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Looking Back, Looking Ahead:
A history of Portland Trails written in 2001 to celebrate our 10th anniversary
By Christina White
Why a retrospective on PT’s first ten years? What could we expect to learn from our history that would help propel us into the future? With pages of notes, I thought about the stories told by each individual---early founder meetings around the kitchen table; a timely fax received on the way to a critical meeting resulting in major funding for the Eastern Prom Trail; the private donation of a waterfall to the City… These stories and those of hundreds of volunteers are the story of Portland Trails. It has been vision and the passion for the work that has brought us this far. And it is that same passion and vision that will build future trails, preserve greenspace, and create other community connections and enhancements in our area.
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Runner on Back Cove
Photo by Randy Ury
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The Early Founders
In the late 70’s and early 80’s, funding for green space and waterfront conservation was gaining attention nationally and in Maine. This movement spurred Portland native Tom Jewell to write a land management plan and form the Forest City Land Trust in 1976. It remained inactive, however, until a 1989 City Hall workshop on the Shoreway Access Plan, a 50-year vision which proposed to link waterfront and parks. It was during a break in the hallway that a group called the Portland Shoreway Access Coalition was formed. Its members were Nathan Smith, Dick Spencer, Cathy Stivers, and Tom Jewell. This coalition was the "seed" for Portland Trails.
Early organizational meetings were held at Waynflete School. Soon Peter Monro and Phil Thompson had joined the group. Peter was advocating for a river’s edge trail under the new Pride’s Crossing Bridge by historic Riverton Trolley Park. Nathan Smith recalled, "Dick Spencer and the group shared the belief that a trails system needed an advocacy organization analogous to Greater Portland Landmarks" and their work for historic structures. It was decided that PT would initially be a non-profit leadership organization advocating for trails. In the future, when the structure and resources allowed, the organization would turn to building a membership.
In 1990, Nathan was named PT’s first president. A Rivers and Trails grant from the National Park Service funded the beginning of advocacy work for sidewalk and greenway trails in Portland. They provided important guidance to PT in setting up the organization, establishing priorities and, most importantly, creating a Vision Map.
From Vision to Reality
The vision map became the "talking point" for the founders. It engaged people’s interest and imagination and communicated to the community what Portland could be with an extensive, linked trail system. The map helped inspire an initial land donation from Peter Kennedy and an easement from UNUM which, together, made the Stroudwater Trail possible. These maps, now almost 10 years old, can still be spotted in many offices and businesses around the city.
Vision Map in hand, PT was looking for an early success, but organizers were stretched thin and felt they needed some help. When Dick Spencer looked to the Muskie Institute’s Public Policy Program to get some assistance, he found Donna Larsen, who became PT’s first (part-time) Executive Director. "I attended meetings, took notes, did the administrative work that needed to get done, and even began the permitting process for the Fore River Bridge," she said.
The first success came in the form of the Capisic Brook Trail. One PT "legend" is that Donna advanced $500.00 (her rent check) for the purchase of gravel for the trail bed (note: she denied this story!) The project provided many opportunities for learning. Donna Williams was an early PT board member and later Portland Planning Board member. Through her local advocacy work, PT found out firsthand about the importance of neighbor input and support. And, through the Appalachian Mountain Club, we had the benefit of top trail construction advice. The resulting 1000-foot public trail continues to be well-loved and used by the community.
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Capisic Brook Trail- PT's First Success
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It was early in ’92, when the group decided that it would transition into a membership organization. Donna Larsen recalled, "Phil and I launched the first drive, at his house. We had kids from Portland High helping us. It was a very exciting time." Soon after, it was decided that the organization was ready to hire its first full-time executive director.
A Leader for PT and the Community
Alix Hopkins joined PT at a critical time and brought to it a diverse background of land trust work, public relations, and political organizing. During her 7 years as executive director, PT would become the voice of the citizen conservation movement in Greater Portland. Through networking, media relations, and membership growth, she helped PT build its citizen constituency and promote the concept of trails and their many benefits.
Alix worked to strengthen PT organizationally, building a strong, diverse board of trustees, developing and executing fundraising campaigns, and networking in the community and with other land trusts and conservation organizations. By reaching out to both likely and unlikely partners, she brought an important spirit of collaboration to the organization’s work and helped to make conservation relevant to people’s everyday lives.
