Richard “Dick” Anderson pointed to Scarborough Marsh on the wooden topographical map of the town. 

“We were making sure it was enjoyed by the public,” he said. He ran his finger along the ridge of the waterway, the wood dyed a light blue. “People have always enjoyed it.” 

Anderson, 90, has dedicated his life to the conservation of Maine’s natural beauty. Scarborough Land Trust awarded him with the Conservationist of the Year, along with the gift of topographical map, as acknowledgement of his lifelong commitment to protecting the environment.

“He’s done a lot for Maine,” said Andrew Mackie, executive director of the Scarborough Land Trust.

Scarborough Marsh has always been a special place for Anderson. He recalled during a recent interview that 60 years ago, the marsh was divided up into individual parcels of private property, primarily used for the harvesting of salt hay. 

“It seemed to me like a piece of land that should be owned by the public,” he said. People liked to hunt ducks there, and “in the old days, it was a great place to fish striped bass,” he said.   

While the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife acquired land for a consolidated marsh, Anderson was the executive director of the Maine Audubon Society. 

He convinced the state to buy an old run-down hot dog stand at the edge of the marsh and the land beneath it for the creation of a nature center. With three donated canoes, the society led tours through the marsh. A lot of birds — like the egrets and the glossy ibises — settled in Maine in the 1960s, making it an exciting time for birding, he said. And the organization got creative with fundraising. At one point, he offered buckets of cow manure as fertilizer to each person who stopped by the nature center and donated $20. 

The organization still leads educational programming at the nature center, 50 years later. 

Anderson never got too far from the marsh. He was part of the group that founded the Friends of Scarborough Marsh in 2000, a volunteer organization that led salt marsh restoration projects, land conservation initiatives and educational programs, all grounded in the local treasure. The group merged with the Scarborough Land Trust in 2023. Now, he’s helping Thomas Urquhart research the history of the marsh for a book he’s writing. 

Anderson has loved the outdoors since he was a kid. “Growing up, I didn’t go to the movies,” he said. “I went fishing and rabbit hunting.” 

While studying at the University of Maine, he realized it was something he could make into a career. He worked for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife during and immediately after college, and he remembers that one of his first assignments was going to the woods and counting spawning smelts near Branch Lake. 

While working as the assistant regional biologist in southern Maine, he researched the effect of pesticides on salmon in Sebago Lake and eventually advocated successfully against the use of DDT, or Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a synthetic pesticide.

“It caused quite a stir,” he said. “After it ended up on the front page, they never sprayed DDT over Sebago Lake again.” 

A lot of Anderson’s career was devoted to raising awareness for environmental issues during a time when environmentalism was just emerging. 

In the mid-1960s, he helped to found the State Biologists Association, a collection of more than 50 scientists interested in advocacy. 

“Fifty years ago, there was no land or water treatment,” he said. There used to be open burning at a dump on the East End of Portland, he remembered. And one time, he took a national legislator on a boat down the Presumpscot River through an industrial zone.

“It was quite the experience for him,” Anderson said. He remembered smoldering smoke and that the river was full of sewage. 

“People walk along the waterfront in Portland, and they don’t think about the old days,” he said. The days before the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. The days before his hero late Secretary of State and Sen. Ed Musky “changed the world,” he said.

“There are not enough 90- and 91-year-olds around who can remember,” he said.  

Anderson remained focused on the environment. In the 1980s, he was the commissioner of the state’s department of conservation, overseeing legislation to protect Maine’s natural resources. He helped to preserve more than half a million acres of public reserve lands by writing legislation that created the Land for Maine’s Future Program, an organization that has funded many of the land trust’s acquisitions. 

He continued to spend time outdoors, hiking Mount Katahdin when he was 60. “I needed to climb it before I got too old,” Anderson said. 

Anderson has been recognized many times for his lifelong commitment to Maine’s outdoors. He was appointed as a member of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection by Gov. Curtis, and Gov. John Baldacci appointed him to be chairperson of the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund Board of Directors.

But when asked what he’s proudest of, he said he doesn’t like to think about that kind of thing. 

“I did a lot of things in my life,” he said. “I stirred people into action. I had a lot of good people to work with.”