Doug and Connie Libby sold old family land alongside the Nonesuch River to the Scarborough Land Trust at a deep discount. “The opportunity to preserve this land is very gratifying,” he said. Drew Johnson / The Forecaster
When it came time to sell the Scarborough land where his great-grandfather used to graze his dairy cows, Doug Libby made what he said was an easy decision. He offered it to the Scarborough Land Trust.
“Through the years of ownership, I contemplated what was the most appropriate use for this property,” Libby said. “The opportunity to preserve this land is very gratifying.”
The 16.5-acre property along Gorham Road to the east of the land trust’s Warren Woods is now part of the preserve.
The land has been in Libby’s family for nearly 100 years. Libby, who lives in South Portland, reached out to the land trust in 2009, three years before the Warren Woods Preserve was acquired in 2012. While talks continued throughout the past decade, they got more serious in 2019, he said.
“Here we are 13 years later having just closed the property,” said Jeremy Wintersteen, a Scarborough Land Trust board member.
The Libbys decided to sell the land at a great discount.
“The appraised value was $700,000,” said Andrew Mackie, executive director of the land trust. “We paid $420,000.”
Libby sees the discount as a donation.
“It’s considerably below market value, that’s something we wanted to do,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we need to come to the table with our donation,’ so that’s what it was.”
From the mid-1920s up until 1950, his great-grandfather Fred Higgins walked his dairy cows from South Portland to graze on the Scarborough property, where he also grew vegetables. Growing up, Libby and his mother visited the farm, he said.
“My own personal memories began with summer visits as a teenager with my grandparents,” Libby said. “It was a lot of fun helping them and exploring the barn for treasures.”
The Libby’s identified rapid growth and development in Scarborough as one of the major reasons they decided to preserve the land, especially as it encompasses a 1,400-foot stretch of the Nonesuch River.
“I was worried about the preservation of the Nonesuch River,” he said. “When you allow a lot of people living-access to it, it’s going to impact the river in some way.”
Scarborough Land Trust always has its sights on protecting the river, Mackie said.
“Absolutely, the Nonesuch River is a huge factor,” he said. “Anything along the Nonesuch is one of our priority areas.”
Between a $250,000 grant from the Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program, a $200,000 land bond from the town, and other private donations, the land trust compiled $580,000 for the acquisition.
“The land owners who gave us time to raise funds, private donors, the MNRCP, the town land bond,” Wintersteen said. “Those were the four legs of the stool that made this project happen.”
While the land itself was purchased for $160,000 less than the funds raised, all of that money is needed, Mackie said.
“A lot of people just see the sale price and go ‘that’s all you need,’ but there’s a lot more to it than that,” he said. “When we take this property we take it forever, and we have to manage it forever.”
Some of the excess funds went toward the appraisal, a land survey and an environmental review. Some will be put toward future costs.
In December, the land trust purchased 55 acres of land to the west of Warren Woods. The additional 16.5 acres, purchased from the Libby family, expands the preserve to nearly 230 acres.
Libby’s wife, Connie, hopes to see the property used for education, with Eight Corners School less than a half-mile away.
“I was a teacher,” she said. “I was always taking my classes on nature hunts. This is just ideal for that.”
She also hopes more Scarborough landowners consider preserving their land when it comes time to sell.
“It makes us feel really good about something we’ve done for the environment, and the future,” she said. “I would like our efforts to do this to inspire others.”
As for the land trust, Mackie said this is not the end of their quest to expand Warren Woods.
“There are some additional pieces in Warren Woods that we’re working on,” he said. “There are some other acquisition projects we’re working on in other parts of Scarborough as well.”
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