The Wrack
The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog.
Wells Reserve Purchases Conservation Easement on Drakes Island for Habitat Protection & Restoration
Posted by
| June 2, 2025
| Filed under: News
The Wells Reserve has secured a new conservation easement on Drakes Island, protecting 18.66 acres from development in perpetuity. The easement was purchased from landowners Susan O’Connell and Charlie Bashaw, adding to the Reserve’s protected salt and freshwater wetlands and forestlands. This acquisition marks a significant milestone in an ongoing coastal resilience project with the town of Wells that will ultimately replace a failing bridge on Drakes Island Road and restore vulnerable coastal marshland. The project is funded by a $2.87 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that was awarded to the town of Wells in April 2024.
“Susan O’Connell and Charlie Bashaw have a deep connection to the land that they inhabit, so much so that they took the important step of protecting it forever through a conservation easement. It is gratifying to work with two people who clearly love the coastal landscape of Wells and beyond and who want to guarantee its future,” shared Paul Dest, Executive Director of the Wells Reserve. “What makes this 18.66-acre property even more valuable is that it adds to a landscape of connected protected properties from the Mousam River in Kennebunk to the Ogunquit River in Ogunquit. This is landscape conservation at its best.”
The conservation easement includes 9.5 acres of salt marsh that expands the core habitat area of the Reserve, something that has not been done since the creation of the Reserve in 1984. The project will protect a critical corridor for the migration of tidal wetlands within the Reserve, and will enhance the resilience of the existing salt marsh to sea level rise.
“With the purchase of this conservation easement the Wells Reserve has the opportunity to move forward with enhancements to the salt marsh that will allow it to begin recovering from a legacy of agricultural use and road building. Our restoration work will preserve this important ecosystem, and its benefits to people and wildlife, into the future,” explains Jacob Aman, Stewardship Director at the Wells Reserve. “This work would not have been possible without the support of dedicated staff with NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management, who provided guidance for project development, led environmental permitting, facilitated project outreach, and of course provided the essential grant funding that enables all of this work to occur.”
Read more background on how this project came to be in our December 2024 Watermark.