A plot of woods situated across from Brunswick High School along Maquoit Bay is now officially open to outdoor recreation with the completion of a deal permanently protecting the land, the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust announced last week.

The announcement comes following an August 2025 vote by the Brunswick Town Council to accept $2 million from the local land trust organization to create a conservation easement on 240 acres of Maquoit Woods. The funds for the purchase came from an anonymous supporter of the land trust.

The town purchased the property for $3.8 million in the winter of 2022, killing a proposal for a 900-unit subdivision on the property in order to prevent declines in Maquoit Bay.

The Maquoit Woods parcel includes more than 4 miles of trails and serves as a vital wildlife habitat, the land trust said in a press release last week. Located at the headwaters of Booker Pond, the property includes views of two streams leading into the bay and pockets of pitch pine heath barren, a rare type of forest vulnerable to extinction.

Under the easement, development is prohibited on all but 40 acres of Maquoit Woods. The northern portion of the property, which is still owned by the town, is intended to be used for an affordable housing development.

“This is the ultimate success of a process that has been unfolding for years, all aimed at expanding outdoor spaces for our residents and protecting the landscapes that make Brunswick special,” Margaret Gerber, Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust conservation director, said in a prepared statement.

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu