Program Description
BHHT has partnered with Know Your Land Consulting to create an Edible Landscape at Surry Forest. They are also co-creating and implementing (alongside BHHT staff and teachers) several local school ecological restoration projects, including at GSA and Sedgwick Elementary School with Adam’s School in Castine in the early planning phases of a project as well.
Local landowners and businesses have given us free and discounted plants! Thank you! We are also profoundly grateful to the private donors and charitable foundations whose investments are making this impactful work possible overall.
Know Your Land Consulting, run by mother-daughter team Kathy Pollard and Ann Pollard-Ranco (Penobscot tribal citizen), specializes in restoration ecology projects for land conservation organizations, private landowners, and schools. Their focus on indigenous sustainability practices, traditional indigenous ecological knowledge, and mitigations for climate change can be of benefit to all. The Blue Hill Peninsula and associated islands comprise a beloved portion of the traditional Penobscot Homeland that Penobscots lost access to through colonization, so helping to restore habitat has been a welcome opportunity to reconnect with this landscape.
Sedgwick School Newsletter Dec 2022
Kkwey kkwey! Hello! My name is Ann Pollard-Ranco, and I am a citizen of the Penobscot Nation. My ancestors called the Blue Hill Peninsula and islands home for thousands of years. I grew up near Indian Island, the Penobscot reservation in Old Town, but I recently moved to Deer Isle. I am very excited to be one of the first Penobscots to return to our coastal ancestral places! I really appreciate everyone who has made me feel welcome here.
My mom Kathy Pollard and I work with conservation organizations and other landowners to help them better understand the habitat they are protecting, from a Native American perspective. We help increase food abundance for All Our Relations — all who call this place home, including all the animals! We are very excited to be collaborating with Blue Hill Heritage Trust to work with Sedgwick Elementary School students on projects that will benefit wildlife around the school.
We are working on creating a pollinator garden on school grounds, and recently students participated in a tree seed planting workshop! One of the tree species they are growing is white oak, which is a valuable tree for insects and wildlife. They once were plentiful on the Peninsula, but most were cut down in colonial times and used in barrel making. By growing new white oak trees and improving habitat with other food producing plants, students are helping ensure deer, bears, birds, insects, squirrels, and so many more have enough food!
~ Ann Pollard Ranco, Dec 2022
Literature Produced!
The Surry Forest Cookbook and children’s book The Nature of Syrup, were created under the instruction of Professor Constant Albertson by the students of the University of Maine Art Education Community Outreach (UMAECO) course. The artwork in the cookbook was primarily created by students from Orono High School with instruction from the UMaine art education students.
More School Photos
