Momentum Conservation contains an almost 20 year history of working to strengthen, connect, and support conservation organizations in Maine. Our model has evolved over the years but the throughline tethers us to this core purpose. That we are still here, growing and thriving, illustrates the power of responsiveness, innovation, and relationships. Many people and organizations are woven into our story making it all the more powerful and inspirational.
Momentum Conservation’s roots are in 2006, when three all volunteer land trusts, Chebeague & Cumberland Land Trust, Oceanside Conservation Trust of Casco Bay, and Falmouth Land Trust, came together to explore the power gained from collaborating. They created the Portland North Land Trust Collaborative and hired one staff person, Jess Burton. Over the ensuing five years, these land trusts worked hard to find alignment and overlap and together worked on regional conservation planning, overall organizational capacity building, and preparing for Land Trust Accreditation. The staff worked behind the scenes to support the volunteers by providing administrative, collaborative, and logistical support through those years.
2006: Portland North Land Trust Collaborative is formed, one of the first examples of conservation organizations working together so closely in the state.
2012: Southern Maine Conservation Collaborative(SMCC) founded as a membership-based service organization whose purpose was to strengthen and support conservation in Southern Maine.
2015: Called for more collaborative programming lead by SMCC in areas including stewardship, acquisition, and budgeting. SMCC also shifted at this time to be more fiscally supported through philanthropy and not only through technical assistance fees.
2018: Staff and Board created and adopted an equity statement. Focus began in earnest to shift programming to include an equity lens in all work and to center equity.
2021: Officially changed its mission and vision to reflect work which centers justice and climate change. Also shifted scope from Southern Maine focus to a statewide.
2023: Received an unsolicited grant from the Onion Foundation which began our first grant programming and catapulted SMCC into a time of more active growth and visibility.
2024: Changed our name to Momentum Conservation
Towards the end of the five years, there was a realization that this type of support was needed by more organizations in the region. At that time there were more than 35 conservation organizations of different types working in Cumberland and York Counties and there was a wide scale desire to understand how a larger and more flexible collaborative model might serve more needs. Thus, the Southern Maine Conservation Collaborative (SMCC) was born in 2012.
This next iteration of conservation support continued to be staffed by Jess and Doreen, who had joined in 2010, but was now spanning two counties and servicing twelve organizations. The SMCC model focused on as needed technical support and capacity building services for the individual organizations as well as programming to address shared needs related to stewardship, community engagement, and acquisition. In 2018, SMCC developed their first Equity Statement and began to facilitate learning opportunities for the conservation sector that centered equity and justice within conservation. SMCC was also on the forefront of integrating conservation and climate change observation with the Climate Change Observatory Network launched in 2020. In response to multiple requests for support from outside of York and Cumberland County, SMCC expanded its service area to include the entire state in 2021.
In the last few years, there has been more change. The Onion Foundation, a Maine based family foundation who focuses their giving on the environment and arts, made an unsolicited grant to SMCC. This grant enabled us to expand our capacity building services and develop the Land Trust Grant Program, which has now been running for 3 years. We also rebranded to our current name Momentum Conservation, a name that is fitting for our work, our position, and our vision, moved to a new office overlooking Monument Square in Portland, and have grown our staff to include 4 full time employees.
Just as our past is tied to so many people and organizations, we know that our future is too. Please join us on this journey.
