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Protecting the Royal River Watershed
Royal River Conservation Trust works with private landowners, municipalities, and others who are interested in conserving land for perpetuity.
Every conservation project is different.
- Acquire land through donation or purchase
- Utilize conservation easements or other legal agreements for landowners interested in retaining ownership while conserving their land in perpetuity
- Assist municipalities and other conservation partners with land conservation projects
- Steward RRCT owned-land through day-to-day maintenance and long-term management
- Collaborate with municipalities, conservation partners, or other groups to advance community projects such as increased river access, nature interpretation, and educational programming.
RRCT’s Conservation Imperatives
In 2022, RRCT released an updated Conservation Plan, replacing the previous plan drafted in 2005. Our revised Conservation Plan is intended to guide long-term watershed dialogue while increasing the pace of land conservation.
We advocate for the re-establishment of a sea-run Royal River. We support our partners in leading the effort and are focused on how we can protect headwaters and stream-side habitat upriver from Yarmouth’s two dams.
The area where Pownal, Durham, Auburn, and New Gloucester meet contains some of the largest remaining unfragmented habitat in Greater Portland and Southern Maine. Conserving land in this area represents our best opportunity for leaving future generations open space in the most populated area of Maine.
RRCT seeks to distribute land conservation more equitably in our watershed to provide outdoor opportunities to all residents and visitors alike. We strive to create welcoming and inclusive experiences within our preserves and on our trails.
We target lands that protect, expand, or connect conserved land, large blocks of habitat, or high-quality habitat. Our aim is to keep common species common, give our rare, threatened, and endangered species viable future habitat, and allow new species to successfully migrate to their new climate homes.
Protecting land does not end after RRCT acquires land or places a conservation easement on a parcel. We carefully pace the usage of our lands to balance pristine habitat for plants and animals, human access, and climate resiliency.
Watershed challenges
The following challenges are described in more detail in our Conservation Plan. These four challenges interact and amplify one another, but also present opportunities for meaningful community conservation.
In New England, proximity to development is the strongest predictor of forest loss. The Royal River watershed is surrounded by or contains four of the ten largest Maine municipalities. These communities and others nearby are growing at some of the fastest rates in New England. Large unfragmented habitat blocks are critical for maintaining viable natural communities and supporting resilient lands capable of retaining biodiversity. Past development has fragmented habitat across Southern Maine, but the Royal River watershed still has many large habitat blocks capable of functioning ecosystems today and in the future.
RRCT has success managing invasives and eliminating or lessening their spread at our preserves. However, with a frequently disturbed complex landscape, no one organization can change the trajectory of invasive species. Because biodiversity loss is the primary negative result of invasive species, there is a heightened role for protecting lands and waters that are still native biodiversity strongholds.
Analysts predict that the percentage of Mainers 65 and older will increase by 45% from 2018 to 2028. This shift translates to a decade where we expect an increase in the frequency of land ownership change, which could result in an acceleration of conservation, development, or some combination of the two in a competitive real estate market. We are also seeing more “posted” signs while demand soars for open spaces for recreation and respite. When measuring open space, our watershed has several communities within and around it that placed in the bottom 10% of all of New England.
The effects of climate change are already being felt and will continue becoming more apparent by the end of the 21st century. Since 1895, Maine’s annual statewide temperature has increased by 3.2°F and we could see another increase of up to or over 10°F by the end of the century. Along with rising temperatures come many other changes such as rising seas and more frequent extreme weather events. Species distributions and diversity will be altered, causing cascading changes through our familiar ecosystems.
RRCT remains enthusiastic about the opportunities for meaningful community conservation that benefit local ecology and people.
This is a unique moment in time, with our watershed containing some of the largest remaining forests and wetlands in Southern Maine, some of the largest and fastest growing populations in Maine, and community members who care deeply about the health of their natural environment and local communities.
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