleas - so much so that we gathered a few to look at under a dissection scope. Friends were horrified, "You brought fleas into your house?" and my favorite, "Yet another reason to avoid snow!"
 Milder temperatures encourage snow fleas, also known as 'springtails,' to come out by the thousands, usually around the base of trees. Unlike fleas (which are parasitic), springtails are looking for sap or decaying plant material to eat. They're decomposers, a very important part of food webs. You can see them year round, but they're tough to spot in the warmer months since they're only 1/16th of an inch long and hidden under the forest floor's detritus. Hence the nickname 'snow flea': dark blue arthropods easily seen hopping around on the snow. They have a unique catapult system to get around. Two 'tails' on their back end are tucked up underneath their abdomen. When the springtail wants to move, they release the spring-loaded tails, called furcula, which hit the snow and send them flying into the air.
Snow fleas are able to withstand the bitter temperatures of winter thanks to an antifreeze-like protein. This binds to ice crystals as they start to form, preventing the crystals from growing larger. By isolating this protein, researchers have been able to study the medical potential of its structure, specifically applications of this protein in safely preserving organs for human transplantation.
- Erika Rhile, CELT Board Member and Education Committee Chair
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From our Executive Director...
We are proud to announce that CELT has recently been granted national recognition as
an accredited land trust.
Since the nationwide accreditation program was launched in 2006 by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, only 301 land trusts (including 19 here in Maine) have been recognized with this distinction. While this group of accredited land trusts and land conservation organizations represents less than 20 percent of such organizations nationwide, collectively these organizations are responsible for having preserved over 20 million acres to date, a full 75 percent of the lands protected nationwide by land trusts and other land conservation organizations.
We hope you'll read more about our accreditation journey, what this means to CELT, and what it means to you, our friends and supporters, as we continue our vitally important work.
All our best,
Chris Franklin
Executive Director
Willa Antczak
Membership & Development Manager
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