Brunswick’s Maquoit Woods have been much in the public mind for the past three years, even as only a small percentage of us have spent much time in those woods. The catalyst for that attention was their owner’s decision to sell them in 2021. Seemingly sudden, the sale of those 283 acres to a developer was followed by the bruiting of a plan to fill those acres with 900 units of new housing.

“Whoa,” said a populace accustomed to these acres being wooded lands whose northern fringe is tight to town and whose southern reach kisses waters that flow into Maquoit Bay.

Questions followed in various forums: What about the schools; what about the sewer or septic; what about all the added roads, driveways, roofs that shed rainwater rather than absorb it; what about the bay (Maquoit) into which the waters of these woods flow; what about the woods, the rare pitch pine habitat, the plants, the animals; what about the land?

Good questions all, and in December 2022, our town councilors offered a temporary answer: They voted to have the town take out a loan and purchase the woods’ 283 acres. After deliberation, they would decide Maquoit Woods’ immediate future at a later date.

Here we are in 2025, and it is the immediate future.

I serve with six fellow citizens on Brunswick’s Conservation Commission. After receiving a proposal, Town Council has asked us a question: Should Brunswick accept a $2 million payment for an conservation easement (to be held by the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust) on 240 acres of Maquoit Woods, thereby conserving that land going forward? The town would own the land; BTLT would hold the easement. What is the commission’s recommendation?

It’s a big question, containing all those questions listed above and more. And at our next Conservation Commission meeting on Aug. 6 in council chambers, we will do our best to answer and recommend. Doing so will take some research, thinking and walking. Then, we will get to the talking and finally … the recommending. That’s council’s ask of us.

Here’s our ask of you, members of the public interested in these woods and their future: What are your thoughts and questions? Not all of you have the time or inclination to visit these woods in advance, but in the paragraphs below I will try to take you a little closer on a walk through them.

A citizen surveys Maquoit Woods

Land offers its lessons slowly, and so I’ve been to these woods on foot a number of times, and during the days of approach to our Commission meeting, I return.

The path leading in from Seguin Drive is an old beaten track that digresses with side paths repeatedly, which points out that people have traversed and lived near (or in) these woods for centuries. The soil is sandy at the outset, and pitch pines stipple it, visual reminder of the managed pitch pine heath barrens in our Town Commons not far to my west. Both are increasingly rare habitats in developed Southern Maine, with a rating of S1 (critically imperiled).

I turn south on another path, and oaks, white pines and scattered maples and birches take over — usual Maine woodlands of good height. So no recent cutting, but clearly, this was once shorn land. The land gentles up a bit, down a little. Pleasant walking, given a light prod by mosquitoes that see me as the promised mammal.

The flute-like song of the wood thrush floats through the air. Henry Thoreau’s favorite bird and a rare sound in then cutover Concord, the thrush requires deep, undeveloped woods for a home; I will hear them throughout my walk. Then there is thin scree of a broad-winged hawk, registered as “rare” in my Sibley’s bird book. I get the bird-message: These are good woods.

Going south brings me to the gullied land that marks much of Maquoit Woods. From first hint to 50-feet deep with 35-degree slopes happens quickly (under a quarter-mile). The hemlocks appear and the brook below begins talking; as a wild brook should be, it is crisscrossed with fallen trees. The severe slopes have kept much of this area unused by people, and these woods are mature, feel wilder.

At one point a short spur trail dead-ends on what I’ve begun to call the balcony. Sixty feet below the brook gnaws at the sand and gravel, sharpening the already-wrinkled topography. I pause, look out and down; I hear only the brook’s summer voice and birdsong; I could be a hundred miles to the northwest.

A little farther south, the brook begins pooling, and I find a way down the slope. There, I can cross the flow on a lightly trod, old beaver dam, climb up again and find another trail on the other bank. A good-sized doe breaks cover and bounds away.

I’ve been tracking my walk on a phone app so that I can see as much of the woods as possible. I turn north, aiming for a walk around the perimeter of the 40-plus acres proposed as usable by the town. As I near them, I hear the reminder of traffic on Mere Point Road; I hear other sounds of town, see dwellings through the trees.

Large and wild enough for all sorts of lives; close enough for people’s sometimes crowded lives to find leg-stretching room and a taste of solitude. What’s your take?

Sandy Stott is a Brunswick resident, chairperson of the town’s Conservation Commission and the town’s Steering Committee for Mere Brook, and a member of Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust’s Board of Directors. He writes for a variety of publications. He may be reached at fsandystott@gmail.com.