Our Annual Appeal

Dear KELT Friends,

Fed-up and frustrated! This is how the clam diggers of the Kennebec Estuary were feeling this spring. Due to poor water quality, important clam flats were closed to harvesting. The local Shellfish Warden asked KELT to help bring together harvesters and the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), the agency that closes the flats when high bacteria levels threaten public health.

“KELT helped do the work the diggers couldn’t do themselves due to state policy,” said Dan Harrington, chairman of Woolwich Shellfish Conservation Committee.

In Georgetown, water quality data was needed to revise a state management plan for Heal Eddy and Sagadahoc Bay. Through additional water sampling the clam flat management plan was updated, thereby increasing shellfish harvesting opportunities by 50%.

In Woolwich, clam diggers sought KELT’s assistance to help open Brookings Bay, conservatively estimated to contain over $14 million in clams! This economically important area has been closed to harvesting since 2008 due to poor water quality.

This spring and summer, AmeriCorps members from KELT and DMR worked with two Morse High School student volunteers to collect extra water quality samples in Brookings Bay. The additional work paid off! Thanks to their data, by September DMR felt confident to open a portion of the bay. Just a few weeks ago, the diggers of Woolwich were on the flats again harvesting softshell clams, a valuable local natural resource.

The success in Georgetown and Woolwich would not have been possible without KELT’s persistent help.

As your local land trust we work to protect resources that you tell us are important. In addition to restoring safe clamming in Woolwich and Georgetown, we are currently involved with protecting prime agricultural land in Bowdoinham, buffering marshland in Georgetown, and developing and maintaining hiking trails in Bath, West Bath, Arrowsic and Westport Island.

KELT’s strong partnerships and our wide array of programs educate everyone in the community, turning the knowledge we gain into action.

Annual gifts make an immediate impact and directly support every aspect of KELT’s mission and ongoing programs. The generous support and dedicated commitment of donors like you allow KELT to continue protecting valuable resources for our community.

Join me and make your annual gift to the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust today.

Sincerely,

Jack Witham

Board President