We led, or coordinated outings with experts in the area, for pre-K through highschool students on the Peninsula. One class woke up early for a spring bird migration field trip with Leslie Clapp, other classes met Bailey Bowden and Mike Thalhauser to help alewives climb to Pierces Pond, and still other groups met with BHHT's Landere Naisbitt to learn about spring ephemerals and botanical illustration and George Fields to learn about local geology. We also had a bird house making event with Charlie Cannon from Holbrook Island Sanctuary for kindergarteners! It was a full month with many wonderful collaborations. Thank you everyone for joining us this season in the field!

To practice and teach a stewardship ethic is an important part of the mission of Blue Hill Heritage Trust. So, when the idea was sparked to bring local indigenous voices in to educate and work with high school students from George Stevens Academy on an ecological restoration project, it seemed like a perfect fit for the Trust.

This spring, freshmen from Steve Whitney’s science class at GSA joined BHHT and Know Your Land Consulting for a semester-long integrated lesson on plants that produce food for pollinators, wildlife, and people. In the students’ words, “In an effort to take action to improve this world we live in and benefit our community, GSA students are initiating an Edible Landscape Project”.

Know Your Land Consulting, run by mother-daughter team Kathy Pollard and Ann Pollard-Ranco (Penobscot tribal citizen), specializes in restorative ecology projects for land conservation organizations, private landowners, and schools. Their focus on indigenous sustainability practices, traditional indigenous ecological knowledge, and mitigations for climate change can be of benefit to all. The Blue Hill Peninsula and associated islands comprise a beloved portion of the traditional Penobscot Homeland that Penobscots lost access to through colonization, so helping to restore habitat has been a welcome opportunity to reconnect with this landscape. “The initiative shown by the students at GSA throughout this ongoing restorative ecology project exemplifies outstanding leadership. This multi-generational collaboration will be built upon by future classes, and will continue to grow in beautiful directions”, said Ann Pollard-Ranco.

As many of you know Sandy, our Conservation Forest Manager, has spent the last several years trying to find a way to live harmoniously with the beaver at Surry Forest (who kept damming bridges and flooding the road). The solution was found last year when BHHT hired beaver expert Skip Lisle to install a pond leveling device to allow water passage while also preserving the beaver's wetland habitat. This experience lead to Sandy's attendance this June at "BeaverCon 2022" a conference of national experts in beaver ecology and wetland remediation.

The conference was an amazing experience and Sandy came away with a better understanding of the challenges and potential solutions to the pressing issues of wetland degradation, habitat loss, climate change, flooding and drought. It turns out, the much maligned beaver may offer solutions to some of these issues through its ecological engineering and important role as a keystone species. Sandy was energized by this event and is excited to learn more and continue work as an ambassador for wetland remediation and for our most industrious of rodents!

On the summer solstice, a crew of 6 seasoned paddlers set off in a war canoe from the boat launch on the Union River in Ellsworth. Their destination, BHHT's Salt Pond property in Sedgwick. This journey went along what the crew believes to be a traditional canoe route down the Union River, around Weymouth Point to Newbury Neck (where they used the Carrying Place portage route), along the shore of East Blue Hill to Woods Point, and across the bay into the Salt Pond. Some unexpected choppy seas required them to pull out at Woods Point and put back in at the Salt Pond, but they finished this 15+mile journey in under 5 hours. As Mark Ranco, Captain of the vessel, commented "Mother Nature always wins."

This was the scouting mission for what will hopefully be a larger event with even more members of the Penobscot Tribe in summer 2023. Blue Hill Heritage Trust's Chrissy Allen was honored to be invited along as ground support for the day and all of us at BHHT are grateful for the many friends of the Trust who were designated emergency pull out or rest spots for the crew along their route.

This route, like all of the Blue Hill Peninsula, is a beloved portion of the traditional Penobscot Homeland that Penobscots lost access to through colonization. This canoe trip, and the others to follow, is an important way for members of the Penobscot Tribe to honor their ancestors and reconnect with their homeland. BHHT is honored to assist in this important movement.