The Campaign to Fund Salmon Falls Tidal Waters &
Bauneg Beg Mountain Recreation Area
The Woods to Waters Campaign is our effort to complete the final funding needed to accomplish two time-sensitive conservation projects and continue our work in our community.
These two superlative projects represented in Woods to Waters are Bauneg Beg Mountain Recreation Area, comprising 75 acres and encompassing the highest elevation of our service range in North Berwick; and the Salmon Falls Tidal Waters Project, comprising 79 acres across three contiguous parcels totaling along the Salmon Falls River in South Berwick.
With these two projects scheduled to close this calendar year, we have plenty of work on our plate. However, our work does not stop there. GWRLT is currently working on over 10 additional conservation projects involving over 400 acres of land, in addition to our commitment to stewarding the land and providing accessible community programs. Building upon our past success and tremendous community support, we are seeking public and private funders to help us continue our mission to save these resources—for everyone, forever!
BAUNEG BEG MOUNTAIN RECREATION AREA
For offshore mariners, the hills of Bauneg Beg and Mt Agamenticus guide where they are along the shoreline between Portland, ME and Portsmouth, NH… as they have for centuries.
In the mid 17th century, Scottish prisoners captured by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Dunbar turned indentured servants, took to the hillsides of Bauneg Beg once freed. Farmland was available and affordable away from the coast where they had served. Descendants of those early farmers still live along the shoulders of these hillsides in North Berwick. Revolutionary War veterans are buried in the small family plots on Ford Quint and Oak Woods Rd. During the 1930’s and 40’s, the hillside even hosted a ski area with a 250’ vertical slope.
Bauneg Beg Mountain Recreation Area (BBMRA) is an exciting project that will establish a public recreation and wildlife area on Bauneg Beg Mountain in North Berwick, Maine. It includes the southern-most, and highest, summit of Bauneg Beg Mtn. (866 feet) and the surrounding 75 acres of second-generation growth Maple, Beech, Pine and Hemlock. There are prominent rock outcroppings and ledges. The summit is only partially forested and has exposed ledge, allowing for views to the southeast through the southwest, including views of the Atlantic Ocean. This area will conserve more contiguous habitat and critical watershed health for the surrounding area. As an area of high conservation and social value to the region, Bauneg Beg Recreation Area presents a unique opportunity to protect a vital landmark of the region in perpetuity—for everyone, forever.
“The preservation of Bauneg Beg Mountain makes me so happy because it is one of the spots that sparked my own personal thirst for adventure. Without the experience of biking and hiking on old tote roads, trails, and ultimately bushwhacking to the top nearly 40 years ago, I might never have fallen so in love with being outside. I hope that every student in our schools gets a chance to visit the top and see that there is so much more to experience, always knowing the mountain will be there when they come home.”
— Beau Lambert, North Berwick Resident and Executive Director of First Push Syndicate
SALMON FALLS TIDAL WATERS
While many of us enjoy views of the estuary shoreline as we cross the Rt 101 Bridge, few of us contemplate who owns the land and what will happen to it when that ownership must make a transition.
Looking upstream on the Maine side we see a fringe marshland with tall pines on the bluffs standing over them. The NH side is equally forested and natural and evokes thoughts of the former State slogan of “Welcome to Maine—the way life should be!”
Those more familiar with the Salmon Falls Estuary know that a canoe trip with the incoming tide from the William A. Bray Park canoe launch to head tide will set back the hands of time, as around that bend unfolds the visage of the Hamilton House sitting majestically on its knoll. This Historic New England holding was the home of Jonathan Hamilton which was lovingly restored in the late 19th century by the donors of this property to both Historic New England and the State of Maine (Vaughan Woods State Park). Further upstream the river narrows and the Great Works River enters over the dam on the Maine shore-line.
Under the umbrella of the Woods to Waters Campaign, it is now time to better connect these projects with the public and capture the personal support and funding needed to deliver these projects to our community.
BBMRA Celebration at Kite Hill Farm
Saturday, October 14, 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Kite Hill Farm, 423 Oak Woods Rd, North Berwick
SFTW Public Fundraising Event
Saturday, October 21, 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Cummings Mill Park, South Berwick
