Nancy Holmes Nancy Holmes has donated a conservation easement to the SVCA on her 145-acre Newcastle property.

Nancy Holmes of Newcastle has granted to the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association (SCVA) an easement on her 145-acre Lincoln Farm off Route 215. The property is mostly wooded, and has 1,000 feet of frontage on Deer Meadow Brook. It also includes 13 acres of fresh water wetlands.

The property is in the Deer Meadow Brook corridor, which is part of an 11,000-acre block of wildlife habitat that has been recognized as critical habitat by SVCA, the town of Newcastle and the state of Maine. Approximately 95 acres of the Holmes property have been designated a deer wintering area by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife; deer are often seen even in heavy snow years.

The town has long been interested in protecting this undeveloped wildlife corridor, as reflected in its 2006 Comprehensive Plan, which calls for greater protection of the area from development. The terms of the easement on Holmes' property block any future real estate or commercial development, while permitting forestry and agricultural activities.

Asked why she had granted an easement on her farm, Nancy replied: "When I took possession of the property about 1980, I walked out on the back acres by the brook, and it just felt to me as though it couldn't be owned by people, that it belonged to itself, and I determined right then, probably the first day or two that I owned it, that it needed a conservation easement so that it never would be developed."

Frequent wildlife visitors to the property, she says, include bobcats, moose, deer, fishers and coyotes. Notable plants include cardinal flowers, downy rattlesnake plantain orchid, round-lobed hepatica, and purple fringed orchids. She harvests timber from the property to help pay the taxes.

Holmes welcomes visitors to the property. She said she views encouragement of hiking in the corridor as another way to protect the area, by making it better known and valued in the community. Her property is one of the hiking sites described in "On the Trail in Lincoln County" by Paula Roberts, published by the Lincoln County Publishing Company.

The property is listed in the book as Castle Rock Farm. To get there, take Route 215 north out of Damariscotta Mills, past the southern end of Damariscotta Lake and Hamlet Road, and take the second driveway on the left, just before the curious motorcycle array. Park by the old Lincoln Cemetery, named after the original owners.

Conservation easements allow a landowner to retain the ownership of his property while restricting selected future uses of the land. These restrictions are captured in a deed, recorded at the County Registry and run with the land forever, even if the land is sold or given to future owners. The Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association, as the land trust holding the easement, takes on the responsibility, forever, to ensure that those restrictions are upheld.

Monitors for the association visit properties yearly to meet with the landowners and ensure that the easement is being honored.

Executive Director Maureen Hoffman said, "Donors like Nancy are helping to ensure that the wildlife we enjoy here in the Sheepscot watershed, as well as the forests and those who make their living from those forests, will be able to thrive well into the future. This easement will benefit all of us."

The Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association is a member organization advocating shared stewardship of Maine's 58-mile Sheepscot River since 1969. Today, more than 2,400 acres and 13 miles of riverfront are protected.

The SVCA's ongoing monitoring of water quality helps ensure the watershed's ecosystems stay healthy, including its Atlantic salmon habitat. SVCA's mapping services, technical support and educational programs encourage prudent land use so the resources people value today are conserved forever.

For more information, visit www. sheepscot.org or contact SVCA at their headquarters at 624 Sheepscot Road, Newcastle, ME 04553, phone 207-586-5616, e-mail svca@sheep scot.org .