Create and maintain a
50-mile network of trails in Greater
Portland.
Engage the participation
of neighborhoods, schools, and
the business community in trail
use and land stewardship.
Make Greater Portland
a model for people-powered recreation
and transportation.
PORTLAND
TRAILS IS TAKING ON THECHALLENGE
Phoebe
wants to walk!
Photo by Cyndi Amato
View
a video about Portland Trails by students
from St Joe's
This video introduction to
Portland Trails was created as a Service
Learning Practicum project by Communications
students in John Hufstader's class at Saint
Joseph's College of Maine.
Producer: Patrick
DeCola, Director: Shown
Lowe Cinematography: Jared
Tise, Editor: Steve
Delorey
Portland Trails is proud to announce that
Tom Jewell, co-founder and Trustee of Portland
Trails, recently received the L.L. Bean Outdoor
Heroes Award for his lifelong dedication
to preserving natural places in the Portland
area. The L.L. Bean Outdoor Heroes program
acknowledges individuals who have devoted
their time and effort to preserving the outdoors. Tom
is truly deserving of this award.
As a boy, Tom loved
to explore the waterfall near his home—the
only one in Portland. As a college
student in the 1970s, Tom was instrumental
in saving the land around the falls
by convincing Maine Audubon to protect
it by creating the Fore River Sanctuary.
Tom then authored the Sanctuary's very
first Management Plan as a Maine Audubon
intern in 1976. That same year he founded
the Forest City Land Trust, which leads
many people to cite 1976 as the beginning
of the urban land conservation movement
in Portland – all stemming from Tom's
love for the outdoors and his belief
that the precious natural resources
of Portland should (and could!) be
preserved.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, green
space and waterfront conservation gained
popularity nationally and in Maine.
In 1989, the Portland City Council
held a workshop on the “Shoreway Access
Plan,” which proposed to link waterfront
and parks. It was during a break in
the hallway that Nathan Smith, Dick
Spencer, Cathy Stivers, and Tom Jewell
formed the Portland Shoreway Access
Coalition. This coalition was
the "seed" for Portland Trails,
which Tom helped found in 1991. The
land trust and trail-building organization
was the first of its kind in Maine.
Tom
Jewell is Portland Trails' own "LL
Bean Outdoor Hero!
Soon thereafter, the property that encompassed
Jewell Falls went on the market. Tom's
parents purchased it and donated it to the
new land trust. In their honor, Portland
Trails named the tumbling waters “Jewell
Falls.”
Tom has served on the Portland Trails Board
ever since. He is lovingly known as our “Trails
Guru.” The title recognizes his encyclopedic
knowledge of Greater Portland's forgotten
open spaces and footpaths (he's still a boy
at heart, exploring the outdoors every chance
he gets), and his vision for preserving and
connecting these treasures.
Tom loves to share his knowledge and his
enthusiasm for the area's trails and open
spaces, conducting trail walks for the public
all across town. His favorite is the
10-mile trek from the Stroudwater River to
the Presumpscot River, a combination of established
trails and park spaces connected by a few “short
cuts” known only to Tom. The walk takes
visitors along protected river corridors
and through the Fore River Sanctuary, bushwhacking
overgrown areas and even wading across small
streams—a true urban adventure made possible
largely because of Tom's commitment to land
preservation and trail-building in Greater
Portland.
In honor of Tom's contribution, L.L. Bean
awarded a $5000 grant to Portland Trails
to support continued conservation and educational
efforts. We congratulate Tom and we
thank him for his unwavering enthusiasm,
hard work, and most of all, his vision.
