Perry man helps preserve traditional land access

In 1968 Walt Loring of Perry was living in Texas. He was a young man branching out after growing up Downeast, but a call from his father set the stage for a lifelong effort to preserve his family's land Downeast. The result is a 14 acre swath of forest and open space shorefront with conservation easements in place, including traditional weir net drying and repair uses allowed, and an access road and parking space donated to Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) to round out the Loring Cove Preserve, which Loring did not own but helped to shepherd into preservation for public access.
"My Dad called me up and told me he was going to sell because the taxes were increasing," explains Loring, harking back to that pivotal day in 1968. The land, with a wide grassy sweep curving around the shorefront of Passamaquoddy Bay, traditionally had been used to stretch, dry and repair weir nets, and Loring's father had kept the land for weir fishermen to access for that purpose. The land has been in the family for generations, with Loring's father and uncle among the many fishermen who built weirs along the coast. "My uncle would set up on the field, and he called it crocheting as he mended the nets." Loring told his father that he'd pay the taxes and not to sell.
In 1980 Loring moved back to Maine and took up residence at the family property. During that decade there were pressures on land Downeast from upscale subdivisions and industrial developers. Loring was dismayed to the see the housing developments that had wiped out much of the wild nature of the southern and mid coast's shoreland. He says, "There was a real land grab going on in the 1980s." Land was cheap in comparison to other areas, and with property taxes rising many shorefront owners who had owned the land for generations and had incomes based on local economies could no longer afford to keep it. Loring saw the need to act. "I was concerned about development, with shorefront becoming private and the public losing access." He adds that he was worried about the long term future of his family property. "I had visions of this place being bought by developers and all sorts of houses and no trespassing signs going up."
"There was a huge transfer of ownership; developers even from Hong Kong" were investing in the Quoddy region, explains Alan Brooks, the co founder of Quoddy Regional Land Trust (QRLT), which is now a part of Downeast Coastal Conservancy. QRLT was founded right about the same time as Loring began to reach out to MCHT, which was less than 20 years old at the time and still primarily focused on the Mount Desert Island area.
MCHT Eastern Washington County Project Manager Jacob van de Sande explains that at the time MCHT was still quite small and did not own any lands in fee, with its first two easements not taking place until 1988. When Loring approached MCHT in 1985, the nonprofit was encouraging Brooks and others to form a local land trust for the region. In 1987 QRLT was born, and Loring began working with Brooks to create easements for his property. "We redrafted the easement six times," Loring notes, but finally in 1990 the paperwork was signed and the easement in place.
Loring, however, was keeping an eye on the abutting 13 acre property of Loring Cove, which was used for access by fishermen. "Back in 1990 when I did the easement, I tried to convince my neighbor to do the cove," he says. A number of obstacles prevented the effort from happening, but when the owner passed away and a relative living far away inherited, Loring approached her and asked if he could have some time to reach out to MCHT about the property. "At first they [MCHT] said it was out of the focus area and too small, but fortunately there was a guy there mowing [the Loring weir net field] who was a fisherman who talked about the history of the use by fishermen and that got them interested." Loring pauses. "It was quite a process."
In 2016 MCHT created the 13 acre preserve for public access, with Loring donating about one acre of abutting land to create an access road with small parking lot. Brooks says that Loring's offer "was a great solution," and the land, already under conservation easement through Loring's work with QRLT, was allowed by law to be transferred to MCHT for exactly this kind of situation.
Van de Sande remembers the Loring Cove Preserve effort. "It was certainly not something we were seeking. I had never been down there." He explains, "Much of our work is with the phone ringing and people having ideas or seeing a property or their own at risk." He adds, "When ideas come from people calling in about an opportunity, that's important."
The boat house at the cove, a large and old wooden structure, had been one of the obstacles in the path of conservation. MCHT is not in the business of owning structures, because of maintenance and liability issues. While the land trust had initially planned to burn it, Loring again stepped forward and asked to have some time to find another solution.
"The boat house was under threat," says van de Sande, from sea level rise and storms. When Loring suggested that some local people might be interested in demolishing the boat house to recycle for building materials, MCHT agreed. Van de Sande remembers the beach cleanup party that was held after the boat house had been dismantled. "Wow, were there a lot of nails," he says with a laugh. A crew of 10 to 15 gathered to help and celebrated around a bonfire when all was done.
When asked how he envisions his legacy contributing to the region's future, Loring responds quietly, "My interest was to create something into perpetuity and accessible for people. You never know if you're going to be successful until it's completed."
Information about the Loring Cove Preserve can be found at www.mcht.org.