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York River Farm Parcel Saved From Development

December 01, 2009 - YORK -- A 1600s-era farm along the York River has been saved from development and added to a swath of protected land between Mount Agamenticus and the ocean.

The York Land Trust and Mount Agamenticus to the Sea bought the ecologically significant 240-acre parcel from the Davis family, whose ancestors, the McIntires, settled on the land in the 1600s as one of the town's founding families.

The purchase was made this fall with a $1 million North American Wetlands Conservation Act award, granted to the Mount Agamenticus coalition to protect land that is habitat to migratory waterbirds.

The land and the area around it is home to rare turtles and 28 species of fish, and is habitat for 100 types of waterbirds that migrate up and down the Atlantic coast.

The acquisition is the latest piece in a patchwork of conservation land being put together by the Mount Agamenticus coalition, a 10-member group of federal and state agencies, national and regional land protection groups and three land trusts in southern Maine, including the York Land Trust. Conservationist called it a major step forward in the protection of the region's watershed.

"This has a lot to do with the conservation ethic of the family," said Doreen MacGillis, the York Land Trust's executive director.

The McIntire family lived on the land from 1668 until 1963, when it was inherited by Mary McIntire Davis, an active member of the York Land Trust. Her sons, Mal, Jim and Dan Davis, the 13th-generation owners, sold the land to the trust for less than its market value.

"We had to, because of the federal and state estate taxes" said Mal Davis of Portland.

Davis said that letting the land leave the family was a big step but guaranteed it would remain undeveloped.

"It was our mother's fondest wish that the land remain undeveloped and in its natural state in perpetuity," Davis said.

The Davises kept the family farmhouse and its adjacent McIntire Garrison House, a 1700-era wooden fortified home that was used for defense against Indians and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The land, on Route 91 across from Highland Farm, offers sweeping views along a mile-long span of the York River. It includes two parcels -- an open field and marshland, and a forested tract, both of which are open to walkers.

The entire region, which is riddled with vernal pools, is important habitat to amphibians and turtles, including the rare Blandings and spotted turtles, which nest in the nearby uplands.

MacGillis said the acquisition was made possible by last year's partially donated conservation easement of 390 acres on Gerrish Island in Kittery by the Delano family, providing the matching donation required to secure the federal grant.

Since it was created in 2002, the coalition has protected 2,746 acres from Mount Agamenticus east to Gerrish Island.

Michele Dionne, director of research at the Wells Reserve, said protecting land in southern Maine is much more difficult than in northern Maine, where negotiations may involve a single major landowner.

"This is the oldest part of Maine. We are talking thousands of people owning the land, and when it comes to conservation it makes it extremely challenging," Dionne said.

She said that protecting riverfronts and shorelines is even harder because those are the most desirable places to live. "We are very drawn to water," Dionne said.

By BETH QUIMBY Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, November 27, 2009


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