PT as Bridgebuilder
PT continued with its goal of a tangible, public success each year and in October ’92, Jewell Falls was gifted to the city and its citizenry, and PT honored the Jewell family. Later, the Portland Rotary worked to place a bridge at the top of the falls. The work to create a bridge over the water at the Fore River Sanctuary continued for the next three years. The sanctuary itself was created from an initial donation of 10 acres to Maine Audubon. Other landowners also participated and with the assistance of the Student Conservation Corps, the City of Portland and PT, the Sanctuary was formed. Then there was the small matter of a bridge.
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Bridge Over the Fore River to the Fore River Sanctuary
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Initial permitting work had begun in late ’91. The entire process "took 13 different permits, as I recall, " said Peter Monro. Maine Audubon, the Coast Guard, ADA, the Department of Conservation and many other groups were involved. Designated project manager George Potter spent over two years (about 2000 hours) acquiring all the final permits needed to build the structure. By the time the bridge was dedicated in December 1994, the final cost came out to $110,000. It had been a grueling 3 years, but well worth the struggle.
"A Once-in-a-Century Opportunity"
While this activity was taking place on the Fore River, Nathan Smith was focusing his attentions on Portland’s coastline. He had a vision for a public trail along the East End’s waterfront, where the possibility of commercial development by private developers threatened public views and access. Reasonable people might not have considered taking on such a project: negotiations involved the State, Canadian National Railway, and many developers, to name a few. But, as City Manager Bob Ganley pointed out, it was a "once-in-a-century opportunity," and PT took action.
Eliza Cope Nolan at the Trust for Public Land worked with Nathan on the concept for the Eastern Prom Trail, and helped PT with the complexities of the land acquisition and legal costs. The resulting trail, in Alix’s words, "transformed the eastern edge of the city". The Eastern Promenade Trail is now considered a model for complex and collaborative trail development, and is one of the better-known urban trails in the country.
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The Eastern Prom Trail- "A Once-in-a-Century Opportunity"
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Projects, Growth and Transition in the New Millenium
Toward the end of the 90s, Portland Trails began working with the Student Conservation Association to break ground on the new Stroudwater Trail. After two summers of construction and the generous support of many corporate donors and foundations, this beautiful trail now extends two miles along the river through a wooded area that is now protected by PT ownership and conservation easements. Soon this trail will connect to a trail system being developed in Westbrook.
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The Beautiful Stroudwater Trail
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In 1996 the Julie N struck the northern piling of the old Million Dollar Bridge, spilling almost 200,000 gallons of oil into the harbor. Because the Fore River area was one of the most badly oiled, PT was awarded "restoration" funds to create a new trail along the Fore River. Construction on this one-mile trail will be complete this summer and will feature interpretive signage focusing on the value of the marsh.
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Partnering with the Maine Conservation Corps on the Fore River Trail
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Excited about the opportunity to make land conservation part of people’s lives by getting them involved in the planning and building of trails, PT established an Education and Outreach Program with a part-time staff person in 1997. Now, there are trails projects designed and built by school children, their teachers, parents and the community. School trails projects help to connect one neighborhood to the next. Because most schools adjoin some green space, the potential to go from neighborhood to neighborhood is very real. Once trails in schools get started, neighborhood participation soars—as we witnessed at Lyseth School. Participants in these projects learn about the role they can play in the stewardship of their city. This program, said Alix, has its "strength based on grassroots effort, and creates a sense of place, a sense of community."
At the end of 1999, Alix decided to make her departure from Portland Trails and made way for the current Executive Director Nan Cumming, who brought with her a wealth of experience in non-profit administration and fundraising, in addition to a lifelong love of walking. In her first year Nan boosted membership by over 250 and took a crash course in trail development as three projects simultaneously rocked into gear, closely followed by a challenge to preserve a large parcel of land on the Presumpscot River.
The key to Portland Trails’ vision for greenways and walkways is interconnectedness. Peter Monro reminded us recently that PT honors the original vision for Portland by James Phinney Baxter and the Olmsted Brothers of a system that connects parks, trails and waterways.
But our interconnectedness also continues to involve people. Trails link people to greenspaces, neighborhoods, schools and waterfront. Trails counteract sprawl by providing alternative routes of transportation. Trails connect people by getting them out of their cars and on a community link to each other. Trails allow us to live in proximity to one another. Trails make conservation relevant to people’s everyday lives. And PT continues to succeed and grow not only because we are building a system of trails linking open spaces, but because of all of the different people who keep contributing their time and passion for a cause in which they believe.
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