Excited shouts resonate through the thin line of trees that separate my yard from the one next door. Two boys are racing across the lawn, chasing a small dog who ducks under the bushes and pops up beside my apple tree. He tries to escape, but the boys are onto the dog’s tricks. One circles around from behind and the other from a nearby path and corral him back home.

Later, I hear their voices disappear into the woods behind our houses on their way to The Pebble at the Curtis Farm Preserve. One of the boys is Matt Newberg’s son, Vale and the other a friend. This fall, Matt joined HHLT as the new Executive Director. Like Vale, he grew up in these woods and he knows them well.

“When I was a kid, my family referred to Potts Point as ‘Matt’s Place’ because one afternoon I disappeared on my bike and discovered this incredible spot at the end of land,” Matt reflects. He goes on to say that several of HHLT’s preserves protect what in his youth were “open spaces where people didn’t mind kids messing around. Curtis, Potts, Stover’s are the exact footprints I had as a kid.”

In a time when private property often means no trespassing, Matt says he’s thankful that “today’s kids get to run around there, too.”

Having free range of nearby natural spaces created strong connection to place that Matt draws from in his work as an educator and now in his role as Executive Director. “If I’d grown up in the city, I’d have forged connections with different parts of that environment. Growing up here fostered a deep connection to nature that I’d like to help preserve for future kids,” Matt says. “I think it’s important to preserve the rural character of Harpswell because it’s what the people in this community keep saying they value.”

While HHLT is partly focused on land conservation, Matt believes that the “Heritage” part of the organization’s title holds vital potential. “There’s a finite amount of land in Harpswell and this organization’s mission has never been to put all of it in conservation. Although I didn’t grow up in a fishing family, many of my friends did. My brother worked as a sternman and long-liner for a while. Preserving the heritage of our working waterfronts is an endless opportunity.”

Matt made a career in education before joining HHLT. Most recently he was Head of School at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley, the first public charter high school in Maine. Previously, he was a teacher and administrator at the Hyde School in Bath.

As Head of School, Matt conducted two strategic plans, managed a budget of almost $3 million, coordinated 40 employees and oversaw a contract renewal with the Maine Department of Education’s Charter School Commission.

“The notion in public education is that we’re managing a public commodity. The funds we receive are to be used for the good of all. There’s a community interest in what happens in public schools – everyone is a stakeholder. The best way I know to approach decisions that have that kind of impact is to be open-minded and build consensus,” skills Matt says were refined in his time at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences which he will lean into at HHLT.

Matt credits his parents, also both educators, with instilling a sense of curiosity in him. “My mom is a retired public school teacher who was a very project-oriented educator before that was core to the curriculum,” he says. “She partnered with teachers of other subjects and encouraged creative, hands-on projects.”

There were times when Matt accompanied his father, a geology professor at Bates and Bowdoin Colleges, on field trips with students. “It was my informal introduction to outdoor education,” he says. “I saw students who were immersed in field work and thriving in that environment.”

Matt plans to spend a significant part of his time in this new role observing and listening. “I’m interested in learning more about the relationships between people trying to make a living here and those more focused on recreation or conservation. I want to better understand the relationship between the Trust and the Town, full-time residents and part-time. What do people want, what do they resist? Then we can start building or deepening partnerships.”

Concerns that residents have expressed, like access to plenty of clean drinking water and the ability to make a living working on the water all tie into the work Matt and HHLT will be doing in the years ahead. “These concerns are important to everyone. Depoliticizing them is really important to me,” he says.

Music has been an important part of Matt’s life throughout. His band, Matt Newberg and The Hearts of Gold, performs in Maine and beyond. He credits singing and songwriting with heightening his listening skills. “Lyrically, in song, I’m trying to get at the essence of what’s important to communicate,” he explains. ‘How can I say what’s necessary in as few words as possible? Stories told through music stay with us, they help us listen differently.”

Outdoor education, land conservation, preservation of Harpswell’s fishing heritage, and tending the relationships that create a strong sense of community are all values that Matt brings to his new position and hopes to advance in the years to come. As he begins this work, he looks forward to having the conversations that will shape HHLT’s work.