Field season begins for our Stewardship team

Kyle Warren, MFT's newest stewardship staff member, walks the property at Hanson Farm.

Despite the slow start to spring, MFT’s stewardship field season is in full swing-staffers are visiting farms each week! Stewardship staff currently monitor 208 conservation easements on nearly 33,600 acres across the state and expect those numbers to rise quickly as MFT plans to protect many more farms this year. In order to manage this growth, MFT recently hired Kyle Warren as a new Land Steward to cover southern and western Maine. April Costa will now cover central Maine and Lyndsey Marston will continue to cover downeast and northern portions of the state. Having three staff members covering the state is a big step in making sure we have enough time to meet with each easement landowner, walk each farm, respond to questions, and keep up with MFT’s pace of land protection.

Stewardship takes time: traveling to and from farms each week, walking many miles on farm visits, and sitting around the kitchen table with landowners. We value these connections with landowners and will continue to take the necessary time to answer questions, respond to requests, and help landowners understand the terms of their easements. Our stewardship team has a responsibility to enforce each easement, and we also have a commitment to working with each landowner for the duration of their ownership.

We hope to see more sunny days as the spring progresses and are looking forward to scheduling more visits over the coming months. We’d like to thank all of our easement owners in advance for taking the time to meet with us, and for their commitment to protecting farmland.

Stay up to date with the annual Stewardship newsletter HERE.