Join Midcoast Conservancy Executive Director Pete Nichols, Waldo SWCD Technical Director Aleta McKeage, and Midcoast Conservancy board member Buck O’Herin for a walk and talk about the role of wildlands in maintaining forest health, as well as their importance for species diversity and sequestering carbon. Only about 4% of Maine’s forests are protected as wild (no forestry, no development) and yet conservation science tells us much more is needed in the near future for the health of natural and human communities.
Meet at the Whitten Hill trailhead at 1 pm.
Rain date: Sunday, November 7.
Aleta is an ecologist and project manager who has completed work for municipalities, land trusts, state and federal governments. She specializes in ecological land stewardship and restoration integrated with outreach and community building, and is an expert in invasive plant ecology and control as well as in native plant communities. Aleta has been a volunteer with Hills to Sea Trail Coalition since 2018.
Buck has worked in the education and conservation fields for more than 35 years. He taught semester-long environmental field study programs with the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute and Sterling College, and environmental and outdoor recreation courses at Unity College. For ten years he ran a guiding business that offered wilderness canoeing and backpacking trips around the U.S. and Canada. He is a founder of the Waldo County Trails Coalition (WCTC) that in 2016 completed the 46-mile Hills to Sea Trail from Belfast to Unity and he is currently the part-time coordinator.