Bridgton-based Loon Echo Land Trust has hit a milestone. This year marks 25 years of preserving parcels in the Lakes Region and events are planned throughout the year to celebrate. Steering this ship since 2008 is executive director Carrie Walia.

A Wisconsin native, Walia first came to Maine about 10 years ago following graduation from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point where she studied land use planning and natural resource management.

Additional Photos

Loon Echo members Beth Phelps, left, and Pam Edwards with executive director Carrie Walia, right, at the November 2011 Loon Echo office open house in Bridgton. Courtesy photo

“Wisconsin is a beautiful state, but I wanted to get out and explore,” Walia said. “My husband and I came out to the White Mountain National Forest to become campground hosts. We really wanted to be near the mountains and the ocean.”

The area felt right and the couple soon moved across the border into Maine. Shortly after, Walia started working with Loon Echo as a campaign assistant to the Pleasant Mountain Phase I Project. She went to full-time employment with the land trust in 2005.

Loon Echo Land Trust is one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the Lakes Region. Walia said many local land trusts got their start around the same time because of what was happening in the conservation community.

“There was this need for local conservation,” Walia said. “We started in Naples and Casco because most of our founders were from there.”

Since those early beginnings 25 years ago, Loon Echo has helped preserve about 4,000 acres in seven towns throughout the Lakes Region. Walia, 33, said current goals include finalizing the transfer of Pondicherry Park to the town of Bridgton and fundraising toward the purchase of Hacker’s Hill (Quaker Ridge) in Casco. Walia said the organization hopes to double its conservation acreage to 8,000 acres by 2017, as well as looking at conservation opportunities along the Crooked and Tenney rivers. Ensuring all seven towns have their own local land-preserve is another area of focus.

With only two staff members and one volunteer under her, Walia must wear many hats and answers to 12 board members.

“What I like about my job and what I feel like I don’t always have enough time to do is talk with land owners,” she said. “I love everything about it — from that first meeting through seeing things come to fruition years later. I have to be project manager and develop a strategy.”

Legal and financial aspects are complex in most conservation projects. One future challenge will be the organization’s capacity to meet current demand.

“There’s a lot of land either marketed for sale or that’s available,” she said. “We’re trying to become more well-known and differentiate ourselves from the partner (Lakes Environmental Association) we shared an office with for the last 10 years.”

Part of that included moving to a new, separate headquarters last year.

“We’re trying to make people more aware of what we do,” she said. “We’re based on land dealings, which include keeping forests working.”

Walia currently lives with her husband Kelly Rusmussen, a builder and contractor, in Stoneham on a parcel that borders the White Mountain National Forest. Her work ethic is motivated by far more than just paying the bills. It’s about making a difference for future generations.

“Everyone has a story about a farm, meadow or forest that has been developed in their lifetime and that they wished could have stayed the same,” she said. “I work every day to conserve portions of the local landscape so that future generations can experience what I am able to today. That’s why I’m here, to help serve this need. One day I’ll die and will do so happily knowing that places like Pleasant Mountain and other gems will remain.”

Several events are planned to celebrate Loon Echo’s anniversary including a fist annual “Snowfest” happening March 3 at Five Fields Farm in South Bridgton.

For more information, contact Loon Echo at loonecholandtrust.org

Don Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Raymond. He can be reached at:

presswriter@gmail.com

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