News of Maine’s Coast and Islands
THE WORKING
volume 34, № 2
published by the island institute
Cruise ship tourism appears grounded
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may 2020 n free circulation: 50,000 n
workingwaterfront.com
Skiff Distancing—
Eastport, Bar Harbor, and Portland are conceding early season By Tom Walsh
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he global, seven-seas cruise ship industry has run aground. The curious role cruise ships have played as global infection vectors for the COVID-19 pandemic has resuscitated the pejorative description of cruise ships as “floating Petri dishes” for disease incubation. “I think we’ve reached the point where we recognize that everything out there is a floating Petri dish,” Chris Gardner, who oversees Eastport’s Port Authority, said on April 9. “Walmart and the local grocery stores are floating Petri dishes.” Eastport was expecting 11 landings in 2020 involving small cruise ships with hundreds—not thousands— of passengers and crew, a revenue source it has been cultivating for years.
This photo from a few summers ago shows two islanders in what today might be described as social distancing in the Fox Islands Thorofare. In fact, it was one islander helping out another, which is one reason we like this image. The other reason is that it reminds us of the warm summer days to come. PHOTO: TOM GROENING
Just months ago, Bar Harbor’s tourism cheerleaders were crowing about having scheduled 198 cruise ship visits in 2020. Bar Harbor’s anticipated landings were twice the number Portland was projecting for its upcoming tourist season. That’s all changed and continues to change as public health events unfold worldwide, day by day, hour by hour. Bar Harbor recently banned cruise ship visits through June, as have Canadian ports of call. As of April 9, this was the official stance of Maine’s Department of Economic and Community
Development, which oversees the Maine Office of Tourism and its CruiseMaine marketing efforts: “The primary concern of CruiseMaine and all its member ports is for the health and safety of residents and visitors to our port communities. As it stands right now, there are no ships scheduled in any Maine ports until midMay, and the town of Bar Harbor has suspended any cruise visitation through the end of June.” CruiseMaine canceled its long-planned, three-day Cruise Canada New England symposium scheduled continued on page 4
Island complexity explained by four islanders
The Working Waterfront’s four island columnists answer questions about the complex nature of these communities By Tom Groening
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onsider the extremes of how islands are portrayed in literature, film, and on TV. The island setting often is used to show how the very best of community values
can thrive, or how the very worst of human nature can fester. In Richard Russo’s Empire Falls, the protagonist’s daughter flees to a Martha’s Vineyard-like place to heal from the trauma of surviving a school shooting. In the recent film The
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Lighthouse, the isolated island serves as a Petri dish for madness. We at the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, know that island communities are neither of the above, and yet they hold elements of both scenarios. Though the organization now works in many coastal communities, Institute president Rob Snyder asserts that islands remain our North Star. We believe islands are proving grounds for new ideas about sustainability
and places where residents immerse themselves in their shared community welfare. News media are turning to us to understand how our island communities are responding to the pandemic. Two of our islands have been in the news recently, as those with seasonal homes are fleeing there to escape the high incidence of COVID-19. North Haven’s board of selectmen voted to ban those who continued on next page
“Wherever you spend the main part of your life is going to be full of complexity and the daily grind.” —Sandy Oliver
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
An island family heads home after shopping in Vinalhaven in September of 2013. PHOTO: TOM GROENING
ISLAND COMPLEXITY
continued from page 1
are not year-round residents, then reversed that move. On Vinalhaven, law enforcement was called to deal with an apparent threat by locals to enforce the quarantine of some recent arrivals. These incidents do not reflect the best of our island communities, which in fact are complex places where the social fabric is very much strengthened by seasonal residents.
Barbara Fernald
Courtney Naliboff
To better explain these complexities, we turned to The Working Waterfront’s four island columnists: - Barbara Fernald of Little Cranberry - Sandy Oliver of Islesboro - Courtney Naliboff of North Haven - Phil Crossman of Vinalhaven WORKING WATERFRONT: Islands are seen by many as sanctuaries from the bad things in the larger world (violent crime, homelessness, etc.). How is this true, and how is it not true?
