For Everyone … Forever

Great Works Regional Land Trust (GWRLT) is a member-supported organization providing conservation options to landowners and programs for community members, including 20 preserves with hiking trails. Since 1986, Great Works Regional Land Trust has conserved over 7,600+ acres of natural, historic, agricultural, forestry, scenic and recreational resources across 153 projects and counting.

Mission Statement

Great Works Regional Land Trust provides conservation options for landowners in the six southern Maine towns of Eliot, South Berwick, Berwick, North Berwick, Wells, and Ogunquit. A member supported, nonprofit organization, GWRLT’s mission is to conserve the value of our area’s natural, historic, agricultural, forestry, scenic, and recreational resources. GWRLT pursues this mission by holding property and conservation easements where these values are present and by promoting the need and importance of conservation through education and other related activities.

What is Land Conservation?

Great Work Regional Land Trust works to conserve land for natural resource protection, recreation, and farmland preservation. We believe in the importance of maintaining open space, creating space to recreate, and preserving farmland to produce local food.

To “conserve” something, you protect it from being damaged or destroyed. In the case of land conservation, the goal is to safeguard the land. Whether it be open fields, forests, waterways, or prime agricultural soils. Land Trusts provide a practical and permanent conservation solution where land is protected from extensive development and important natural resources are saved.

The creation of Land Trusts gave landowners a new set of options for permanently conserving their properties. GWRLT has used these options to help many individual landowners meet their conservation desires for their properties.

Different goals may exist for land conservation, from protecting the scenic value of a property to protecting endangered species, but it is always beneficial to preserve natural spaces for future generations.

GWRLT conserves land in two ways: as landowners or as Easement Holders on privately owned land.