Leadership
South Portland Land Trust is a nonprofit organization with an all volunteer board. Each person shares the commitment to linking neighborhoods and improving quality of life in South Portland. The board holds overall responsibility for governance, fiscal oversight, and financial development for the organization. They are the decision-making body that guides the activities and actions of the land trust. Additionally, the land trust has a part-time Communications Manager.
Board members include: Tex Haeuser (President), Karen Talentino (Vice President & Treasurer), Tom Mauldin (Secretary), Richard Rottkov, Mary Linneman, Jess Sobey, Katherine Parét, Rebecca Barr, and Amy Bryant.
Charles (“Tex”) Haeuser, Board President
Originally from Wisconsin, Tex moved to Maine in 1984 and was Planning Director for South Portland from 1990 to 2020. In his years with the City, Tex helped to expand the Greenbelt Walkway and to bring about several other pedestrian facilities improvement and conservation projects. Participating on the South Portland Land Trust Board gives Tex an opportunity to continue to aid in providing more opportunities for public access and the protection of valuable natural areas. Tex also reports that it's "kind of a fun group."
We welcome diverse, committed citizens to our board. If you would like to learn more, contact Tex below.
Karen Talentino,
Vice President & Treasurer
Karen and her husband Bill moved to South Portland from Burlington, Vermont, in 2021, to be closer to their children who live in South Portland and Massachusetts. She retired after 44 years from an academic career at three different colleges - Simmons, Stonehill and Saint Michael's. As a professor she taught courses in biology, environmental science and marine biology, and carried out research focusing on adaptations to extreme temperatures. She believes strongly that the best way to learn about the environment (or anything for that matter) is to be immersed in it, and to study it first-hand. So, at each of her colleges she designed and led numerous academic study trips to such destinations as Bahamas (marine ecology), Cuba (coral reef ecology), the Everglades (human impact on a unique ecosystem), and the Sonoran desert (art and the environment). She was involved in establishing the Center for the Environment at Saint Michael's College, as well as preserving a 400 acre natural area adjacent to the campus. Two major interests are the preservation of natural environments and education about global climate change. The South Portland Land Trust seems to be a perfect fit to work on both of these goals. She enjoys birding, camping, hiking, kayaking, snorkelling/scuba diving, vegetable gardening, travel with her husband Bill, and taking care of her new granddaughter Addison. Karen loves the small town character of South Portland - the friendliness of neighbors, strength of community, and the opportunity to contribute to local businesses and organizations like SOPLT. Living in coastal Maine is pretty cool, too.
Patricia Bohner, Secretary
In 1993 I moved from NY to Maine and in 2005 I moved to South Portland. I love living in South Portland and have enjoyed walking on SPLT trails for years. I love being outside in nature and want to help preserve land for all to enjoy.
I worked as a clinical social worker for many years and now work in a school Auxiliary Programs Dept. I work mostly outdoors with primary school kids and I see how being outside in nature facilitates such imaginative and creative play.
I want to support the South Portland Land Trust so that generations to come will have outdoor spaces for walking and playing.
tom Mauldin
Tom Mauldin has lived in South Portland with his family since 2010. He enjoys walking and running in South Portland and hiking and skiing all over Maine. His favorite SPLT trail is the Greenbelt, which offers a wonderful tour of our city. Tom serves on the SPLT board to help contribute to trail development and maintenance in South Portland.
RICHARD ROTTKOV
Richard Rottkov has been an SPLT board member since 2003. The immediate past president, he has served as President for two three-year terms and has also been Vice President and Secretary. Richard has been a member of the SPLT's West End Trails committee since its inception in 2008 and also represented the SPLT on the City of South Portland's Open Space Plan committee and the Open Space Implementation Committee. He has also served on several other City committees and currently serves on the Community Development Advisory Committee. Richard has been an adjunct professor at Southern Maine Community College since 2003. Prior to moving to Maine with his family in 2002, he was a New York City public school teacher for 10 years. A graduate of the University of Vermont and the holder of a Master's degree from New York University, Richard also worked in journalism and public relations. His most memorable job was from 1977 - 1984 when he was the Director of Public Relations for the United States Soccer Federation. He very much enjoyed international travel with the national teams. His hobbies include hiking, skiing, and gardening, and he's also a committed lover of dogs.
Mary Linneman
I'm a retired teacher who enjoys being outside - walking, birding, gardening and reading. I love camping in Maine, especially in the western mountains and Downeast. The Trout Brook trail offers me that sense of being in the woods listening to an untamed stream within moments of leaving my home. This is the reason I support the Land Trust; keeping natural areas undeveloped so that South Portlanders can experience moments of wilderness in our urban environment.
JESSICA QUEALLY SOBEY
Jessica grew up in Cape Elizabeth but moved to South Portland to raise her family. She, her husband, and two children have lived in the same home in between Meeting House Hill and Willard beach for over two decades. They have been passionate about walking in Cape and South Portland as long as we can remember. Jessica grew up walking Robinson's Wood's, Winnic Woods, Great Pond, Hinkley, Willard Beach, the Piggery, the gravel pits of Cape and South Portland—the State and City parks are like the lines of her palm. In the last few years Jessica has learned to walk new paths like Dow’s Woods and Clarks Pond. A nurse by trade, a mother by luck, and an ametuer Naturalist by desire, Jessica wants to help protect and share the peace and insight that these pathways have given her family, her dogs, and herself for almost half a century.
Amy McGann
Amy has spent her career working to promote and protect the labor rights of low wage workers. She enjoys the outdoors, and since moving to South Portland has logged hundreds of miles on the land trust trails. She is interested in supporting the work of the South Portland land trust to preserve more open space and expand and maintain the trail system.
Peter Wilson
Ever since a canoe trip on the Allagash as a teen I’ve had the feeling that living in Maine was in my future.
After growing up in New York and attending college in Colorado, I settled on Nantucket where I was a carpenter, mostly, and a two term conservation commissioner, and board member of the Nantucket Land Council, a local environmental advocacy group. Then, in 2000, I relocated to Portland where my partner and future wife, Becca, had found work with the Conservation Department at Maine Audubon. Not long after, I, too, joined Audubon as Assistant to the Property Manager. Two years later with a baby on the way, we bought our house in South Portland. I’m currently the chair of the South Portland Conservation Commission and its delegate to the Open Space Acquisitions Committee and I have served on the Willard Beach Master Plan Committee and the 2012 Comprehensive Plan Committee.
I’m hopeful that with my skills and experience I can make a contribution to the South Portland Land Trust.
Paige Klein
I love all that Maine has to offer - from the great outdoors to the bustling city of Portland. I moved to Meetinghouse Hill in South Portland in 2016 and fell in love with this amazing community. My back yard abuts the Trout Brook Nature Preserve, so I naturally became interested in participating in events with South Portland Land Trust, and eventually became a business sponsor before joining the board.
I’m an avid gardener and have extended that passion to maintaining our community green spaces and trail systems. I feel passionately about giving back to our community and creating a legacy that our community can continue to enjoy for generations to come.
Not shown: Dr. Katie Parét, Rebecca Barr
Dana Bettez,
SPLT Communications & Social Media
Hi! I’m Dana and I manage SPLT communications, social media, and our website. I’m a native South Portland-er, and my children are the fourth generation to grow up in our neighborhood. I grew up playing along the trails and now I love walking through them with my family. In my free time, I love to garden, take road trips, and relax along the coast. I have a background in Communications from Endicott College (Go Gulls!), have worked for multiple departments for the City of South Portland, and currently work for the school district. What I love most about working for SPLT is connecting people to these special places in South Portland. Feel free to reach out by email below!