Sandy Oliver
Phil Crossman
OLIVER: Well, we are sanctuaries from lots of bad things: muggings and murders are pretty rare. It is quiet here, not much traffic compared to the mainland. When we have a homeless individual, we take care of them and get them some place safe. No one is sleeping on the library porch. There are drugs, drunkenness, domestic abuse among year-rounders, whose effect tends to be pretty confined to the year-rounders. There are breakins for sure, especially summer houses, but most of us don’t know where the keys to our own house are, and we leave keys in our cars. Pretty idyllic. CROSSMAN: It is largely true. Vinalhaven, for example, the largest of the inhabited islands, is essentially free of violent crime, and while we can count among our 1,200 a handful who do not have a home or rent of their own, they are fairly well looked after and do not often find themselves without a roof. Other bad things, less obvious things, like apathy, contemptuous politics, mindless patriotism, do exist in equal measure. Still others, homophobia, for example, are morphing away. FERNALD: I think this is true in some ways but not in others. We are a sanctuary from traffic lights, the sound of sirens, the constant noise of traffic. We provide an escape from noise pollution most of the time, due to our geography. In the off-season there is not much going on. I bet in almost every house, when a car or truck drives by, people stretch their necks or tilt their heads to see who it is. There is a kind of group awareness of who is on or off the island at this time of year. I think this keeps
crime to a minimum since it’s like we’re all related to each other as “islanders.” NALIBOFF: The geographic isolation an island provides sometimes gives a sense of separation, and at other times a comforting, insular sense of security. Right now, our 12 miles of water feels like an opportunity to actually practice social distancing and perhaps avoid becoming infected. Bad things do happen here, just like everywhere else, but when you have food, shelter, and natural beauty within easy reach it feels more manageable than weathering the pandemic—or other crises—in cities. WW: Those who own or rent seasonal homes on islands develop a perception of island life that is very different from those who live there year-round. What do seasonal residents miss? What do they get right? FERNALD: Honestly, this question irks me a little bit. It assumes there is no social connection between summer people and year-rounders. Most of us are in touch a lot via Facebook, Instagram, and email. We send photos back and forth, talking about what it’s like here, what it’s like there. On Islesford (Little Cranberry), most of the people who own homes have been coming here for years and years. Many of us see each other during the winter when we have time. We want to hear from them. Even if they aren’t registered to vote, the motion to allow non-residents to speak during discussion is one of the first we pass at our annual town meeting. Here is what first time renters, or especially day trippers, miss. We are not
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
CROSSMAN: Seasonal residents who’ve been coming back for years or, in many cases, generations, are much more attuned to what’s going on behind the scenes, although there are a very few who exist during the summer months exclusively in their own world. The itinerant among our seasonal visitors too quickly conclude that we are entirely wonderful. NALIBOFF: I am sometimes surprised at the sense of suspended time that some summer friends have. It’s as though they believe we don’t exist from August to June, while we’ve had a full school year, theater productions, concerts, births, deaths, work, town meeting, and all of the other normal activities of a year. What they are correct about, though, is that this is a particularly wonderful place, and the challenges posed by island life are, to me, worthier than the challenges posed by city life. OLIVER: When you are on vacation, life seems pretty smooth and pleasant so summer visitors are having that kind of pleasant time which we islanders have when we go away, too. The main thing is to remember that wherever you spend the main part of your life is going to be full of complexity and the daily grind. If a family has been coming here for generations, they have a different, often stronger, commitment to the place and the people which reaches back generations. Newcomers don’t have the depth of experience and understanding about the people who work with them or for them, and so may not be as responsive to the islands and islander needs. One of our Grand Dames, sadly now deceased, used to visit wealthy newcomers and remind them that if they want the island to keep on being the way they like it, it is up to them to support the important parts of infrastructure, including workers, the community fund, etc. Fortunately, many get that without having had a visit of instruction. Others merely look for the least expensive option. But if your caretaker lives on the mainland, who will check your property during a storm? WW: What are the contributions that seasonal residents make to the community? What burdens do seasonal residents put on year-rounders, perhaps unknowingly? OLIVER: Taxes, taxes, taxes. Generous contributions to the community fund, scholarship funds, various endowments for everything from preschool to elder-care housing, food pantry, fire and ambulance. They gave money to the legal defense fund during the ferry fare debacle, and they are
helping us now equip our health center for a potential onslaught of sick people. I am constantly astonished at how much our summer people give. Then, too, they serve on committees and boards (library, community center, historical society, concert series, etc., etc.). Sewing Circle doubles in size in summer because of summer residents who like to participate. The only downside is that if any organization has mostly summer people on its board, the ball is dropped as soon as summer is over, only to be picked up and dribbled madly for July and August again which creates a kind of frantic feeling to summer when the rest of us also have to work for our living, much of which is earned in summer. Our health center is heavily taxed in summer, and the ambulance crew has to respond to many more calls. The stores are crowded, and while it means that they are making money, the demand can be kind of relentless. This is the point of concern right now for many—the ferry has curtailed runs and so resupply here is tougher than it used to be, and with on-line ordering and curbside pick-up, it is more labor intensive for the store staff. I can’t imagine that they could keep up with this if our usual complement of summer residents were here. And we’ve asked everyone who comes here to self-isolate for 14 days, yet some have shown up in the exercise room of the community center, having just arrived. One household greeted the plumber as he came to turn on their water. People need to plan ahead if they think they want to come here, have their house and supplies in place then stay there for two weeks before poking their nose out in general. It isn’t responsible to risk infecting us. Sheltering in place is increasingly the mantra across the country and if you aren’t here already, and or don’t own a house here, maybe staying in place where you are now is best. And besides, so much is being closed and cancelled, that this is going to be a very quiet, very strange kind of summer.
