Photo 1 Caption: A view of the leafy shoreline from the Kennebec River and part of the 10 acre forest donated to KELT by Barbara Vickery and her family. Contributed photo via Kennebec Estuary Land Trust

Land conservation group Kennebec Estuary Land Trust has completed its first land protection project in Richmond.

Two conserved properties protect a combined 27 acres, including upland forest habitat with a mix of red oaks, white pines, white ash, red maples, American beech, and maple-leaf Viburnum, according to the trust. Within the upland forest lie forested wetlands that support four species of ferns and a rich canopy of yellow birch, red maple, and green ash trees. A stream runs through the upland forest, providing a home for salamanders and other amphibians.

A 10-acre forest preserve with shoreline along the Kennebec River has seen little activity since the height of ice harvesting in 1880s and 1890s, according to the trust. Relics of the land’s past use include the foundations of an icehouse and iron rings drilled into the rock once used by ice harvesters to tie up boats and barges.

The land was conserved thanks to a partnership with landowner Barbara Vickery. Vickery for decades as the director of Conservation Programs at The Nature Conservancy in Maine and was awarded the Maine Coastal Heritage Trust’s 2017 Espy Land Heritage Award for her contributions to conservation in Maine. Her late husband, Peter was an ornithologist, researcher, mentor and writer.

Last month, Vickery conserved a portion of her upland property with a conservation easement and donated to the trust half a mile of riverfront and shoreland nestled between the old rail line and the Kennebec River.

“My family has been walking to our Kennebec shorefront at all seasons for 40 years,” said Barbara Vickery  in a news release. “We’ve enjoyed watching Bald Eagles, and sturgeon, finding regular sign of otter on the shore, marveling at the ice floes in winter, the river flooding in spring, and the Cardinal Flower and gentians in summer. We’re glad to think others will be enjoying these things here for many years to come.”

The waters today are used by recreational boaters and fishermen.