Anne Cekuta

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Anne’s lifelong love of Damariscotta Lake started with summers growing up at her parents' tree farm in Jefferson. The region has been a central part of life for Anne, her husband, and their three children as well. Now, managing the tree farm with siblings while still living in Washington, DC, for six months a year, Anne believes it is vital to remain committed to land preservation in order to maintain the health and natural beauty of the midcoast region that Damariscotta Lake and its surrounding lands exemplify. Anne is a new member of the Lake Council and has been an IPP monitor for several years, having been trained as part of the shoreline buffer zone group.

While in Washington, DC, Anne is a reading tutor and worked in the U.S. Senate, as well as the insurance industry for many years before accompanying her husband on many Foreign Service assignments, including Baghdad; Vienna; Tirana, Albania; Berlin; Tokyo; and Baku, Azerbaijan. Anne taught English in the schools their children attended abroad, was the Vice President of the JFK Schule in Berlin, and frequently edited newsletters for various groups connected with these schools.

As diverse as these places were, Anne says, “What I experienced in each was the paramount importance of nature, and especially that protecting land and its vegetation and wildlife is essential for preserving water quality. Strong support for the first means we reap the benefits of the latter.”

Susan Cottle

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Raised in NYC and rural Pennsylvania, Susan has felt at home only in the Maine woods, where she spent her first ~25 summers. Her dream was always to live year round in Maine, with her good friends—moss, lichen, granite, and hemlock. After being lucky enough to marry a Maine man she met as an undergraduate in Philadelphia, she completed an MA in English Rhetoric in Wisconsin. Returning to Maine, she and her husband settled in South China, where they have lived in the woods for over 35 years.

Susan’s professional life has included managing programs and staff for several different organizations; it has focused on providing consumer, licensing, financial, or other services to a wide array of constituencies and on building good relationships between often contentious parties. Work for the State of Maine in several areas, including the BMV, retirement system, PUC, and DHHS, was her longest gig and most meaningful work, and led to her earning an MPA from the University of Maine.

Susan also has served on several nonprofit boards and continues to hike and paddle as much as possible. Retirement has allowed her to volunteer a lot more time as an AMC trip leader focusing on trail work, a steward caring for a couple land trust properties, and a Maine Master Naturalist taking folks outside to learn how to perceive—and thus appreciate and care about—nature.

Chuck Dinsmore

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Born and raised in Maine where he learned early on to love and value wild places, Chuck graduated from Bowdoin College (A.B., biology) and Brown University (Ph.D., biological sciences). He began his career as a college professor in Boston (1974-76), then accepted a position on the faculty of Rush University at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago.

Chuck returned to Maine in 2000 where he taught high school biology at Lincoln Academy for eight years and at the same time began volunteering on projects with the Pemaquid Watershed Association. Upon the founding of Hidden Valley Nature Center (HVNC) in 2009, he started participating on many of its projects and engaging in its further development, joining its Board in 2013 and becoming its president in 2015.

During that time Chuck also completed the Maine Master Naturalist Program and regularly shares his enthusiasm for the outdoors by leading educational tours on the trails and waters of HVNC. He and his wife, Megan, have two grown children and two grandchildren, and reside in Damariscotta.

Brent Douglass

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Brent Douglass is graduate of Dartmouth, where he is on the Alumni Council.  He was chief facilities officer at 4 universities over a 40 year career (operations, maintenance, planning & construction) overseeing staff's ranging from 40-200 people.  Also was VP for Development and Facilities at Wintergreen Resort, where he oversaw putting in a historic conservation easement. They put a conservation easement on their VA farm and implemented a Chesapeake Bay Foundation grant to plant 1,000 trees along a tributary creek of the James River that passes through their farm.

Brent is an active volunteer with our Lake Council, Courtesy Boat Inspector, Invasive Plant Patrol and they have done a YCC erosion control project on the land on Damariscotta Lake where they own a house. Brent is also a docent for CMBG. Brent and his wife Carter live in Virginia for half the year and the other half on Damariscotta Lake.

Chris Kenoyer

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Surrounded by large tracts of forests and alluring waterways in Maine, Chris developed a strong love of the natural world at an early age. During his college years, he led weekend canoeing and hiking trips for the University of Maine and upon graduating with a BA in Natural Resource Management, worked for both private and public sectors as an interpretive naturalist and guide in New Mexico, the Everglades and New Zealand.

Returning to Maine, the purchase and restoration of his first home, an aging colonial in Machias, evolved into an appreciation and passion for old things and a decades long business re-acquisitioning American antiques from the Canadian maritimes. In 2004, Chris and his partner Bridget bought an old farmstead in Alna and embarked on a lifelong restoration of their fields and forests, primarily to benefit wildlife.

Chris has served as an active council member, steward and property monitor for Midcoast Conservancy in Sheepscot Valley for over 20 years and was a key member of the town committee to address the aging and beloved Head Tide Dam to ensure safe passage of anadromous fish and preserve the history and vested interests of the community. When not working in the garden or woods, Chris is often exploring the wilder areas of Maine & Canada, seeking out forgotten portage trails and tuck-away trout ponds.

Christian (Chris) Schorn

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Christian (Chris) Schorn grew up in Silver Spring, MD, and after a childhood exploring the suburban woods of the DC metropolitan area, came to New England to learn more about them—and never left. After graduating from Connecticut College with a double major in botany and environmental studies, he worked in the field of botanical research and conservation through roles at the New York Botanical Garden, New England Wild Flower Society, and the Harvard University Herbaria. He graduated from the University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist & Ecological Planning Program with an M.S. in Plant Biology, completing a master’s project analyzing forest restoration strategies in the Champlain Valley.

After his time at UVM, he joined the Maine land trust world, working in stewardship positions at Cape Elizabeth Land Trust and Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, for several years as Director of Land Conservation & Ecology for Midcoast Conservancy, and as Forest Ecologist for the Maine Natural Areas Program; he is currently the Southern Maine Project Manager at Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT).

Chris lives in Brunswick, and in his spare time, you can find him cooking, writing, watching baseball, or most likely, off in the woods looking at plants.

Mark Steele

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Mark Steele is a professional artist, musician and creative director. He spends Summer and Fall on Sheepscot Lake in Palermo, ME and Winter and Spring in Boulder, CO. He is an avid stand-up paddle boarder, mushroom forager, and telemark skier. His permaculture design certificate training informs much of his perspective in all aspects of life. As a singer-songwriter and painter, Mark is always creating. (To view his painting portfolio, visit MarkSteele.art, and hear his music at ConradSteele.com.)

In addition to his freelance design business New Moon Multimedia, Mark has spent 20 years working with a dozen non-profits, including a decade as creative director for Blue Planet Network, a global non-profit he helped launch in 2004. He has served as virtual art director or web master for great orgs including KOTO Community Radio, Shining Mountain Waldorf School, The Ride Festival, and the Telluride Jazz Festival. For the Valley Floor Preservation Partners, he designed the identity system and web site that were instrumental in raising $25 million in just three months to preserve open space in Telluride, Colorado. He was a co-team leader of 350 Boulder County before helping found and build the eco-portal Boulder dot Earth, which has evolved into the Climate Justice Hive, a 501(c)3 coordinating community in the face of climate chaos with the goal of organizing systemic change. Mark serves on the board of directors for the Sheepscot Lake Association and as an advisor for the National Emergency Childcare Network.