Maine Coast Heritage Belief President Kate Stookey visits Woodward Level Protect in Brunswick on August 25, 2022. MCHT and Brunswick-Topsham Land Belief partnered to preserve the 87-acre property in 2019. John Terhune / The Instances Document
Kate Stookey spent her childhood roaming the outside of Blue Hill. She remembers boating to little islands to camp on the seashore, known as again solely by her mom’s clanging of the dinner bell.
Now, after spending 20 years growing management abilities in Boston, Washington D.C. and Azerbaijan, Stookey has been known as again to Maine with a brand new mission — shield the outside she grew to like as a lady.
“That is my favourite place on the planet,” mentioned Stookey, who took over as president of Maine Coast Heritage Belief in February. “I believe lots of people in Maine really feel the identical approach.”
Maine Coast Heritage Belief has preserved over 170,000 acres and 330 islands since its founding in 1970, in keeping with the nonprofit’s web site. The group works with the greater than 80 native land trusts across the state to preserve outside areas for each the fragile ecosystems that rely upon them and the folks that get pleasure from them.
A 2021 seek for outgoing president Tim Glidden’s substitute drew certified candidates from throughout the nation, in keeping with Tom Armstrong, chair of the belief’s board. Stookey, who most just lately labored as the manager director of performing arts nonprofit Revels but in addition has expertise in advertising and marketing and public affairs, stood out due to her numerous background and talent to attach with folks.
“We have been in search of a dynamic organizational chief, somebody who has demonstrated success as a collaborator, a bridge-builder, with associate organizations,” he mentioned. “We’re thrilled with Kate. We really feel she’s completely the appropriate individual for this job and can assist information the group within the within the years forward.”
Since transferring to Penobscot along with her husband and two youngsters in February, Stookey mentioned she has been in “deep sponge mode,” trying to take in as a lot information about Maine Coast Heritage Belief and the state’s land conservation system as potential.
The significance of defending ecosystems has solely grown for the reason that days of her Blue Hill adventures, she mentioned. She pointed to local weather change, which threatens to destroy coastal salt-water marshes, and to a red-hot actual property market slowly choking off public entry to the coast.
“The event pressures are large and growing,” Stookey mentioned. “We’re dropping a variety of public entry to the coast, and that’s one thing that MCHT is admittedly devoted to preserving for individuals who reside right here, for folks whose livelihoods rely upon the coast, and for individuals who go to.”
Maine Coast Heritage Belief has been concerned in over half of the state’s newly protected coastal entry websites up to now eight years, in keeping with Stookey.
The method of preserving these lands usually includes an advanced dance between a number of teams, which makes Stookey’s “great folks abilities” important, mentioned Caroline Norden, a conservation guide who spent over a decade at Maine Coast Heritage Belief.
“Once you’re buying property, or negotiating the acquisition of property, you’re usually placing collectively offers that contain many, many gamers and many alternative conservation teams and donors. They’re advanced, and so they contain actually being good at listening and listening to what folks worth and what issues to them.”
Stookey agreed that discovering extra methods to associate with native teams just like the Brunswick-Topsham Land Belief and Island Workforce Housing on Deer Isle are keys serving to Maine Coast Heritage Belief confront the challenges forward. By working instantly communities, she hopes to attract much more public assist for conservation at a time when extra Mainers are turning to outside recreation than ever earlier than.
“There’s nonetheless work to be achieved,” she mentioned. “Preserving Maine’s pure sources is totally vital, and each resident and customer of Maine has an element to play.”
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