How we work

We are a non-profit.

The Kennebunkport Conservation Trust is a registered 501(c)3 organization. What does that mean?

It means that we operate on the generosity of our community donors and membership, and everything given to the Trust goes back into the Trust’s work for you. The properties we protect, we protect for the public, whether that’s for recreation or long term conservation.

Protect and Conserve

With the help of our members, the Trust has acquired a variety of special holdings in Kennebunkport.  We are forever protecting and caring for our properties with the intention of bringing each to its highest potential.  This includes ensuring the health of critical habitat and natural areas, preserving spectacular scenic vistas, maintaining public recreational areas, providing access to harbor islands, and restoring our historic properties to their most important period in history.  

You are encouraged to explore with us....take a hike, go for a paddle, camp, picnic, swim or comb the beach.  With over 2,800 acres, 27 miles of trails, a dozen islands, 7 beachfront lots, a lighthouse, an historic boat house, and a headquarters full of activity, there is truly something for everyone!

Educate

Since in 2008, the Trust’s education program works to reach the youth in our community, give them a sense of place, love of nature, and knowledge of their town. It began with Trust in Our Children, an education outreach program working alongside Consolidated Elementary School in Kennebunkport to provide kids with place-based, hands on field trips that met national learning standards. In 2019, our programming hit every elementary school in the district, along with a Gulf of Maine course in Kennebunk High School and at the University of New England. Trust in Our Children has become Trust in Education as we host educational, summer, and community programming to everyone ages 5-105.

Committed To Conservation

From meandering rivers and marshes to forests and fields, the Trust aims to protect these resources and create resilient landscapes in our changing climate.

Committed to Community

Conservation should be ecosystem based, and that is an ecosystem we exist within. Through our town partnerships, we aim to protect the history and livelihood of our community.

Learning the History…

Each of our programs works to connect individuals to the story of the land they walk upon, and understand that we are not the first people to enjoy these landscapes.

… To understand the future

With that in mind, we hope to foster a stewardship of the land, to leave it better than we found it for future generations to enjoy and look back upon the history we create today.