Our Beginnings
Friends of the Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area was formed in 2019 to be the holder of a registered conservation area at the mouth of the Little River on the South side of Belfast on the Penobscot Bay. Friends of the Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Belfast is a beautiful and eclectic small city located on the shores of Penobscot Bay in Midcoast Maine. In 2018, the Governor of Maine and the Belfast City Council made an announcement that, after several months of closed-door negotiations and exploration, they had entered into an agreement with a Norwegian aquaculture company, Nordic Aquafarms (NAF). NAF intends to build an industrial-scale, land-based salmon farm on a pristine, 56-acre residential-zoned parcel on the south side of Belfast at the mouth of the Little River. They propose to raise 33,000 metric tons of salmon annually in tanks on land that would pump from and discharge directly into the Bay.
The Little River winds through a beloved recreation area and trail. Around every bend one might see otters in the water, beavers at work, bats at dusk, eagles and owls in the high treetops, artists sketching, and many people young and old hiking, picnicking, swimming. The Little River Trail is the last contiguous greenway stretching from the mouth of the Little River all the way into the Belfast city proper.
The mouth of the Little River, also known as Brown’s Cove, is notable for its shore bird populations of waterfowl including eagles, ospreys, herons and ducks. The intertidal mudflats reach far out at low tide, exposing a diversity of seaweed, small crustaceans, and shells. Early in the 20th century, an upland property owner, Harriet L. Hartley, recognized the ecological richness and fragility of the area and took steps to protect it for future generations with covenants that have carried through the chain of ownership deeds and titles until today.
Judith Grace and Jeffrey Mabee hold a deeded title to 8 acres of this magnificent intertidal area. In 2019 they conveyed it to the newly-formed Friends of Harriet Hartley for safe keeping. To learn more about the legal challenges to the ownership of the conservation area, click here.
Our immediate goal is to protect and preserve the conservation area. Our long-range vision is to be a part of efforts to reclaim, restore, and conserve environmentally-critical coastal and intertidal land around Penobscot Bay
Looking north at what is now the Route 1 bridge over the Little River as it comes out into Brown’s Cove and Belfast Bay. Notice the Belfast Water District building in the far background.
Dr. Harriet L. Hartley
Who is Dr. Harriet L. Hartley?
Harriet L. Hartley was born in Philadelphia in 1874. Dr. Hartley graduated from medical school in 1903 and became a professor of surgery with a specialty in pediatrics, an advocate for public health, and a champion of women in medicine. She and her husband moved to Belfast in the 1920s where they owned a large property on the Little River.
Over the years, Dr. Hartley sold some of the property, but intentionally retained possession of the intertidal zone fronting her original tract. When the final piece of her land was sold in the 1950s, Dr. Hartley attached a covenant that stated, “...it is to be used for residential purposes only, that no businesses for profit are to be conducted there…” That covenant passed down in all subsequent deeds, as did the ownership of the intertidal zones.