 Oceanside Conservation Trust held its annual meeting on Little Diamond Island recently and honored Cyrus and Patty Hage for land they donated. Roger Burley was there and has this report. Hello, my name is Roger Burley and I am standing on the front porch of the casino, which is on Little Diamond Island facing out towards Peaks Island and House Island in Casco Bay. The first stop on the ferry line, Casco Bay, lines ferry trip down the bay. And the occasion today is the Oceanside Conservation Trust 2012 annual meeting. And we had some 60 people here this afternoon, not only to hear about what Oceanside Conservation Trust is currently up to, but also to see a very special piece of property that's been donated by Cyrus Hage. So I am now standing with Priscilla Dusset who is a Little Diamond Islander and she and Harry Pringle, another Little Diamond Islander, set up this annual meeting, 2012 Oceanside annual meeting here on Little Diamond. And tell us a little bit about what you think this donation of property from Cyrus means to your island. I think that it's the most incredible thing that's happened to Little Diamond. We dreamt of it. We felt that we wished it would happen. We saw what could happen when part of those lots were developed about 25 years ago and 20 years ago. And now, you know, that's did not go, fortunately, take up the entire cap of the island. So we were fortunate that a lot of land was not developed at that time. Just for economic reasons, that the islanders worked very hard to keep that development to a smaller scale. Now, we don't have to worry anymore. I'm standing here on these two special parcels that we're here to celebrate on Little Diamond Island. And I'm here with Patty and Cyrus Hage. And I would like to have a couple of words on what impelled you to do this. Patty, you first. I like Little Diamond Island when it's wild. And this part of the island has always been wild, and we really want to see it stay that way. And you, Cyrus? I just saw an opportunity where I could mix a little bit of capitalism along with some conservationism. And we were able to protect some land by selling a few pieces. And at the end, I think we hit a homerun. Preserving land is something we've always looked at when I was on the planning board. Anytime we have a developer come forward, we would try to nudge them to protect some land. And I think it's totally appropriate for, in a small development, that a piece of the property be set aside and protected. And in this case, it worked out perfectly. We were able to create 300 feet of shore frontage, set it aside, and then add, we'll be over the years, be able to add more land to it until we probably have about 10, 15 acres protected. People who live here on this land that I appreciate it, we've got some blue herring that are nesting on top. I think there's blue herring nesting right in this law, actually, because we've been hearing their funny squats. We have the osprey, we have the, what was the bird we just heard the other day? It's like a brown thrasher. A brown thrasher. So you have a lot of wildlife. We actually have mink on the island now, so we're protecting habitat for those animals. But it's nice to see the blue herring coming back, because they had left the island for a number of years. Well, the other thing that's nice about it too now is an organization like Ripple Effect and Coll Island can bring their kids over here. And they have a place of public access on the island and gives them a chance to come over and experience it. And we have a geocache on the island right now for them to experiment, to find. And so, you know, it creates a lot of opportunities for everybody. So it's interactive. It's not just going to sit here with an old trespassing sign. It's going to essentially invite people to come in by its openness. Well, we're going to be working with the landowner on both sides to create a trail network through here. Poison Ivy Free Trail Network, that is. And it's just some great opportunities. But at the end of the day, it's a piece of land that will just get to grow old and older and older and mature. And hopefully we can be good stewards of it and make it be attractive for generations to come.