The longtime director of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust is leaving her post at the end of the month to become program director for the Maine Land Trust Network.
Angela Twitchell. Courtesy photo
Angela Twitchell served as executive director of the land trust since 2008 and has overseen 60 conservation projects that preserved nearly 3,000 acres.
“Angela’s extraordinary capacity to connect with a diverse array of people and institutions, and to nurture cooperative relationships and build trust with them over many years has produced so many benefits for our community,” Emily Swan, the land trust board president, said in a statement. “Without Angela’s perseverance and capacity to create and nurture productive partnerships, it is hard to imagine many of BTLT’s achievements happening.”
Twitchell is from Turner, Maine; her father ran Twitchell Airport.
“As a child, I was so lucky to be able to fly into remote places in Maine that few people get to see, but I also experienced firsthand the effects of pollution on the Androscoggin River and the result of humans not being good stewards of the land,” Twitchell said in a statement. “I knew from a young age that I wanted to go into an environmental field.”
During her tenure with the land trust, she grew conservation efforts in Topsham to protect the Cathance River and helped develop trails in Woodward Point in Brunswick. She also helped established a lease of Crystal Spring Farm and created the Tom Settlemire Community Garden in Brunswick.
Twitchell said she was honored to be chosen for the Maine Land Trust Network position.
“I’m particularly excited to be working on a statewide level to explore ways for the land trust network to collaborate and plan for intentional impacts, especially as it relates to climate change,” she said. “My real goal is to make sure that my children and grandchildren grow up feeling just as I do — that there is no better place to live than Maine.”
Former land trust board President Brad Babson credited Twitchell for growing the land trust, which has a staff of 12 overseeing 3,220 acres of conservation property and 23 miles of public trails. She also oversaw the land trust’s merger with the Cathance River Education Alliance earlier this year, which she said will increase educational opportunities and resources for the community.
“Angela led us through the remarkable evolution of BTLT as a well-managed and accredited conservation organization deeply committed to community building in a variety of ways and growing from a one-person office with an operating budget of about $100,000 to one that is tenfold that today,” Babson said. “Crucial to this success story has been her pragmatic strategic vision and guidance on both organizational development and day-to-day operational opportunities and challenges. Also crucial to this story has been her personal qualities of always listening and projecting a positive attitude in achieving highly effective relations with the community, donors, landowners, board and staff.”
Caroline Eliot, who served as the land trust’s associate director, will become interim executive director as it searches for a permanent replacement.
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