docks during the summer. There is a strain on the EMTs and first responders. Which brings us to the current Covid 19 situation, and circles us right around to your first question. If anyone who has not been here this winter thinks they’ll just come to the island to find sanctuary from the virus, I would urge them not to come. Yes, they might pay more taxes than I do. Yes they have a right to be in any property they own. But they are endangering lives by coming here. Most of the people on the island are trying not to leave, at all. We can order groceries from two local stores and so far we’ve been able to get most of what we need. If more people arrive that will just put more demand on our small suppliers. One grocer I talked to yesterday said she was having trouble getting things. Her supplier could give her 70 cases out of her order of 100 various cases of product. Seasonal residents in the time of Covid will put a burden on our food supply. If this virus gets to our island it will no longer be a sanctuary for anyone. Most of us miss you and can’t wait to see you, but please don’t burden us with a visit at this time. NALIBOFF: North Haven is particularly enmeshed with its summer community. Property taxes fund the school, donors provide crucial support to our community nonprofits, and many of us are employed as caretakers, landscapers, keyholders, servers, bartenders and cooks.
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a dog park. Our roads are not 20-footwide footpaths. No, if your child does not have a driver’s license they may not drive golf carts or any other vehicles. We have laws and ordinances and a town office, and high-speed internet. We might go for a few days without mail or electricity, but many people have generators to get by, and we all look out for each other. Our small town functions year round.
R EB
RS!
YEA
CROSSMAN: Without their contributions in taxes and the anonymous contributions of many of them we would not exist in a form that bears any resemblance to the entirely pleasant and well-provided-for lives we enjoy. FERNALD: Seasonal residents totally enrich our community. They bring the bigger world to us in person. They provide employment for caretakers, house painters, cleaners, cooks, and carpenters. They are a breath of fresh air. They are someone new with whom to interact after a long winter. They make me feel proud to be a part of the community that is so special to them too. Their homes are worth quite a bit of money and so, while our town’s mil rate is low, they still pay a lot in property taxes. Many of them are extremely generous when it comes to fund raising for various island non-profits. The burden is an increase in demand for services that we all need. There is more trash to handle, there is more need to provide mainland parking options, the ferries are more crowded, and there is a need for extra floats at the town
“Our seasonal visitors too quickly conclude that we are entirely wonderful.” —Phil Crossman Many members of the summer community are artists, architects, authors, actors, or otherwise contribute to the island’s creative environment. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the friendships we enjoy in the summer community as well, people whose arrival we look forward to each year. My daughter, too, loves and misses her summer friends dearly. Most challengingly—and this isn’t indicative of the whole summer community by any means—is the classist attitude that a few have towards year-rounders. I’ve been told that I’m “not a theater professional,” my husband’s musicianship has been called into question because he certainly couldn’t be a classical musician (he is), and in the many years I spent as a server, bartender, and cook I encountered probably the same level of obnoxious behavior as a server, bartender or cook does anywhere. Boors are boors, on and off North Haven.
