The Wells Reserve's mapping and conservation work is at the heart of today's Portland Press Herald story by Seth Harkness  Project aims to fill gap in conservation of land.

Harkness notes:

A defining feature of conservation efforts in southern Maine is that land trusts tend to arise out of emergencies. Typically they form in reaction to an event like the one that recently occurred in Hollis, where a prized piece of property is threatened with development and residents respond by trying to protect it. Most of the groups are small, volunteer organizations with strictly local missions.

What's missing, Harkness learns from Wells Reserve research director Michele Dionne, is "the broader vision needed to spot areas worthy of protection before they are threatened and to organize small-scale conservation efforts into large-scale protection of habitats and watersheds."

That's where the Wells Reserve's grant under the Maine Coast Protection Initiative comes in. Now Hollis, Dayton, and Waterboro citizens know one key place to ask for help as they look ahead to protecting parcels important to their communities.