Campaign to safeguard Eggemoggin Reach land $2.6M purchase of “The Gateway” aims to welcome visitors to Deer Isle

DEER ISLE – The Island Heritage Trust has begun a $2.6 million campaign for the purchase of two parcels in North Deer Isle.

The Trust announced Wednesday that it has signed purchase and sale contracts for two parcels totaling about 26 acres on the Eggemoggin Reach side of Route 15 at the end of the Causeway onto the island.

The larger of the two contiguous parcels is a 22-acre piece that runs from the Old Ferry Landing Road almost to the end of the peninsula, according to Trust Executive Director Mac Herrling. The smaller, 4-acre piece is the “connecting piece” which runs to Route 15.

The Trust refers to the parcel as “The Gateway,” since, combined with other conserved areas such as the recently acquired Causeway Beach, it will provide a public area to welcome visitors to the island, he said.

“This is the front door, the Gateway that greets all who come onto the island by land, and it is a prominent feature as one approaches by water from the northwest,” said Trust President Jean Wheeler in a prepared release.

The Trust will purchase the property from the descendants of Nathaniel Scott, the family that has owned the land since 1782.

Details of the purchase have not been completed and figures for the cost of the two parcels are not final. Herrling said. However, $2,334,000 of the fund-raising campaign goal has been earmarked for land purchase and development of the two Gateway parcels and other land acquisition projects.

The campaign also will raise $200,000 to cover the executive director’s salary for a five-year period, and $100,000 to establish a stewardship fund for the maintenance of the conserved lands it manages.

IHT oversees about 950 acres in Deer Isle and Stonington. It owns about a third of that land and holds about 650 acres as conservation easements that remain privately owned.

The trust plans to develop the 4-acre parcel of The Gateway site as a parking area to serve the Causeway Beach, according to Herrling. The Trust received the beach property in January as a donation from the Causeway Beach Network, which had raised funds to purchase the popular site.

The larger of the two parcels will include a sandy beach for public use and development of a public boat launch site along with walking trails and a picnic area.

The fund-raising effort is a major challenge for the Trust, according to the Campaign Committee chair Ann Hook.

“…but we feel that the Gateway is incredibly important for Deer Isle,” Hook said in the release. “Even though we live on an island, people in the Deer Isle communities do not have enough public places to get to the ocean. This will be a great spot for everyone on the island.”

The Gateway property had been on the market and, with water views and access to Eggemoggin Reach, had attracted considerable interest from developers.

“There’s little question that without IHT, these incredible properties would have been developed and its public values lost,” said Ciona Ulbrich, a project manager for the Deer Isle area with Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which is working with the island trust on this land conservation project.

“These properties were threatened and Deer Isle would have lost a great opportunity,” Ulbrich said.

Trust officials stressed that the properties are still privately owned and will remain so until the land purchase has been completed, and are asking residents and visitors to respect that private property ownership until the land is declared open to the public.

The trust has until the end of August to purchase the smaller of the two properties, and will have 180 days to secure funding for the larger parcel. If the fund-raising effort is unsuccessful, Herrling said, the properties could go back on the open market.