Maine Association of Conservation Districts News

Thanks to the generosity of a Dover-Foxcroft couple the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District now owns 115 acres of land on Route 6 and 16. Stephen and Elaine Law have donated their family land to the PCSWCD. This 115-acre parcel has been owned by the Laws’ family since 1945 and is the home of the Kids and Trees Growing Together program which the Laws began about eight years ago.

Since the inception of Kids and Trees Growing Together, five-year-old students from many local schools have had the opportunity to plant a tree, care for it and harvest it for the holidays once the plant matured. It was hoped that more local schools would continue to participate, but to date that has not occurred. Lacking time to invest in growing the program further, The Laws began to search for an organization that would accept the gift of their land and carry on their goals of forestry and agricultural education.

After a great deal of collaboration, on June 30, the couple met with Steve Hobart, chairman of the district’s board of directors, and Gordon Moore and Felix Blinn, district supervisors at the PCSWCD office in Pine Crest Business Park in Dover-Foxcroft to sign over the deed of their family lot to the district, for community use.

The group discussed the educational potential of the land and district officials expressed gratitude to the Laws. Gordon Moore, district board member and forester of the Maine Forest Service says “The Maine Forest Service encourages it’s foresters to be involved with the district’s, like I am, in an effort to enhance situations like this. The forestry best management practices for water quality will be incorporated into the management plan for the property and administered under the watchful eye and helpful expertise of forestry professionals.”  PCSWCD is planning to pass along a piece of history by illuminating a forested land that has been worked for many years by generations of the Law family. The district also has plans to create walking trails that wind through wildlife habitat for recreational enjoyment and many other hands-on educational opportunities lead by knowledgeable natural resource professionals.

PCSWCD is in hopes that the local school districts will become involved in the management planning process, with students assisting in planting, pruning, trail making and natural science related structuring of the land.

“This donation by the Laws was very generous, and the property will hopefully become a beehive of activity,” said Hobart. “This is a good fit for us, because the PCSWCD’s mission is to be a leader in agriculture, forestry and other natural resource education, providing assistance and coordination of resources and information to promote practices that maintain our way of life in rural Piscataquis County.”