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Quoddy Regional Land Trust PO Box 49 Whiting ME 04691  (207) 733-5509  email  www.qrlt.org

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The Pike Lands 

Conservation Area  

      Wild and spectacular, Cobscook Bay is under increasing development pressure as some of the “last of the real Maine coast.” The bay is widely recognized as the premier coastal wildlife concentration site in Maine. It is internationally significant for its undisturbed, productive, species-rich marine environment and has been the focus of a major conservation effort in Maine involving local, state and national-level partners over the last several decades.  

New and improved hiking trails have been added in June 2009 thanks to the Maine Conservation Cops and QRLT volunteers.  Click the link below to see a map of the new trails.  Please note the parking lot has not been installed as of 6/15/09 but should be completed by the end of the summer. 

Map of new trails

 

The 36-acre Cobscook Bay Parcel

Barrier Beach

 

  Salt Marsh

 

The 92-acre South Bay Parcel

 

Small Beach

The Cliffs

 

Bailey Field added to Pike Lands

The above 8.5 acre field was added to the Pike Lands South Bay Parcel in 2007and is know as the Bailey Field

 

The Campaign for the Pike Lands      

In 2005, QRLT was faced with an unprecedented challenge to our efforts to protect key properties on Cobscook Bay.  The Pike Lands – 128 acres and almost 7,000 feet of scenic and varied saltwater frontage on Seward Neck in Lubec – was about to come on the market.  Over the years, hundred of people had visited the Pike Lands to watch wildlife, pick apples or blackberries, and hike the woods and shorelines.  This heritage property was just too important a community and ecological resource for us to stand by as it was sold for development.

            Fortunately, HealthWays/Regional Medical Center at Lubec (RMCL) also had a strong interest in the property.   For the past eight years, RMCL had leased the site for its Downeast Adventures high-challenge ropes course.   Set on a small portion of the property, the Downeast Adventures program takes advantage of the pristine surroundings to offer team-building and outdoor education experiences in a beautiful setting quite different from most facilities of this type.  Fortunately also, the University of New Hampshire, which owned the Pike Lands, was willing to work with QRLT and RMCL to give us a chance to acquire the property before the University put it on the open market, which it planned to do once a 25-year deed restriction limiting its ability to sell the land expired.

            Knowing that the land would be released for sale in May of 2005, QRLT and RMCL began planning several years in advance to protect the Pike Lands for conservation and public use.  A successful application to the Land for Maine’s Future program secured core funding.  With this success, the two organizations were ready to team up to raise the full $815,000 needed for the Campaign for the Pike Lands.  By raising funds jointly, QRLT and RMCL brought each organization’s strengths to the project and were able to tap broad public and community support.  Maine Coast Heritage Trust joined the partnership to provide important financial and logistical help, and the State of Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands participated as the sponsor for the LMF application.   QRLT hired Gary Friedmann and Associates of Bar Harbor as fundraising counsel for the campaign, bringing professional expertise to the largely volunteer fundraising effort.

            In an intense 13-month campaign, QRLT and RMCL met and surpassed the campaign goal, allowing QRLT to close on the purchase on September 30, 2005.  QRLT will hold and manage the Pike Land’s 92-acre South Bay Parcel as public-access open space and wildlife habitat.  The property’s 36-acre Cobscook Bay Parcel, which includes the Downeast Adventures ropes course, is being transferred to RMCL with QRLT retaining a conservation easement to protect public access and limit future uses to those compatible with the property’s conservation, educational and recreational values.  Hunting will be allowed in season on both parts of the property.

            The Campaign for the Pike Lands would like to thank the almost 300 organizations, businesses, foundations and individuals who supported this effort.  Major donors included:

Land for Maine’s Future program; Maine Coast Heritage Trust (including a challenge grant from the Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Foundation and a bridge loan that allowed us to close on schedule); Maine Community Foundation’s donor-advised funds; C.F. Adams Charitable Trust; Davis Conservation Foundation; The Betterment Fund; Bar Harbor Bank and Trust; HealthWays/Regional Medical Center at Lubec; Fields Pond Foundation; Nina Bohlen; Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfield; David Ellis; Jean L. Hennessey Wild Schemes Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation; Marion K. Stocking; and Dr. Judith Sulzberger.

