Merryspring Nature Center reopens Kitty Todd Arboretum with new trails, signs
CAMDEN — A dark blue and white butterfly, and then another, swoop suddenly in front of Brett Willard, their dark blue and glinting silver wings moving through the green trees. “They’re White Admirals,” said Willard, verifying with a quick Google search on his phone. “And they’re probably mating.”
Whatever business those Admirals are pursuing, they are in the right place. It’s a sunny and warm June afternoon in the Midcoast, and Merryspring Nature Center, which straddles the town line of Rockport and Camden on 60 acres is secluded and serene with its garden and wilderness walking trails.
Yet, in late spring, it is also brimming with life — birds are singing and chattering, insects are having a heyday, flitting from flower to flower, woodsmen are tending to trees in the woods, and at the nature center itself, a crew is finishing a construction job, the new deck that extends over a small rise, with views of the garden beds and hexagon.
Willard, who is program director at Merryspring, is taking a reporter for a walk into the woods to find trees. That may be oxymoronic, for trees are everywhere we look in Maine. But, how often do we take the time to really look at them, their leaves and bark, eccentricities and survival methods?
Unique species of trees are interwoven in the local woods, and the regional ecology. If the trees are heathy, the birds and bugs, other plants, even us, can hope to be reasonably healthy.
And trees do have have their individual peculiarities. One is bent over almost 90 degrees, leaning at a variance in a forest of otherwise upright trees.
“It’s fine,” said Willard. “Just growing sideways.”
And it happens to be one the trees highlight in Merryspring’s revitalized Kitty Todd Arboretum, with 35 native Maine tree species spread across 10 acres.
Meadow, woods, gardens and outdoor classrooms
Merryspring is a green jewel tucked behind Hannaford grocery store and several busy banks. Its property borders the Conway House property, the history center for Camden-Rockport Historical Society, and a campus of restored buildings that represent the first settlements of the region.
The history of Merryspring itself is built on the backs of volunteers — gardeners, carpenters, arborists, teachers — all who share and avid appreciation of the Maine landscape, its history, and its cultivation.
And this weekend, they are devoting their energies for a grand reopening the Kitty Todd Aboretum, beginning at 10 a.m.
The effort that has gone into expanding and upgrading paths and interpretive signs for the arboretum — the only one on the Midcoast — is tremendous, and comprises 10 acres along the southwest hillside of Merryspring. That is the side of Merryspring that descends gently toward the Goose River in Rockport, and the neighboring golf course.
It is exposed to the warm southerly afternoon sun, and since it was clearcut more than a century ago, the native trees have returned, with variety and vigor.
The Kitty Todd Arboretum is a perfect spot to learn about coastal Maine native trees, softwood and hardwood, which thrive in the Midcoast.
“We’ve been working hard on it,” said Willard, as we breezed along the paths, stopping a different unique trees to examine bark, leaves and roots. Few know the difference between a yellow birch and a white birch, but with a certain cast of light, there is color change.
The woods are peaceful, and sometimes our feet find stone steps that have carefully laid along the paths, from the 1980s, or more recently since the turn of the 21st Century.
Merryspring is a favorite among locals and visitors for walking and exploring the woods, or for attending any of its myriad classes, workshops and camps about the natural world, the local ecology and wildlife. Something is always underway at Merryspring, and the arboretum adds yet another dimension to the multi-faceted nature center.
Beginning in 2016, the restoration of the arboretum was made possible in part by a Project Canopy grant from the Maine Forest Service and USDA Forest Service.
It now features 35 full color signs with common and scientific names, along with photos and a brief description of each Maine native tree. Greeting guests will be a new kiosk, complete with a satellite-accurate map and some information on the history of the Arboretum. The Arboretum now includes wider trails, which have been reblazed and named according to their dominant specimen tree.
And at the center of it all is the old and Majestic Red Maple, down near the Goose River.
No one knows the history of this tree, but it has years on it, and the bark is as layered and distinct as that of a very old human with many stories to tell. It is likely that the Red Maple had not been cut down by settlers or farmers when they cleared the region of the trees, and now shows new generations what trees can become, given a chance to grow old.
Archeological dig at Merryspring
Should one go walking the northwest side of Merryspring, be careful not to intrude upon a dig underway by archeologist Harbour Mitchell.
He was walking one day with Brett Willard along the grassy part of the old farm that preceded Merryspring, and noticed a slight depression in the grass.
“That’s an old cellar,” he told Willard.
And because Mitchell is currently doing archeological work at the Conway House next door to Merryspring, where the earliest settlement in Camden/Rockport still stands, he got curious.
Mitchell did exploratory digging and lo and behold, he found ceramics — English Creamware and Pearlware — indicative of the 1700s and early 1800s.
He also found a single silver button, which may have been affixed to a militia uniform, or Indian dress.
Mitchell also found a dump midden from circa 1790, and believes the settlers built there on the gravel and clay ridge of Merryspring, and then built a bigger home just nearby.
“Next, it’s title searches,” he said, as the mystery of who had a home there gets investigated.
Before Merryspring became a nature preserve and center, in 1974, it had been a homestead, then the site of a sawmill and lumberyard.
Thousands of feet of mature white spruce, red spruce and white pine were felled. But then, the seeds, carried on the wind and by birds and animals, began a new growth, which continues today, protected.
Arborist Doug Johnson, of Camden, who helps Merryspring tend to its trees, likes this one so much that he cares for it without charging a dime. He has installed a cable between some of the branches to keep them upright, extending toward the sun.
The restoration of the Arboretum culminates two years of work by the Maine Conservation Corps, Boy Scout Troop 200, Doug Johnson and Richard Lermond, and their crews, as well as Merryspring staff and volunteers.
This event is free to all. Guests of all ages are encouraged to rediscover this unique natural history resource for the local community.
Merryspring is located at the end of Conway Road, just off Route 1 in Camden behind Hannaford Shopping Plaza. For more information, contact info@merryspring.org or call 207-236-2239. Or visit Merryspring.org.
Kitty Todd was an environmentalist and naturalist who spent her time between Ohio and Camden. In 1971, Todd headed a campaign to preserve Irwin Prairie, a rare wet prairie habitat in Holland, Ohio. In 1972, the Kitty Todd Nature Preserve, a now 1,000 acre preserve of endangered Black Oak savanna habitat in northwest Ohio, was named in her honor. Following a move to Camden, Kitty and her husband, George, became active in local area conservation efforts until her death in 1980. That same year, the Kitty Todd Arboretum opened and was dedicated in her memory.
Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657
