| Joanne Cole, NGX |
Royal River Conservation Trust has announced the expansion of the Irving F. Thurston Wildlife Marsh off Woodman Road. The expansion was made possible by donations or releases of land to RRCT by Don Chandler, Mary Alice Clark, Hancock Lands, and the Town of New Gloucester.
RRCT’s executive director Alan Stearns told NGX that New Gloucester’s piece of the project was a one-acre tax-acquired lot bounded on three sides by conservation land. In light of the parcel’s location, selectmen agreed to a no-cost transfer for conservation. The municipal lot exactly straddles Meadow Brook, Stearns said.
Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife owns 90 acres of Thurston Marsh and RRCT 6 acres. RRCT has offered to donate its parcels to IF&W as an addition to their adjacent Wildlife Management Area. IF&W acquired its Thurston Marsh acreage in 1990 from Ducks Unlimited, which in turn acquired it from Frederick R. Thurston earlier that year, according to the RRCT website.
The properties have no trails and are managed primarily for habitat and ecology and sporting access.
For maps and to learn more, check Royal River Conservation Trust’s Thurston Wildlife Marsh pages.
