We’ll walk through the pine-oak forest to the shore of this stunning 23-acre preserve on Casco Bay. We’ll investigate the tidal mudflats and sandy beaches along the coastline while keeping an eye out for common eiders, black guillemots, ospreys, and bald eagles.

This annual family-friendly event celebrates the ancient phenomenon of horseshoe crabs coming ashore to lay eggs. Participants will have opportunities to handle horseshoe crabs and learn about these unique creatures from marine educators and horseshoe crab experts.

Join us at Broad Cove Reserve to learn about spring ephemerals, captivating and delicate wildflowers like Pink Lady’s Slipper and Fringed Polygala. We only have a fleeting moment to enjoy these flowers in bloom each spring!

Join us, Island Institute, and Surfrider Maine for coastal clean up, marine debris data collection, and invasive species removal. This collaborative event aims to reduce pollution, improve habitat health, and generate valuable data that informs long-term conservation efforts. By working together, we will ensure Chebeague’s shorelines remain resilient and vibrant!

Are you curious about the natural world? Would you like to enhance your time outside and grow your ways of seeing what’s there? Join us for an introduction to nature journaling, a flexible practice available to anyone. Together we will consider the benefits of observing the natural world around us, get tips on how to start a nature journal, and share ideas that can help guide our entries.

Join the CCLT Trail Crew on Wednesday, April 29 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Farwell Forest for a trail crew session to create a new trail section. 

When you notice the unmistakable chorus of spring peepers signaling that days and nights are finally warming, it’s a sign that vernal pools are coming alive. These temporary bodies of water are home to wood frogs, spotted salamanders, fairy shrimp, and other amphibians. We will get a close-up look at egg masses and other evidence of amphibians in three temporary and isolated wetlands.

Join educators from the Center for Wildlife and their owl ambassadors to learn about the variety of New England owl species, their habitats, diets, calls, and tips on how to spot them in the wild. The program will also focus on their importance in balancing prey populations, current challenges, and how audience members can help steward the environment that we all share.  

We invite you to be a part of the next phase of our Indian Point Restoration Project on Chebeague! Join us to plant native dune grass and shrubs. Enhancing the vegetation in this fragile ecosystem will help limit erosion and improve habitat for shorebirds.

Join us and Greater Portland area land trusts for a screening of the World Trails Film Festival featuring 90 minutes of short trail-related films set around the globe.

Join us to learn about the fascinating and mysterious world of moss and lichen: sometimes called "The Lilliputian World." We will enjoy seeing what the early spring offers for our observations. The area along Mill Brook will provide an ideal habitat for our explorations.

Join us (again!) to continue roughing in the new trail network at Watson Woods and start planning for bridges. We'll provide loppers, pruning saws, and electric chainsaw, but bring your own if you can or want to. 

Welcome the end of winter with some invigorating trail work! Join us to continue roughing in the new trail network at Watson Woods and start planning for bridges. We'll provide loppers, pruning saws, and electric chainsaw, but bring your own if you can or want to. 

Help us make comfortable resting and viewing spots for our properties! Join us for a special bench building and bench installation session.  We'll assemble wooden benches and then install them at multiple locations on CCLT conserved properties around Cumberland. We’ll have parts and pieces all ready to go, along with tools needed for assembly. 

Cure the winter doldrums with a little invigorating trail work! Join us to continue roughing in the new trail network at Watson Woods, this time on the east side of Mill Brook. We'll bring pruning saws and pole saws, but bring your own if you can or want to. 

Baby it’s cold outside, but it’s the perfect time to observe trees! They are the largest of the perennial plants and can perform some real magic in their adaptations to endure a long and cold winter. Trees are in their period of winter dormancy, the plant version of winter hibernation. Deciduous trees might be without their leaves, but we’ll learn other ways to identify them. We’ll also learn about the different species of conifers abundant in these woods.

Join us at Thayer Brook Preserve as we explore the mysterious lives of beavers, their role in the ecosystem, the history of our relationship with them, and the ways they shape the landscape around us. We’ll walk over the frozen beaver marsh where, conditions permitting, we may get up close to a large beaver lodge and look for signs of wildlife activity along the way.

Join us in mid-winter to look for signs of wildlife, including tracks and scat in Farwell Forest. We'll walk through this lovely stretch of woods with an experienced guide looking for evidence of fisher, porcupine, fox, coyote, ermine, red squirrel, mouse, and deer.

Cure the winter doldrums with a little invigorating trail work! Join us to continue roughing in the new trail network at Watson Woods, this time on the other side of Mill Brook. Pruning saws, a pole saw, and a set of loppers or two will be the tools of the day. We’ll provide some, and bring your own if you can.

Are you curious about the natural world? Would you like to enhance your time outside and grow your ways of seeing what’s there? Join us for an introduction to nature journaling, a flexible practice available to anyone. Together we will consider the benefits of observing the natural world around us, get tips on how to start a nature journal, and share ideas that can help guide our entries.

Please join us for another trail building session at Watson Woods.  We'll meet at the end of the road and hike in to continue our trail blazing and trimming. Tools du jour are pole saws, pruning saws, and loppers. Bring your own or borrow from CCLT's tool collection.

Come join us for a gentle walk in the woods as we mark the winter solstice. We'll look and listen for signs of winter preparations already underway in trees, birds, and other animals. What do we notice? What's happening that's harder to see? The walk will include a brief solstice ceremony.

Join us, the Chebeague Recreation Center, the Chebeague Community Church, and the Chebeague Library in the center cross of Littlefield Woods for this joyous annual event in a beautiful natural setting! We’ll decorate a solstice tree at 2:00, sing carols at 2:30, and then head to the Rec for hot cocoa and tree lighting at 3:15.

Join us at Sanford’s Pond to get the skate shack and pond ready for the upcoming skating season. We'll have some tools with us, but feel free to bring a rake or a weed-wacker if you like. Drop by if/when you can! Questions? Contact Jonathan Dawson at steward@ccltmaine.org. 

The beautiful hemlocks on the Elmwood Trails give us a chance to apply the lessons of Tom Wessels' book "Reading the Forested Landscape." Why are there so many multiple-trunked trees? What are those humps on the ground? What can we posit about that stone wall? This forest also gives us the chance to see Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, the insect that has arrived in Maine and is threatening this species. Rain or shine. Please wear blaze orange; we’ll have extra to lend if you need some.

We'll hike into CCLT's newly acquired Watson Woods, where we'll continue roughing in a new trail from where the parking area will eventually be to the waterfall and beyond. Loppers and pruning saws will be the tools of the day. CCLT will bring tools, but please bring your own favorite(s) if you can. 

We'll hike into CCLT's newly acquired Watson Woods, where we'll continue roughing in a new trail from where the parking area will eventually be to the waterfall and beyond. Loppers and pruning saws will be the tools of the day.  CCLT will bring tools, but please bring your own favorite(s) if you can.  And please remember to wear blaze orange!

Even if there are few fungi in evidence on this walk due to the drought, we will find plenty to see and talk about, including the signs of autumn and preparations of nature for this transition.  Please join us!

We'll hike into CCLT's newly acquired Watson Woods, where we'll scout out, trim, and blaze (with surveyor's tape) a preliminary trail route down from the field to the brook. This is a great opportunity to get a glimpse at this stunning property while getting the ball rolling on trail creation.