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cRanBeRRy RepoRt
CRUISE SHIP TOURISM
Not yet. Gardner said Plan B may be a response to there being little to no cruise ship traffic in Eastport this year. Think of it as “long term parking.” “Whatever happens, Eastport is still trying to be for Portland in early June. It’s been rescheduled for helpful to the (small) cruise industry,” he said. “We next year. CruiseMaine Executive Director Sarah have the footage (two deep-water piers, 1,700 feet of Flink says the day-to-day reality of her job has proven footage). If they have ships that need to lay up for a to be a “tsunami of change.” —Jill Goldthwait while, we have the deep-water footage, and it would Curiously, while Bar Harbor has been attracting put our infrastructure back to work.” twice the number of cruise ship visits, Portland Given what little cargo now goes in and out of offers superior docking facilities to welcome cruise Eastport, Gardner thinks the strategy of parking ship passengers and crew. Those who disembark at Portland’s Ocean Gateway Terminal are only a few care beds, and at last count five ventilators. The next mothballed cruise ships would be only a small meeting will take place on isIslesford. purplegenerator. rope to the end of the red with black stripe) and, like piece inconvenience and aof revenue nearest hospital the 64-bed bright Northern Lighta Maine blocks from the trendy Old Port eating, shopping, What’s for lunch? Homemade pizzas, buoy line or toggle, all attachments every other lobster fisherman in Maine “They might have to move offbutonce or twice a and arts scenes. Bar Harbor doesn’t have a cruise ship Coast Hospital in Ellsworth, 20 miles down the road. salads, and desserts. Life gets busier By Barbara Fernald must be made with a splice tuck. this winter, he read about, talked about, heasaid. “While Bar Harbor has asked the opinion of our month to accommodate cargo shipments,”or terminal. The leviathan ships anchor just offshore— as we volunteer to help prepare the I know it’s a stretch to compare and experimented with purple paint. The New York Times’ Lisa Collins recently reportedfolon frequently more than one—with passengers and crew infectious disease specialist, MDI Hospital is not first community meal of the season. ACTIVITY on the islands, at the end The latest whale regulations require lowing Maine whale the rope requireto which cruise ships pollute ports where offering cruise ship advice,” said Oka Hutchins, the the extent brought ashore using water-taxi tenders. Town is aspokesperson. great opportu- all Maine lobster fishermenthey of February andtointo likeHarbor a a plein workshop, but to use newTo ments dock. wit: “Awith single cruiseair ship docked one hospital’s Anyone who tries findMarch, lunch inisBar any day meeting nity to hear about winter from friends mirror image of the action at the end markings on the ropes they attach to a person could return home from eiWhile the Eastport Port Authority may not see as day can emit as much diesel exhaust as 34,400 idling between July and October likely regrets it. Over those and neighbors. “How was your trip to of August into September. Just as the ther and say that they’d been paintlobster traps. Depending on how close four months, considerably more than 100 cruise ships many as 11 small cruise ships as planned for this year, tractor-trailers, according to an independent analysis ...?” “Who knew was to shore they fish, they willverified residents of the Cranberry have to by add ing in their spare time. IfAgency. Bruce ”were the Environmental Protection is a Plan B. aresummer in port. Think 200,000-plus passengers and crew there grand-parenting so exhausting or that there were so 2-4 purple marks on each buoy Isles end their vacations right before writing an essay on how he spent his line. One solution seems to be “plug ins” that allow even “We’re following the direction of the Coast Guard flooding the town center’s restaurants, shops, and parks many cold germs involved?” “You did On warps that are 100-feet or less there winter vacation, painting would be a fall, many year-round residents end during that four-month span. Bar Harbor’s downtown and taking a wait-and-see approach,” Chris Gardner, the largest cruise ship to use shore power instead of all that painting?” These same ques- must be one 12-inch purple mark with- part of it. Another part would be the their winter breaks just said. “Our cruise their own onboard generators. New York City spent merchants, restauranteurs, and before gallery the owners love it. who runs Eastport’s Port