Peaks Island Land Preserve

Peaks Island is small: 720 acres, barely a square mile. A visitor in 1975 could have walked a mile along the back shore or through the woods without seeing any houses. In recent years, our population has significantly increased and real estate development has dramatically changed the character of the island. Peaks Island Land Preserve protects the island’s natural areas and special places for the enjoyment of present and future generations.

We invite you to browse through our site to learn about PILP and what we do. Following are news, events, and opinions of interest to our island community.

Hundred Acre Wood photo © Marty Braun

An exciting announcement from PILP!

To the Peaks Island Community,

Members of the board of the Peaks Island Land Preserve are overjoyed to announce to the island community that we will be undertaking a thorough environmental study of the parcels of land that are either owned by PILP or under its protection. The study will generate a sensitive, science-based management plan for each property over the coming decade based on elements like wildlife and bird habitat, the balance of native and non-native vegetation, the protection of water resources, areas likely to be impacted by climate change or degraded from overuse or erosion. Thanks to the generosity of two island donors, research will be conducted and recommendations generated by Forrest Bell and his associates at FB Environmental (Portland) and Mohr & Seredin Landscape Architects (Peaks Island). We expect that the study will begin over the next couple of months and continue for approximately 12 to 18 months.

If you are interested in where the PILP parcels are on the island, please consult the map at the PILP website at https://www.peaksislandlandpreserve.org/ (You can find it under “places we protect”.)

Sincerely,
John Whitman
President

January 22, 2022

Milkweed: an update on a partially wild lawn

Laura Glendening

It’s been two years since I consciously chose not to mow all the lawn surrounding my house, and I am very pleased to share that I now have at least four milkweed plants that have taken root on the gentle sloping land on the west side of my house. I did not plant these, they just decided to grow here. These are the first milkweed plants that I have seen in my yard in all the twenty years I have lived here.

In the first picture below you can see the milkweed and also black swallowwort growing. Swallowwort has grown abundantly on the edges of my yard for I imagine more than the past twenty years. I have tried, some years more than others, to remove and limit the spread of this plant to varying degrees of success, but if I had mowed that little hillside to kill the swallowwort or maintain a grass lawn (also in the non-native category) I would not have those four stalks of milkweed.

In the second picture below you can see the stalks and a single ripening seed pod. I am keeping a watchful eye on these to see what happens now and in the spring. The single pod could release up to 200 seeds that will fly about on downy hairs. I hope they find welcoming landing spots.

November 13, 2022

Celebrating our 25th anniversary has been something of a dud in this unusual year of 2020. At the changing of the year it's usual to take a look back, as well as forward, and so we're looking back 15 years, to 2005. That year, then President Brenda Buchanan wrote an article for The Island Times looking back from there at the Peaks Island Land Preserve's first 10 years. It's interesting to revisit the beginnings of our organization, and take a look at how things have changed, or not, as time has passed. This PILP at 10 link will take you to the story on our website.

Memorial Gifts
2021, 2020

In Memory of Frank Butler
Ben Marsden

Russell and Marion Bowden
Laurie and William Fitts
Caleb and Bronwyn Loring
Joan Lunn

In Honor of Bill Oliver
Susan Webster and Roger Dutton

In Memory of Miles Gibson and Sally Cowen
LaRue and Robert Forwood

In Memory of Ellen Hone Flessner
Gail Kamm

In Memory of Miles Gibson
Kathleen and Steven Miller
Martha Morris-Gibson
Jack and Chris Shevlin
Susan Webster and Roger Dutton

Remembering a special person with a gift to the Peaks Island Land Preserve helps us in our work to conserve the wild spaces of this unique island for everyone, forever. We thank you for your support.

Rosa Marie Iovino, who passed away on August 13, 2020, has left her estate to the Peaks Island Land Preserve. We at PILP are surprised and humbled by such a generous gift from a woman who obviously loved her home and the island.
At the discretion of the executor, Maria's home will be rented through the winter, until the estate proceeds through probate and passes to the Land Preserve. We will be considering the paths we might take that would honor Maria’s wishes for the property and that would benefit the island community.

If you like birds be sure to visit our Back Shore Bird Blog

Forever Wild...