[cs_drop_cap letter=”J” color=”#000000″ size=”5em” ]udy Marsh can’t remember a time when the Goslings Islands weren’t her go-to getaway. As a kid, she picnicked and camped there, watched seals sun themselves on rocky ledges, swam from the sandbar that emerges between the islands at low tide, and savored a world-away feeling, just a 15-minute skiff ride from the Town of Brunswick’s Mere Point boat launch and her family’s business, Paul’s Marina.

Over the years, the islands’ owners graciously allowed paddlers, fishermen, and sailors to freely use them. Most people — including Marsh — never imagined that the Goslings could one day be developed and made off-limits.

So in 2014, when Marsh learned that the Goslings were for sale, and that Maine Coast Heritage Trust was working to buy and preserve them, she immediately joined the effort. “There are so many Maine islands that people have bought and then put up ‘No Trespassing’ signs,” Marsh says. “I hated the thought that this could happen at a place so many people loved.”

MCHT raised $1 million to conserve the Goslings, with the help of a grant from the state’s Land for Maine’s Future program, generous foundations and individuals, and a shoebox stuffed with $22,000 in cash, checks, and spare change, which Marsh collected through a raft of fundraisers.

The Goslings are among the more than 300 islands that MCHT has protected as part of its sweeping effort to conserve Maine’s coast. Of all Maine’s natural treasures, its 2,400 islands are viewed by many as its crown jewels. In addition to offering one-of-a-kind adventures, these unspoiled outposts provide critical habitat for plants and wildlife and hold important clues about Maine’s past that aren’t available anywhere else. What’s more, the islands provide the iconic vistas that make Maine such a beautiful place to visit and live.

“Having undeveloped islands where plants and wildlife can thrive and that people can enjoy is essential to the very character of Maine,” says state historian Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. “The work Maine Coast Heritage Trust is doing is so important.”

While other nonprofits support year-round island communities or make handshake agreements with island owners to allow recreational use, MCHT is the leader in owning and managing islands as public preserves — often partnering with landowners, government agencies, and local groups to do so. MCHT then provides ongoing stewardship of the islands, creating and caring for trails, campsites, and kiosks, removing invasive plants, keeping beaches clean, and bringing people out to enjoy the islands.

Now in its fiftieth year of conserving Maine’s coast, MCHT is continuing its work in earnest to save dozens of additional island gems threatened by development and climate change impacts while there’s still time.

“Our work to preserve islands has never been more critical,” says Jane Arbuckle, the trust’s director of stewardship. “As sea levels rise, and development continues, our work ensures that birds and wildlife have places of refuge on the coast, and that these majestic places remain open so that the public can continue to enjoy them, just as they have for generations.”

[cs_drop_cap letter=”J” color=”#000000″ size=”5em” ]udy Marsh can’t remember a time when the Goslings Islands weren’t her go-to getaway. As a kid, she picnicked and camped there, watched seals sun themselves on rocky ledges, swam from the sandbar that emerges between the islands at low tide, and savored a world-away feeling, just a 15-minute skiff ride from the Town of Brunswick’s Mere Point boat launch and her family’s business, Paul’s Marina.

Over the years, the islands’ owners graciously allowed paddlers, fishermen, and sailors to freely use them. Most people — including Marsh — never imagined that the Goslings could one day be developed and made off-limits.

So in 2014, when Marsh learned that the Goslings were for sale, and that Maine Coast Heritage Trust was working to buy and preserve them, she immediately joined the effort. “There are so many Maine islands that people have bought and then put up ‘No Trespassing’ signs,” Marsh says. “I hated the thought that this could happen at a place so many people loved.”

MCHT raised $1 million to conserve the Goslings, with the help of a grant from the state’s Land for Maine’s Future program, generous foundations and individuals, and a shoebox stuffed with $22,000 in cash, checks, and spare change, which Marsh collected through a raft of fundraisers.

The Goslings are among the more than 300 islands that MCHT has protected as part of its sweeping effort to conserve Maine’s coast. Of all Maine’s natural treasures, its 2,400 islands are viewed by many as its crown jewels. In addition to offering one-of-a-kind adventures, these unspoiled outposts provide critical habitat for plants and wildlife and hold important clues about Maine’s past that aren’t available anywhere else. What’s more, the islands provide the iconic vistas that make Maine such a beautiful place to visit and live.

“Having undeveloped islands where plants and wildlife can thrive and that people can enjoy is essential to the very character of Maine,” says state historian Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. “The work Maine Coast Heritage Trust is doing is so important.”

While other nonprofits support year-round island communities or make handshake agreements with island owners to allow recreational use, MCHT is the leader in owning and managing islands as public preserves — often partnering with landowners, government agencies, and local groups to do so. MCHT then provides ongoing stewardship of the islands, creating and caring for trails, campsites, and kiosks, removing invasive plants, keeping beaches clean, and bringing people out to enjoy the islands.

Now in its fiftieth year of conserving Maine’s coast, MCHT is continuing its work in earnest to save dozens of additional island gems threatened by development and climate change impacts while there’s still time.

“Our work to preserve islands has never been more critical,” says Jane Arbuckle, the trust’s director of stewardship. “As sea levels rise, and development continues, our work ensures that birds and wildlife have places of refuge on the coast, and that these majestic places remain open so that the public can continue to enjoy them, just as they have for generations.”