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Our Annual Meeting Drew a Large & Festive Group
CELT held its Annual Meeting on Sunday, November 6th at the Thomas Memorial Library. It was a wonderful gathering of the CELT community. Thank you to all who were able to join us. The event, which was attended by 90 CELT members and supporters, featured a welcome by Board President Anne Carney, remarks by Executive Director Cindy Krum, governance business led by Board Secretary Elizabeth Goodspeed, including the election of the 2017 Board of Directors, and a fascinating keynote
presentation by Dr. Robert Sanford, author, anthropologist, and professional archeologist, entitled "Reading Rural Landscapes." Following the keynote presentation, attendees gathered for coffee, cookies, and conversation in the halls of Cape Elizabeth's beautiful new library.
CELT recognized outgoing Board Member Tom Gale with immense gratitude for his ten-plus years of service as a board member, volunteer, and 'technology guru.'
CELT's board elected the following officers for the coming year:
Wyman Briggs, Treasurer; Anne Carney, President; Elizabeth Goodspeed, Vice President; Jan Molleur, Secretary; Suzanne McGinn, At-large Member. The board includes members Alison Darling, Jim Fisher, Lisa Gent, Bill Luneburg, Tom McInerney, Erika Rhile, Deidre St. Louis, and Frank Strout.
A big thank you to our generous sponsors:
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Extended Off-Leash Hours Return to Robinson Woods
To keep canine friends happy and healthy during the short days of winter, CELT will offer dogs and  their walkers an additional hour of off-leash time in Robinson Woods I. From November 5th - March 11th, 2017 (the dates of standard time), off-leash access will begin at 3 p.m., one hour earlier than the current 4 p.m. "Getting through the darkness of shorter winter daylight hours is hard enough without having the additional worry of trying to fit in an off-leash dog walk before sunset," said Suzanne McGinn, Stewardship Chair.
Robinson Woods II off-leash hours - dogs are allowed off-leash before 10 a.m. daily - and all other property rules remain unchanged.
Dog waste bags are available at the kiosk at Shore Road. Please clean up after your dog. Please do not allow dogs to swim in ponds or streams. Maps and full use guidelines can be found here.
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Naturalist's Corner:
A Meditation on Snakes
I read a lot of children's books to my daughter, and I've noticed a common theme - many of them are about animals. And some of those animals are "good" and some of them are "bad." Can you guess what some of the "bad" ones are? I'm sure you can think of them: snakes, crocodiles, spiders, sharks, etc. These animals are predators that scare us because they can harm humans. But they each have a place
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Eastern Common Garter Snake.
Photo courtesy of Neil DeMaster/Flickr
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in the food web and all serve as an important part of the biodiversity that sustains this planet.
Let's look at snakes. Maine has nine species of snakes, and none of them are poisonous (although, if provoked, they may hiss and bite in defense). My favorite is the Common Garter Snake. I like garter snakes because I've seen them often enough that they feel like an old friend. They can grow to two or three feet long.
Like many terrestrial snakes, smaller ones eat worms and slugs, while the larger ones eat rodents, amphibians, small birds and fish. Snakes swallow their prey whole by unhinging their lower jaw. When unhinged, a snake's mouth can open as wide as its mouth can stretch. All snakes lay eggs, but many species retain the eggs in their body until the little snakes hatch, making it look like they bear live young.
Our local snakes are headed down underground for the winter. Instead of saying, "Good riddance!" let's thank them for their hard work keeping mice out of our homes, eating slugs from our gardens, and sustaining the hawk populations we love to watch soar across the sky.
- Linden Rayton, CELT Education Coordinator
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An Innovative Way to Give: Recurring Giving
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Photo by Martha Agan |
Recurring giving programs - the option to give automatically to a non-profit on a recurring basis - are increasing in popularity worldwide as both donors and nonprofits become more familiar with online giving. For donors, the benefits of recurring donations are many:
- It's easy and you don't have to think about it. Set up your recurring donation once and you can relax, knowing that you're supporting YOUR local land trust.
- It's fun to see an affordable monthly donation turn into a larger one over time without straining your budget.
CELT's recurring donation program, the Evergreen Membership, allows for monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual donation frequencies with automatic renewal at levels of your choosing. Recurring donations are a great way to give steady support.
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Come Learn About Our Most Prickly Friends, December 1st
As part of its ongoing Maine Wildlife Lecture Series, the Thomas Memorial Library will be hosting a special presentation the evening of December 1st by Brian A. Smith, on Mother Nature's most prickly little mammal, the porcupine.
The program begins at 6:30, in the library's Community Room, is free of charge, and all are welcome!
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Letter from Our
Executive
Director...
National Land Trust Alliance Rally Provided Valuable Insights
Our board president Anne Carney and I had the good fortune to participate in the annual Land Trust
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Photo by Heather Corey
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Alliance (LTA) Rally at the end of October in Minneapolis. This national conference brought together over 1,500 conservation practitioners from the U.S. and abroad - all committed to protecting cherished places in local communities. It was wonderful to join this group of dedicated professionals and hear stories of regional efforts that together are a driving force for conservation in the entire country. We felt proud to be part of this work.
We attended workshops ranging from,
"
Universal Access: Trails for Everyone," which focused on how to select properties in which it is possible to ensure access for people of all abilities, to "The Delicate Dance of Community Conservation," from which we gained inspiration to expand public use of and programming on our properties.
We are very thankful that the LTA provided a scholarship for our participation as first-time attendees
of this 29
th
year of Rally.
All the best,
Cindy Krum
CELT Executive Director
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