Intervale Preserve

Lower Village and Interurban:  Enter the preserve via a trail that heads downhill from the intersection of Church Road and Gloucester Hill Road. Parking on Church Road shoulders is permissible. (Please do not park adjacent to the intersection or in the church parking lots.)  Alternatively, enter the preserve at the Interurban trail (snowmobile trail) at 419 Intervale Road where it crosses Route 231 (Intervale Road). Parking on Grange Hall Road shoulders is permissible.

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Intervale Loop Trail - 568 Intervale Road:  Look for a kiosk welcoming you to a flat half-mile loop trail. Parking is available on the wide road shoulder.

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541 Intervale Road (Little League field):  Foragers, hunters, and explorers are invited to visit segments of RRCT property that are currently trail-free.

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490 Penney Road:  The trailhead primarily serves as a primitive boat access point, a snowmobile trail, and an access point for hunting. Parking is available on the neck of the woods road (snowmobile trail).

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Preserve Water Access:  Some areas of the Intervale Preserve are accessible only by canoe or kayak. Downriver access from Penney Road (paddle upriver and back) is best.

Intervale Preserve has been built over a 30-year period dating to 1991 when the initial parcel (568 Intervale Road) was donated for conservation by Han Erikson and Nan Butterfield. RRCT acquired additional parcels between 2017 and 2022, including 174 acres in the Lower Village along the Interurban, through donations and purchases while forming partnerships with the Town of New Gloucester and Central Maine Power. Nearby farmland conservation (Waterhouse Farm and Merribrook Farm) projects in 2017 and 2018 added important conservation landscape context as did the creation of Big Falls Preserve (now part of Talking Brook Public Lands) upstream.

Permitted:  Biking (except on the Intervale loop trail due to construction standards), hiking, horses (Lower Village only), hunting, snowmobiling, and trapping. Dogs (on leash or under voice control) and leaving no evidence of their visit. Leashes are required adjacent to the Lower Village and private homes.

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Not permitted:  Biking (Intervale loop trail), horses (except for Lower Village), use of rail lines, tenting and camping, fires, and smoking.

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Required:  Permission to hunt or trap, wearing of orange during all hunting seasons, and adherence to postings on private abutting land.

Royal River Conservation Trust protects and stewards properties, including Intervale Preserve, located within the traditional homelands of the Wabanaki. We strive to ensure that our properties are inclusive and accessible and provide opportunities for healing, education, and respite. Through the conservation deed filed in 2022, RRCT acknowledges the central role of the Abenaki in the history of the lands that comprises the Intervale Preserve:

WHEREAS, for centuries prior to colonization of the North American continent by the British and the French, the land area currently known as the State of Maine, including that area of Town of New Gloucester that extends from Gloucester Hill to the Royal River, was part of the ancestral territory occupied and stewarded by the Wabanaki Confederacy that includes the Abenaki, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Maliseet tribes and the Mi’kmaq; and

WHEREAS for approximately six decades preceding the first colonial settlement in New Gloucester, the so-called French and Indian Wars raged across the east coast as native Wabanaki warriors sided with the French in efforts to halt the British expansion into Wabanaki lands; and

WHEREAS the Town’s first colonial inhabitants settled on Gloucester Hill in 1737 building nineteen wood frame homes and a sawmill on Stevens Brook, but after less than five years they abandoned their settlement in light of the local Wabanaki tribe’s resistance to takeover of their ancestral lands by the British; and

WHEREAS the French and Indian Wars continued for three more decades resulting in violence, retribution and atrocities by parties fighting for survival or dominion over the territory and natural resources of what are now known as the New England states and Canadian maritime provinces; and

WHEREAS some of the colonial settlers returned to New Gloucester in 1753, this time building a 50’ x 50’ two-story Blockhouse defended by two swivel guns and surrounded by 110’ long palisade stockade where 12 families and a garrison of six soldiers lived together for about six years during a period of violence, before hostilities subsided after the local Wabanaki retreated north…

The Intervale Preserve includes portions of the lot that was cleared in the 1750’s for the New Gloucester Blockhouse, a battleground during the French and Indian Wars.

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490 Penney Road:  Watch for poison ivy. River access allows for bank fishing and boat launching for paddling, fishing, and hunting by boat. The stretch of river from Penney Road downstream to Wescustogo Park is a wonderful 8.1 mile high-water paddling trip. Landowner courtesies or steep scrambles are required for earlier take-out.

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568 Intervale Road:  The forested trail provides views onto the river’s fresh water flood plain marsh and vernal pools, a popular destination for birders and sports. The marsh is a vantage point for observing migrating birds especially in May of each year. The trail includes one bench for resting midway and a picnic table near the trailhead. Nearby is a primitive hand-carry boat access point that allows for bank fishing and boat launching for paddling, fishing, and hunting by boat.