Our Good Neighbors: The Arundel Conservation Trust

By Shelley Wigglesworth

The Arundel Conservation Trust (“ACT”) was formed in early 2017 and is “dedicated to creating a stronger, more vibrant community in Arundel that honors our heritage through the conservation of natural, recreational, and scenic resources for the enjoyment & benefit of all”. 

Joan Hull, past president of the Arundel Conservation Trust, spoke about the founding of ACT. “We started as a group of six Arundel residents coming together with a common interest. We all knew in our hearts that Arundel needed something to unite townspeople in a way that would be lasting and open to all. In recent years disagreements about changes and choices in town had caused hurtful divisions and we knew we needed something to unite the town again, something we could all be a part of and benefit from.” 

The founding group of six began meeting in 2016. The members included Joan and Sam Hull, Dot Gregoire, Leia Lowery, Jack Reetz and Linda Zuke. Five years later, ACT now has over six hundred members, event sponsors and volunteers and an active and dedicated Board of Directors.

Around the same time the six began to meet, the town of Arundel was searching for a location for a new Municipal Building. One possibility was a parcel of forty-seven wooded acres of land on Limerick Road.

Founding ACT Board member Jack Reetz recalled, “The town only needed 6 to 10 acres for the new town hall, but we saw an opportunity to find a creative way to use the remaining forty acres. As we kicked around ideas, one of the members of the group, Leia Lowery, suggested that we meet with Tom Bradbury at the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, who had years of experience preserving land. After talking with Tom, and with his support, vision, and encouragement we began ACT.” He added. “It wasn’t long after that, when we approached Tom and the Board of KCT with an idea of our own.” 

That idea was for ACT to partner with KCT. A meeting was set up, and the group of six came prepared with a power point presentation, a vision, passion, and compelling reasons as to how and why the Arundel Conservation Trust and Kennebunkport Conservation Trust would be a powerful partnership, a solution where there would be benefits for all. 

Hull said “We asked if they could take us under their wing and show us how to build a conservation land trust, as we knew the KCT had done so successfully. The KCT board agreed to help us, even loaning us the $175,000 to buy the Limerick Road land.”

In December 2017, the Arundel Conservation Trust was established as a tax-exempt 501(c) 3 charitable organization, independently managed and self-financing as a chapter of KCT. “We worked out a critical cooperation agreement with the Town of Arundel and soon after, when the Town purchased the 47-acre Limerick Road property, ACT re-purchased the 37 acres behind the new town hall site from the town, funding it with the loan from KCT,” Hull explained. 

ACT’s “Arundel Community Trails” conservation property on Limerick Road was their first land acquisition. It connects to the Eastern Trail with parking at the new Arundel Municipal Building property on Limerick Road. The Eastern Trail connection was made possible through a generous donation to ACT of an easement by adjacent landowner Phil Labbe. 

The Community Trails property now includes a mile-long walking trail that connects the town hall to the Eastern Trail. In addition, ACT has built a first of its kind half mile pump track for bikes through the forest, which has become a favorite of mountain bikers of all ages throughout Southern Maine and beyond. “It has provided a terrific way for our young people in particular, to get out in the woods and discover the natural world around them,” said ACT current President Henry Ingwersen. He added “Our latest project is completing a second, multi-use trail, for walking, biking, and in the winter, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. When finished, this trail will complete a 1.5-mile loop connecting both the ET and the first walking trail

Shortly after the acquisition of the Arundel Community Trails property, KCT transferred to ACT the stewardship of two other properties in Arundel; the 47-acre Cluff Preserve on Sinnott Road and the 6-acre Welch Woods property on River Road. 

The Cluff Woods Preserve was a gift from the late Wilbur “Wib” Cluff Sr., a lifelong resident of Kennebunkport and Arundel, who made his living as an excavator. Shortly before his passing in 2013, Cluff relayed to KCT Executive Director Tom Bradbury that he spent his life digging up the land and wished to leave a piece of untouched land to be left for all to enjoy as part of his legacy. ACT intends to fulfill his wishes with plans to develop nature, discovery, and education programs along the trails.

The Welch Woods Preserve land was previously owned by avid outdoors person Richard Welch who donated the land to the conservation trust when he died in 2017. ACT volunteers of all ages helped to groom a half-mile trail, which is an easy loop through the woods to the shore of the Kennebunk River. Hull said, “We put in a picnic area, with benches built by the Arundel Boy Scouts.” She added “Opening the trails has given Arundel residents and guests the first public access to the Kennebunk River in generations. Like the trails of the flagship property, this preserve is proving to be a popular path for people of all ages to explore.”

The stewards of the Cluff preserve are now in the process of building trails and walkways, with planned guided activities open to the public. These interactive activities will include such things as learning mushroom species, how to identify animal tracks, identifying evergreens, distinguishing fern species, seeking out and identifying spring peepers, frogs, and salamanders of the native woods and more with the guidance of a Maine naturalist.

Five years after its formation, ACT is now responsible for conserving and managing close to one hundred acres of land and is actively seeking more special places and land to conserve. ACT hopes to eventually find a creative way to build a pathway that will lead to the ocean by connecting to the extensive conservation system that KCT has built over the past 50 years. 

Hull concluded: “ACT has given Arundel a sense of pride. People of all ages and backgrounds are working together toward a common goal that will be around for others to enjoy long after we are gone. You protect what you love, and you can’t love what you don’t know. Through ACT, we have opened the woods for all to know and love, forever.”