Midcoast Conservancy seeks select board feedback on Quarry Hill Preserve easement amendments

Isabel Curtis, stewardship director at Midcoast Conservancy, presented a proposed amendment to the 2007 conservation easement covering Quarry Hill Preserve, a roughly 320-acre town-owned property near Depot Street. Curtis said the package is intended to give the town limited additional rights (multiuse trails, a drilled well in the agricultural zone, and a parking area by the quarry) while adding protections including a natural area that would ban trail-building and commercial forestry and expanding wetland buffers. "The conservation easement's primary goal was to keep that land available to the residents of Waldeboro for public recreation, agriculture, and to maintain wildlife habitat," Curtis said.

Curtis said easements must not be weakened and that the amendment balances new town rights with strengthened habitat and water-quality protections; the package includes a trail-approval process requiring Midcoast Conservancy to review ecological impacts and the conservancy's ability to require trail closure if erosion or other harm appears. She asked the board for feedback ahead of a planned town ballot vote this fall and said the Conservancy would provide a summary and full materials to the town by the second week of September. Resident concerns discussed included potential impacts on neighboring landowners and the need to clarify at least one private boundary.