Authority, tions could be asked in September at in a few fathoms of the trap and a 36- description I heard him tell his brother spring equinox. ship schedule is bifurcated. In May we see a few early $21 million to build a plug-in station. The problem Year-round residents (population: 5,400), not so much. It’s time to get back to work and a school board meeting in a large subabout to get doughnuts, purple markThose within 2isfathoms ships areofnotMark required towalking use the system, and most Fourth of July. “On any cruise ship day, you are not getting six ships, but most come after theinch urb. (Preferably not during the meet- the buoy. If the warp is longer that 100 in February, with our son Robin, and reconnect. don’t. The use of plug-ins is required in California, feet of separation from anyone,” says Jill Goldthwait, ships have not cancelled.” Our annual town meeting takes ing while someone else has the floor!) feet, the requirement is for a 12-inch our grandchildren Henry and Cora. I Seattle, and a few other U.S. cruise ship destinations a Bar Harbor city councilor and a retired registered In January and February, Bruce and purple mark near the trap, a second 12- was away with friends in Portland, and place on the second Saturday in March. and in some international locations, including nurse who honed her health care skills andIinsights got to spend a lot of time with our inch purple mark halfway to the buoy, Stephanie was away with friends in For selectmen and town employees, London, Sydney, and some ports in China. over 25 years at Bar Harbor’s community grandchildren hospital. in Southern Maine. and a 36-inch mark near the buoy. Florida. Father and son were in charge. winter has been anything but a vacaHow much pollution are Maine’s ports of call “The minute you lift restrictions, it will createVisiting a surge. them was the main goal of tion. They have been working steadily, “Yeah, we got doughnuts at The Bruce figures he will be putting 1,500 being exposed to? Who knows, given that the fuel When that happens, we cannot do social distancing. gathering information to write the most of our winter travel. We consid- to 1,800 markings on his rope in all; two Cookie Jar and then walked to the oil used in cruise ships contains an abundance of There’s not a foot between people, much less six feet.” warrant for town meeting. It’s the time ered trying to paint our kitchen, but to three weeks of extra work if he does beach for a picnic and to throw rocks.” heavy metals. The marine fuel burned contains Bar Harbor is awaiting guidance from Augusta, of year we come together as a town to we kept catching odd coughing virus- it without hiring help. A number of fishEating homemade donuts and a toxic metal that can cause lung damage. specifically the Governor’s Task Force on Corona decide on projects and spending and es and experienced more down time ermen are applying paint tovanadium, their ropes throwing rocks at the beach—if that was concentrations of vanadium discovered near Virus, said.is“I’m and we I’mwanted, so we never got to it. by resting them in 3-foot It howGoldthwait much money to immersed be raised in bythis,than long gutters isn’t a mirror image of many childcruise at Brooklyn and Manhattan seeing increasing pressure from those worried about Maybe I’ll paint it in May, when I can made from lengthwise-halved PVC ship property taxes. hood summers on Islesford, I don’t pipe. terminals prompted the $21 million the community are budget scared to death. ” windows open. have the Discussionand of those the who school what is. qeffort by New York to Bruce’s first attempt was withthat spray paint know address The Mount Desert Island a mile from thesaw more than enough paint, but he soon moved on to the Bruce alone can take well overHospital an hour.isThe more the effi-issue. Stay tuned. Barislands Harbortake waterfront. It has 25 beds, three intensive turns hosting the meet- anyway, this winter. During his “time cient brush and latex paint. Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little ing and the luncheon. This year, town off” he painted 600 buoys (white and Some fishermen will add a 3-foot Cranberry Island) with her husband Bruce. continued from page 1
“There’s not a foot between people, much less six feet.”
Town meeting, painting lines, eating doughnuts, and throwing rocks
As winter winds down, islanders mix prep work and gatherings
Gardner thinks parking mothballed cruise ships would be only a small inconvenience and a revenue generator.
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A still from the film, Blow the Man Down.
