BATH

The Kennebec Estuary Land Trust will be hosting its fifth annual Winter Read this month, featuring a discussion of the book “Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World.”

Through a collection of essays and responses from prominent individuals in society, the book addresses the question of environmental crisis and suggests positive ways to respond to this overwhelming dilemma. This public event will take place at the Hyde School Mansion on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Located in Bath, KELT is a membership supported, volunteer driven organization with a focus on land conservation, as well as environmental education and restoration projects. KELT has conserved 2,668 acres of land and sustains nine preserves for public use, scattered throughout a focus area of Westport Island to West Bath, and Georgetown to Dresden and Richmond, according to Becky Kolak, an education coordinator at KELT.

“There are quite a lot of components we’re involved in, but all with the central theme of conservation,” she said.

KELT’s Winter Read was conceived at the suggestion of volunteer Jenifer Van Deusen, who approached KELT about having an environmentally themed, community book read in the winter to help relieve some cabin fever by talking about nature.

“It occurred to me, having lived in Maine, that March is one of the hardest months — everybody is worn out and cabin-fevered,” Van Deusen said. She hoped that reading a book on reconnecting to the land would help bring the community together.

“It’s our community and we want to just find different ways to come together about things we are passionate about,” she added.

KELT’s first Winter Read featured the book “Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town” by local Maine author Susan Shetterly, who was also present at the event to address questions and partake in discussion.

“It was just a really big hit with the community. Since then, Jen has very kindly helped to organize the event,” Kolak said. “We generally pick a book where we can have the author join us — local authors are a really big plus.”

In years past, titles like “Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter” by David Buchanan and “Nature and Renewal: Wild River Valley and Beyond” by Dean Bennett have been discussed at the Winter Read.

Kolak noted that this year was different because the book they chose featured multiple writers, instead of just a local Maine author.

Kolak said KELT’s board director, Becky Halbrook, suggested the book based on KELT’s lecture series presented this past fall, which focused on changing climate. Halbrook thought the book would be a nice segue into inspiring similar discussions at the Winter Read.

“You bring up all this sometimes shocking, sometimes overwhelming data about of how our planet is changing,” Kolak said. “So we bring stories and meditations about how to deal with that and then have an open discussion about how other people are processing this information — how they feel they need to move forward to make an impact, or just understand what’s going on.”

In lieu of having a guest author, Kolak and Van Deusen invited speakers Mila Plavsic and Pat Maloney to come and present informal panels at the discussion.

Plavsic is an environmental science professor at the University of New England. She is a conservation biologist with degrees from the University of Vermont, Yale and Cambridge University of England.

Maloney is the state coordinator of the Maine Project Learning Tree and a board member of the Maine Environmental Education Association, who is “very in touch with the environmental education scene in Maine,” according to Kolak.

“Both have some really nice points of views as far as engagement with this type of information,” Kolak said.

Kolak also added that she was looking forward to learning from the opinions of community members at the discussion, noting that participants are good about talking with each other.

“I think community conversations are important for the engagement of sharing ideas,” she said. “Having conversations about this book and how to process what is going on in the world is a nice engagement opportunity. It brings in a lot of different folks and people.”

What is KELT?

LOCATED IN BATH, KELT is a membership supported, volunteer driven organization with a focus on land conservation, as well as environmental education and restoration projects. KELT has conserved 2,668 acres of land and sustains nine preserves for public use, scattered throughout a focus area of Westport Island to West Bath, and Georgetown to Dresden and Richmond, according to Becky Kolak, an education coordinator at KELT.