A Local Couple’s Love For Land Leads to Easement Donation

Bob O’Brien and Michaela Casey help to expand Albany Township’s conservation footprint

Bob O'Brien, Michaela Casey, Kirk Siegel, and Ruthie Clements (Sebago Clean Waters) at the closing of the Flint Farm Addition, June 2026.

Bob O’Brien and Michaela Casey have loved Albany Township’s rugged forest landscape since they first visited Picnic Hill Road in 1987. Across the years, they have made the land their home – maintaining an expansive garden, tapping trees for maple syrup, and caring for a beautiful network of walking trails.

In 2013 they worked with MLT to put 162 acres of their land in permanent conservation.  When they donated that first conservation easement, it was the only conservation land within 10 miles. Over time, other nearby landowners followed suit. MLT purchased 94 acres from an abutter in 2022, and in 2023, Ken Wille transferred another abutting property on 201 acres, and MLT formally created the Flint Mountain Wildlands – our organization’s first “Forever Wild” property. 

Fast forward to June 2026, when Bob and Michaela donated a second conservation easement to MLT on 54 acres of adjacent land. Sitting directly along Picnic Hill Road, this property has now become part of over 500 acres of connected, conserved land stretching from Picnic Hill to Flint Mountain in Albany Township. Not only is this corridor home to wetland and forest wildlife, including habitat for moose, bear, and barred owl (all of which have been spotted on the new conservation easement!), but the land also includes a network of trails extending all the way down to Flint Mountain that will now be forever open to the public. These trails exist because landowners Bob and Michaela developed and cared for them for decades, and have allowed neighbors, locals, and anyone else who wanted time in the woods access to them. Through this new conservation easement, Bob, Michaela, and MLT (along with help from Sebago Clean Waters, Portland Water District, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, The Conservation Fund, Stifler Family Foundation, and Maine Mountain Collaborative), have both enhanced the recreational opportunities in the Township by securing permanent public access to these trails, as well as ensured the health and vitality of this ecologically-significant landscape for generations to come.

Hear more about the inspiring conservation project from the donors of the easement themselves, Bob O’Brien and Michaela Casey: 

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In 1987 when my wife, Michaela Casey, and I were living in Boston, we bought a 20-acre wooded parcel on Picnic Hill Road in Albany Township. During the next few years, we

built what was initially a vacation house and is now our permanent home. In 1988, our

neighbor Nathan Hunt, sold us a large parcel across the road. Having recently been

logged, it was strewn with brush piles that we eventually cleared and skidder paths that we turned into walking trails. The property contained an old foundation that marked the first location of the Albany Congregational Church and a cellar hole of a house owned by Abner Holt, one of Albany’s first settlers. There was also a large log yard, part of which is now a vegetable garden.

For years now we have walked and skied and snowshoed on our trails—past our garden, downhill to the beaver pond on our original Flint Farm easement, and uphill to

the Mahoosuc Land Trust’s Flint Mountain Wild Lands. Adding the 54-acre Flint Farm

Addition was one of the easiest and best decisions we have ever made because it will

maintain the quiet beauty of the area and give others the opportunity to enjoy it.

Our sincere thanks go to MLT, Sebago Clean Waters, and the Portland Water District for

the support they gave us.

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Endless thanks to Bob and Michaela for being such critical parts of our conservation community in the Mahoosuc region! 

Spring sightings at the Flint Farm Addition. Photos courtesy of Bob O'Brien & Michaela Casey.

Local conservationists explore the Flint Farm Addition. Photo courtesy of Bob O'Brien & Michaela Casey.

Map of the Flint Farm Addition and Sawin Hill. Courtesy of Ruthie Clements (Sebago Clean Waters).