Frenchman Bay Conservancy has been awarded a $12,500 Quimby Family Foundation (QFF) 2019 grant from their Movement program to support Ellsworth Community Conservation. Since 2017, FBC has partnered with local organizations to create the Ellsworth Green Plan, a strategic initiative that aims to make Ellsworth a model green community and to plan future growth in a way that builds movement and healthy lifestyles into the structure of the community. The QFF 2019 Movement grant is a highly competitive funding opportunity that supports organizations whose work creates and supports opportunities for people to consistently choose, and meaningfully experience, nearby nature and wilderness through movement and activity. 

“Frenchman Bay Conservancy was selected to receive funding because you share with QFF a vision to grow more meaningful, reciprocal relationships with nature,” wrote Hannah Quimby, of the Quimby Family Foundation, “We are inspired by your approach to human wholeness and your efforts to foster stronger relationships between people and the farms, woods, and waters of Maine.”

Ellsworth Green Plan partners include the Ellsworth Garden Club, Downeast Salmon Federation, Heart of Ellsworth, Healthy Acadia, Ellsworth Historic Preservation Commission and numerous other organizations, businesses, and individuals. Spearheaded by the Ellsworth Garden Club, the partners established the Ellsworth Green Plan in 2017, but its origins stretch farther back to the 2002 Waterfront Master Plan in Ellsworth, the 2004 Ellsworth Comprehensive Plan, and a Bike and Pedestrian Plan. In 2015, the City commissioned a visioning study that found very strong public support for waterfront and greenspace acquisition and conservation. Similarly, there is a resurgence of business energy and public demand for a thriving, walkable downtown Ellsworth.

The current Ellsworth Green Plan is unique because of its broad-based, collaborative origin. The plan includes recommendations for new land acquisition and changes to land use planning practices, among many other activities to improve environmental and human well-being. The Ellsworth Green Plan partnership is a model for other small cities around Maine and across the nation.
For more information about Frenchman Bay Conservancy’s work with the Ellsworth Green Plan, please visit https://www.greenellsworth.org/home