We would also like to thank the following local businesses and organizations that donated or gave statements of support:  Calais Federal; Calais Press; Hannah Weston Chapter of the D.A.R.; Lubec Landmarks; Lubec Lions Club; Lubec Women’s Club; Machias Rotary; Machias Savings Bank; Maine Blackfly Breeders Association; Nature Photographer Publishing Company; Schoodic Chapter of the Maine Audubon Society; St. Croix Valley International Garden Club; and Union Trust.

We extend our appreciation to Marjorie McCurdy and family for preserving the land after Radcliffe Pike’s death, and the University of New Hampshire for working within the framework of the campaign, including negotiation of a bargain sale.

 

The Pike Lands and Their Heritage

     Prior to being owned by the University of New Hampshire, the Pike Lands belonged to Dr. Radcliffe Pike, eminent plant scientist, author, and first park naturalist of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Dr. Pike was well known for his horticultural experiments on the properties – they feature many unusual specimen plantings and an abundance of apple trees. 

     The Pike Lands consist of 128 undeveloped acres in two adjacent parcels, separated by a rural two-lane road.

-         The 92-acre South Bay Parcel, south of the road, includes 3,170 feet of dramatic bold ocean frontage and a secluded pocket shingle beach. This parcel also includes a stream and wooded wetlands.

-         The 36-acre Cobscook Bay Parcel, north of the road, mainly is wooded, with remnant fields and areas of scrub/shrub habitat. It also includes 3,760 feet of frontage, including half a cove, a barrier beach, tidal inlet, and salt marsh.

     The property is easily accessible, with outstanding scenic and recreational values enjoyed by area residents and visitors for generations. Other attributes and benefits include:

Recreational/Educational:  In addition to the traditional recreational activities enjoyed by community members on the Pike Land – such as shore access, fishing and clamming,  apple picking, hunting, nature observation, and walking – part of the property will continue to be used by HealthWays/Regional Medical Center at Lubec for its Downeast Adventures “ropes course.” Downeast Adventures draws school and adult groups from around the state and beyond the border for group activities that build self-confidence, respect for each person’s talents, and teamwork skills. Over 2,000 individuals have navigated the high ropes challenge course in the eight years since it was established at the Pike Lands.

Horticultural:  Over many years, Dr. Pike planted a wide variety of native and non-native shrubs and trees, including oaks, rhododendrons, butternuts, western pines and, most unusually, a Dawn Redwood. This tree, thought to be extinct until discovered in an isolated location in China in the 1940’s, is typically not found this far north. Members of the Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine visited the property recently and reported it is a “horticultural treasure house.” Now that the property is protected, its plant species  will be inventoried and a plan created for their management. 

Ecological:  The shore of the Cobscook Bay parcel includes half of a cove with productive softshell clam flats, saltmarshes, salt ponds and a tidal inlet. The rugged South Bay shoreline features a secluded pocket beach bounded on either side by dramatic “bold” frontage rising 60 to 100 feet above the water. Bald eagles cruise the shores and a variety of shorebirds frequent the water’s edge especially during late summer migration. The woods, mostly mixed hardwood and softwood with areas of old spruce and cedar, are home to deer, bobcats, porcupines and grouse, while the hawthorn and alder thickets provide excellent cover and food for a variety of song birds in both summer and winter.

Regional:  The Pike Lands will join a growing ring of important conservation lands along the shores of Cobscook Bay. From the South Bay parcel, you can see Horan Head, Hog and Long Islands and Denbow Point. From the Cobscook Bay parcel, you can look over to Shackford Head State Park in Eastport. Acquiring these properties builds on the work of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, Nature Conservancy, and others to preserve and protect Cobscook Bay, Maine’s richest marine ecosystem.

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Quoddy Regional Land Trust

PO Box 49

Whiting, ME 04691

(207) 733-5509

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