Blow the Man Down a salty, funny, Maine noir Fictional film peels back dark small-town layers By Jacqueline Weaver
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ovie tips in the time of coronavirus are like following crumbs through the forest, each promising some relief from the ennui of waiting for the confinement to end. Blow the Man Down, a film by directors Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy, could not have been released at a better time. It is nautically noir, Mainey, multi-layered, and offers a humorous and dark twist to who really controls life in a tiny coastal town; in this case, the fictitious Easter Cove, Maine. Blow the Man Down was a best screenplay winner at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and an Indie Spirit nominee. It was purchased by Amazon and is now available to Amazon Prime customers. Filmed in Cundy’s Harbor in Harpswell, the story begins as two sisters, Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) and Priscilla Connolly (Sophie Lowe), are burying their mother after nursing her through a long illness. The sisters discover on the day of the funeral that their home is in foreclosure, a situation that is unlikely to be resolved with income from the family’s small fish market. Three local women who become pivotal players in the story assure the young women that they had done the right thing putting their lives in limbo while caring for their mother. Mary Beth isn’t so sure. Her plan was to attend the University of Maine and never look back. She goes to a local bar the night of the burial, drinks too much and then is menaced by an unsavory Gorski (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). A harpoon is available on the wharf and the story begins. There follows a somewhat inept cover-up of Gorski’s untimely end, two more killings and the discovery of $50,000 in cash. At the heart of the story is the owner of a local brothel masquerading as a bed and breakfast and operated
by the formidable Margo Martindale, who plays Enid Devlin, the most frightening character of all. The film opens with a chorus of fishermen singing the sea shanty for which the film was titled. The writer/directors at first listened to sea shanties as inspirations and then decided to use them to help set the tone. The chorus returns again and again, a foreboding backdrop for what is to follow. But the story becomes even more interesting with the involvement of the three local women played by veteran actors June Squibb, Annette O’Toole, and Marceline Hugot. They prove to be every bit as determined and sly as the brothel owner. And they portray a simple truth that is evident in many small towns: the locals will often circle the wagons to protect their own. Cole and Krudy met while shooting shorts and making music videos on Coney Island and then crossed paths again while working on sketch comedy videos in Los Angeles. “We met behind the camera,” Krudy said in an interview with Variety magazine. Cole added, “It was so rare to meet another girl doing camera stuff.” Coastal Maine was not a foreign land for them. Cole grew up in Beverly, Mass., waitressed in neighboring Gloucester, and at one point, worked a year in Bar Harbor. Krudy’s mother was born in Maine and then grew up in Groton Long Point, Conn., where Krudy observed the tight ties among the locals in nearby Mystic, Conn. The two spent eight years working on the script and spent 25 days shooting the film in Harpswell. They advertised for extras on Facebook to draw local residents. Cole and Krudy also braved two nor’easters while filming. Cinematographer Todd Banhazi skillfully portrays the bleak, beautiful, cold and isolated area.
Cole and Kundry said in an interview with the Boston Globe that the strong female figures were modeled on family. “It’s a larger-than-life plot, but we think of it as a personal story,” said Cole. “It’s really inspired by our female relatives, how they actually talk and how they interact.” She said the coastal Maine setting was perfect for the film’s irreverent take. “I think people from New England are just generally funnier than people from elsewhere,” Cole said. “You know, it’s part of the pastime, which is being sarcastic and poking fun at each other. Everybody has this great comedic timing. There’s something in the water.” “We liked to call it salty humor,” Krudy said.
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
Is the fear about the ‘if, when’ virus unprecedented? One timeframe in American life comes to mind for writer By Dana Wilde
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his is like an atomic bomb, or worse,” Xiao Xingzheng wrote to me from his home in the island-city of Xiamen, China. This was in late March, when the covid-19 pandemic was subsiding there and intensifying here. He and his own family had, luckily, escaped illness so far. The bomb, in his simile, referred not to physical destruction, of course, but to Bill Gates’ warning in 2018 that the suffering and death in a pandemic could outstrip that of a nuclear war. At the time Xiao wrote, thousands—at least—were dead in China. Tens of thousands ill. Hundreds of millions confined in their towns and cities. At least a billion people, frightened. Not everybody gets sick, but everybody lives in the pall of the sickness. As it is for Xiao, the covid-19 crisis may be the weirdest event in my lifetime—with the possible exception of the military draft during the Vietnam War. When will we be able to go out safely? Will my son and grandson contract it? My wife, Bonnie, who is just off a successful but resistancedecimating year of illness? My neighbors Greg and Norma? The virus is indiscriminate, as we all know, and plans on being ubiquitous. If, when, it will strike. The worry is incessant. You could rewrite these sentences remembering the 1960s and early ’70s. Will I contract a draft notice this week? Will my brother, uncle, or cousins? My friends Fred and Phil? The worry was incessant. “It was ALWAYS on your mind, even if you didn’t go around talking about it,” Larry Moskowitz wrote in his recollection of life at the University of Maine in Orono for Hearts in Suspension, about Stephen King’s student days. At peak, 500 Americans were dying in the jungle each week. You walked around with this chronic, numbing fear that your draft notice could strike any day, out of nowhere, like a virus, and launch you into the jungle too. And what would you do if, when, the draft notice came? Throw your whole life overboard, move to Canada, and become a fugitive? You were trapped inside that fear. It was claustrophobic, like being confined inside your house.
