Ex-GMF director to take over Blue Hill Heritage Trust in Maine

By Ruth Melville

Hans Carlson may be leaving Great Mountain Forest, but he is not leaving the New England woods. After four years at GMF, Carlson has resigned from his position as director there and is moving to Maine to become the executive director of Blue Hill Heritage Trust, near Acadia National Park.

The Maine land trust owns 3,500 acres across the Blue Hill peninsula and has easements for another 3,500—all in pieces across the peninsula. But the trust has just bought a 2,500-acre block, called the Surry Forest, which is by far the biggest piece of land the trust owns.

An important part of Carlson’s job will be overseeing the rehabilitation of the Surry Forest. For 35 years, the forest was owned by absentee landlords, who had purchased it as an investment. Two years ago the owners sold the forest to a logging company, which proceeded to extract everything of value. For four to five months, Carlson says, trucks were on the move 24 hours a day, hauling out wood. “They went in and did it up. The land is now in need of rehabilitation.”

As opposed to GMF, the Surrey Forest is not a working forest. Most of the trust’s work will be in trail building and monitoring the property to make sure it is not being misused.

The Blue Hill Heritage Trust has been in existence for 30 years, and for many of those years the executive director was the only staff person. The organization has grown, however, and the staff now includes four people, including Carlson.

Carlson believes that as land trusts mature, they get to the point where they are not just acquiring property but are working to bring communities together. “Land trusts have a lot to offer. They get people out on the land, out into the woods.” Much like GMF, Blue Hill Heritage Trust offers educational programs, hikes and activities for kids.

At Blue Hill, Carlson hopes to build collaborative relationships with three other local institutions: College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor; the University of Maine at Orono; and the Schoodic Institute, an environmental science organization affiliated with Acadia National Park. The Surry Forest is an ecological recovery project, but Carlson thinks it can also serve an educational tool.

Carlson says that he is sorry to be leaving GMF and Norfolk, but the move is a homecoming of sorts for him. He got his PhD in environmental history at Orono and still has friends in the area. “New England is a special place,” he adds. “It feels like home.”

Photo by Bruce Frisch: Hans Carlson (left) at a farewell reception given on Nov. 12 at Great Mountain Forest’s  Childs Center.