SACO — Open spaces are a necessity, not a luxury.

No one understands that more than Sue Littlefield.

Littlefield is on the board of directors of Saco Valley Land Trust, a volunteer position she’s held since her friend Edna Leary talked her into it decades ago. The Saco Valley Land Trust protects natural habitats and lands with recreational, biological or agricultural significance from future development so it can be enjoyed for future generations.

Littlefield was a natural for the position. She lives on a 34-acre property on rural Simpson Road.

“I’ve always lived out here, so I have a big appreciation for open space. I’ve lived here pretty much forever. I grew up just up the road and this is my grandfather’s house, and we moved in here in ’72. So we’ve been here awhile,” she said. “I have a grandson who growing up here next door, and it’s just really nice to see him have the same experiences as a young child that my kids had and I had - you know, playing in the dirt, running through the fields, poking around in the woods.”

She serves as treasurer of the Savo Valley Land Trust Board but she also dabbles in other tasks such as grant writing, trail stewardship and coordinating volunteers. She’s also working on record keeping and steps to get the trust nationally accredited – a daunting task for the five-member volunteer board.

“There’s a country-wide land trust alliance that runs an accreditation program, which we’ve been working towards, but it’s a big thing for volunteers,” she said.

The Saco Valley Land Trust was formed in 1988 and now protects nearly 1300 acres of land in Saco, Biddeford and Buxton. Much of the land was donated from families, some was purchased through grants.

“It’s kind of surprising what happens over 35 years,” said Littlefield.

Littlefield enjoys exploring the Moses Woodman Preserve, which is on Simpson Road just over the Buxton town line, but she also enjoys monitoring the trust’s properties around West Street in Biddeford.

“It’s an interesting area, because it was all burned in the ’47 fire, so there are very few actual landmarks. Like around here, I could go out in the woods, and you can always tell what the property line was…. the forest growth is different, or there are barbed wire fences. There is always something to distinguish the next piece of property, and over there it all got obliterated,” she said. “There’s a lot of wetlands over there. There’s a lot of vernal pools because it’s all granite outcroppings. Vernal pools are seasonal pools, where turtles and salamanders, all kinds of critters like to reproduce because there’s no fish there to eat their eggs. I like wandering around the woods in Biddeford.”

One favorite spot is located on Benson Road, a dead-end street in Biddeford.

 “The beavers are in and out of there. And sometimes you go, and there’ll be this huge pond….and you go again and it’s practically down to a stream,” she said.

Protecting these spaces is important, for multiple reasons.

“Our focus is water quality protection, which we need wetlands to filter water into the aquifers and into the rivers, and it just isn’t right for people not to have some place to go out and wander if they need to. There’s this new term, it’s called “forest bathing,” and it makes all cringe, because we’re too old,” she said with a laugh, but I think we just had a different word for it, I’m trying to figure out what it was. (pauses) We just said, ‘I think we need to take a walk in the woods. Just go out there and clear your head.”

She said the land trust community in general takes care of each other. She said there are clauses in agreements for easements and acquired land that should the trust shut down, the land will be passed on to another trust with similar values.

“So on a state level, I think all the land is protected, but it’s important to have local land trusts,” said Littlefield.

Many of the volunteers at the trust are getting older, and some have aged out over the years. The number of members on the board has dwindled over the years.  The trust was able to hire an event and outreach organizer, Abby Wilson, through a grant last year, and hopes to maintain funding in the future to keep her on.

“It gets harder and harder to get somebody to volunteer. That’s one thing I hope that Abby can help us with. How do we bring people in. I think the landscape for volunteers has just changed, and we’re trying to figure that out, because we really need the energy,” said Littlefield.

For more information on Saco Valley Land Trust, go to http://www.sacovalleylandtrust.org/ .

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.