Two donations on opposite sides of Rolling Dam Brook in South Gardiner could help spur the creation of a larger conservation project that could preserve up to 82 acres of woods and wetlands.

Kennebec Land Trust officials and members at the nonprofit organization’s annual meeting Sunday recognized the donors of land and a conservation easement that will allow a preserve to be created surrounding part of Rolling Dam Brook, as well as two other landowners who agreed to have their land added to already protected lands in Wayne and Fayette.

Botanist Eric Doucette describes the structure of a fern Sunday during a field trip that was part of the annual meeting of the Kennebec Land Trust in Fayette. Staff photo by Andy Molloy

Susan Redmond, of Augusta, examines a fern Sunday during a field trip that was part of the annual meeting of the Kennebec Land Trust in Fayette. Staff photo by Andy Molloy

Susan Redmond examines a piece of a fern Sunday during a field trip that was part of the annual meeting of the Kennebec Land Trust in Fayette. Staff photo by Andy Molloy

“We’re thrilled about this. It’s fantastic. It’s going to be a beautiful property,” Mary Denison, president of Winthrop-based land preservation group Kennebec Land Trust, said. The two Rolling Brook Dam properties which will give the trust its first parcel of protected land in Gardiner.

David Lawrence donated 17 acres of mostly wetlands with 1,600 feet of undeveloped shoreline along the east side of Rolling Brook Dam to the land trust. Dorothy Washburne granted a conservation easement to the trust which will prevent development on a 12-acre parcel on the opposite side of the brook from the Lawrence parcel.

Washburne and land trust officials said it is their hope those parcels can be combined with 53 acres abutting the Lawrence property that is owned by the city of Gardiner to create a much larger conservation area. Land trust officials said there have been conversations with Gardiner city officials about it, but no agreements have yet been struck.

Washburne said she had no plans to develop the land for which she granted a conservation easement, and she hopes someday it will become part of the larger project and have trails the public can use to explore the wooded natural site.

“Money is not the only thing that matters in the world,” Washburne said when she explained her reasons for granting a conservation easement, which prevents development of the site and allows public access to it, rather than selling or developing it. “So it will stay like it is and I hope other people around here will think about putting in easements so Rolling Dam Brook will stay forever wild. I’d love to see a community forest in Gardiner. I’d love it if the public could get in there.”

Two other conservation gifts made to the land trust this year were celebrated Sunday.

A conservation gift from the estate of William Granville Besse will add 10 acres of land to the now 65-acre Besse Historic Conservation Area in Wayne, which features a mix of woods and wetlands.

A 3.4-acre conservation gift from Barbara Crowley and John Orestis will add land to the now 103-acre Echo Lake Watershed III Preserve in Fayette, land which has woodlands, forested wetlands and a vernal pool area.

Bob Mohlar, chairman of the land trust’s land committee, said the property will help protect the water quality of Echo Lake.

Echo Lake also played host to Sunday’s annual meeting at Camp Winnebego.

A group of 20 or so attendees followed Eric Doucette, a botanist and member of the trust’s board of directors, around some of the lakefront camp’s paths to learn about ferns and how to identify the different kinds of the leafy plant.

Doucette explained the finer details that distinguish varieties of ferns and in some cases, to his audience’s delight, explained how some ferns got their common names.

There was the New York fern tapered on both ends, so named, he said, because busy New Yorkers are known for “burning the candle at both ends.” The ostrich fern, the source of tasty fiddleheads, so named because of its resemblance to an ostrich’s tail feathers. And the lady fern, which Doucette said is also known as “a pretty lady with hairy legs” due to its pretty eyebrow-like leaf and its uniform, dark-colored scales on its stem.

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