Land trust makes final push for Warren Woods

SCARBOROUGH — The Scarborough Land Trust is making a final push to raise $56,250 it needs to complete its purchase of the Warren Woods, a 161.5-acre lot in the middle of town with 1,000 feet of frontage on the Nonesuch River, the largest source of fresh water for the Scarborough Marsh.

The land trust signed a purchase and sale agreement with property owner Harvey Warren in May for $285,000. Warren’s late wife, Elaine Stimson Warren, was a long-time director and treasurer of the Scarborough Land Trust. According to land trust Executive Director Kathy Mills, the deadline to put the deal together is Dec. 15. The cost of surveying the site, preparing environmental assessments and legal fees, as well as seeding a land maintenance fund, has pushed the land trust’s cost to $365,000, she said.

In June, the Town Council agreed to kick in $228,750 from $2.6 million remaining in a parks and conservation lands account funded by voters at referendum in 2003 and again in 2009. To date, an additional $80,000 has been raised from land trust board members, nonprofit foundations, and individuals. The land trust is now “reaching out to the greater community,” said Mills, for help to raise the remaining $56,250 it needs.

"Warren Woods is a rare conservation opportunity," said the group's president, Paul Austin. "A large parcel in the center of town and near schools doesn't come along every day. The land trust is eager to meet our fundraising goal by Nov. 1. We hope individuals who care about land conservation and public access will give generously.

"This is a big project for our small land trust, and we hope everyone will pitch in as much as they can to help us acquire this important parcel for the community," said Austin.

Located near the Scarborough middle and high schools and the Eight Corners Primary School, Warren Woods is a mix of fields, forests and wetlands. 

"We were blown away by the flora on the Warren property," said Kelsey Kaufman, an environmental scientist with Boyle Associates, which this summer conducted a natural resources survey of the site, finding wild orchids, carnivorous sundew plants, and a pitch pine bog considered to be “a rare natural community in Maine.”  There also is a potential habitat for the endangered New England cottontail rabbit.

"The wetlands and river provide outstanding habitat for some unusual plants, and there are remarkably few invasive species,” reads the Boyle report.

According to Town Manager Tom Hall, the council will have to conduct at least one more vote to complete the Warren transaction, once the land trust has funds in place to close on the property. At that time, it might vote to retain the property, granting the land trust only a conservation easement.

Hall said the town may want to retain ownership to all or part of the property, particularly upland areas closest to Payne Road, which were cleared about 20 years ago for a golf course that never materialized.

“In perpetuity is a long time,” he said, referring to a proposal that would allow the land trust to extinguish all future development rights on the site. “In 50 or 100 years from now, the town may find itself with a need to develop ballfields. I would hate to encumbrance ourselves with covenants we might place on the land that could have some value.”

“We’re currently working on those details,” said Mills. “We have collaborated with the town on a number of conservation projects in the past, where the land trust holds the fee interest and the town has a secondary interest.

“We have a great partnership with the town and will be finalizing Warren Woods project details in the coming months,” said Mills. “Our current focus is on fundraising to meet our goal.”

A CLOSER LOOK

Anyone interested in donating to help fund the Warren Woods purchase can make a donation online at the land trust's website, www.scarboroughlandtrust.org, or mail a check to: Scarborough Land Trust, P.O. Box 1237, Scarborough ME  04070.