Chris Franklin will assume the role of Royal River Conservation Trust’s executive director on Feb. 24. Contributed / Chris Franklin

The Royal River Conservation Trust has appointed Chris Franklin, an experienced land conservationist, as its new executive director.

“I look at this as a great opportunity,” said Franklin, who is 57 and lives in North Yarmouth with his wife and three children. “I think the communities in the watershed really would like to see more open space preservation, more habitat protection, more working farms. Royal River (Conservation Trust) is really well positioned to be a catalyst for that.”

The selection, announced on Jan. 30, comes at a time of long-anticipated change for the Royal River watershed. The Yarmouth Town Council unanimously voted on Jan. 2 in favor of a resolution to remove the dams on the Royal River, a step that will return much of the watershed to its wild state.

“The dam removal is the best thing that can happen for the watershed,” said Franklin, adding that 140 square miles of habitat over 100 miles of streams “are going to be opened up from the mainstream as well as the tributaries. So it’s going to be fascinating to see how that all plays out.”

Founded in 1988, the Yarmouth-based Royal River Conservation Trust works to conserve and steward 6,140 acres of land in the Royal River watershed across the municipalities Yarmouth, North Yarmouth, Auburn, Durham, Gray, New Gloucester and Pownal. The nonprofit organization owns 17 preserves and 63 trust-held conservation easements across those communities and has helped create or expand 18 municipal and state parks in the region.

Franklin served for 11 years as the first executive director of Cape Elizabeth Land Trust and worked for six years at Maine Farmland Trust. Prior to his work in Maine, Franklin served as research associate with Alaska Community Action on Toxics, and project director and outreach coordinator at The Brower Fund at Earth Island Institute.

“The RRCT Board of Directors looks forward to working with (Franklin) as our executive director,” said board President Rob Greenleaf in the press release.

“He brings deep land trust leadership experience to the Royal River watershed and is well positioned to lead RRCT as we work to preserve and steward land from the Royal’s headwaters in Sabbathday Lake to Littlejohn Island,” said Greenleaf.

A map of the Royal River watershed and conserved lands. Contributed / Royal River Conservation Trust

Following a different passion, Franklin also founded Badger Bagels in 2023, a gluten-free baked goods company that he said served as a “sabbatical.” The North Yarmouth company closed production on Feb. 1 as Franklin assumes the role of executive director and returns to the field of land conservation.

The prior executive director of the Royal River Conservation Trust, Alan Stearns, served in the role for 13 years until June of 2024. Royal River Conservation Trust Development Director David Beers has been interim director and will remain so until Franklin assumes the role on Feb. 24.

“I’ve done this work for a while now, and it’s think it’s just a really exciting time in New England to be doing this work,” said Franklin.

“Nature is pretty resilient,” he added. “So when you remove dams, when you stop clear cutting, and you stop doing things that are damaging, you get to see things come back. That’s the real exciting part of this, is getting people engaged in this work.”