‘A MODEL FOR GREEN BUILDING’
The first time Drew Dumsch saw River Bend Farm, he knew it would be the perfect home for The Ecology School.
Nestled along the Saco River in a rural corner of the city, the 105- acre farm is a mix of farmland, forest and ponds. A farmhouse built in 1794 and a barn from the 1840s sit atop a hill overlooking a bend in the river. More than 3 miles of trails twist across the property.
Five years later after Dumsch first saw the property, The Ecology School is nearing the end of a $14 million project to move the nonprofit ecology- and sustainability-focused school from a rented summer camp at Ferry Beach 10 miles inland to River Bend Farm.
By November, the farm will include the two most sustainable buildings in the Northeast, but the property will largely remain untouched by development, said Dumsch, the president and CEO of The Ecology School “We traded the oceanfront for the river and it’s given us even more educational potential,” he said.