For years. Your neighbors would look at you sideways, or even go after you if you wore your hair long. Moskowitz recounts being physically assaulted several times by self-appointed “patriots.” When your neighbors are after you, that can be more disorienting than a virus being after you. Keith Carreiro in the same book recalls a comedian speaking at UMO’s 1971 commencement ceremonies saying, “‘If you’re not paranoid, you should be; if you’re paranoid, you’re not paranoid enough.’” Keith didn’t take it as a joke. His own bizarre experience of the draft was to be held apart naked for hours on his induction day, and then, without explanation, released. I got lucky, too. After a couple of years of this anxiety, this paranoia, my number in the lottery came up 275. It was like a vaccine against death in the jungle. I imagine the days following Sept. 11, 2001, were in some ways like the pandemic days now. Weirdly quiet, the background hum of traffic blank when you walk the park, as it is now. I can’t make any firsthand comparisons, though, because I was living in Xiamen then. I first heard of the attacks when Xiao frantically called me around 11 that night and told me to turn on CCTV news. But while the 9-11 attacks were localized and momentary, the coronavirus is generalized and imminent. It promises to go on pervasively for months. It might return. In the worst-case models where no one takes preventive measures, it infects
At peak, 500 Americans were dying in the jungle each week.
‘Birthplace of Social Distancing’? Downeast retreat from Midwest makes sense today By Tom Walsh
I
t seems there is no better time to be living in the middle of nowhere. In fact, Maine might consider rethinking its archaic “Vacationland” license plate slogan. Maybe instead, “Birthplace of Social Distancing.” Maine has a population of 1.3 million people scattered over 35,383 square miles, including its 3,000-mile waterfront and hundreds of uninhabited islands. You do the math. For nearly 20 years now, family and assorted old friends from the Midwest have visited and bunked with us at our seaside Downeast home, wondering— generally aloud—why in the world we would pull up stakes after 30 years in Iowa to move to where the only house you can see is a mile across the bay? I try to explain the concept of “splendid isolation.” Somehow, our remote neck of the woods on the Schoodic Peninsula has never seemed either as splendid or as isolated as it does right now, given the death and debilitation inherent within the growing pandemic. This virus crisis will apparently persist for months, if not longer. The best guess—and a guess is all it is, given the paucity of testing—is that hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Americans will die. As this
bleak situation continues to rapidly devolve, there is more-than-less a national lockdown urging everyone, everywhere, including Maine, to Stay Home. Good idea. This time, I’ll do the math: People who have no contact with others also have zero chance of infecting others. Or being infected by others. Win-win. In the meantime, those wise enough to stay put need to cope with staying put, finding ways to turn lemons into lemonade, and all that. For those over age 60, this shouldn’t be a problem. Undoubtedly their households are drowning in books. Remember books? It’s not only the books they’ve amassed over the years between high school and dotage, but the bibliophile collections of their parents and their parents' parents, most likely unseen for years and stored away forgotten in basements or attics.
In the meantime, those wise enough to stay put need to cope with staying put…
90 percent of us and kills 40.6 million. Will it? We’re trapped in unknowing. In the poliovirus epidemic of 1952, there were 3,145 deaths, more than 20,000 paralyzed. “I was a student nurse in 1952,” a reader from West Gardiner wrote to me recently. “Our school auditorium was turned into a ward… We had no idea about cause then and luck seemed very real. May science prevail.” In the 1980s and ’90s, the human immunodeficiency viruses that led to AIDS frightened tens of millions of people, too. But there were no widespread community lockdowns, business shutdowns, home confinements, mass unemployment, as now. Maybe life in this pandemic is more like life in World War II, I don’t know. In the Blitz, 40,000 Brits were killed in about eight months of German bombing. In the Blitz, like in the pandemic, you could take precautions—100,000 or more crowded into London’s shelters at night. But if, when, death would strike, there was no way to know. People put their children on ships to Australia. Trying diligently to be paranoid enough, maybe. It is uncannily quiet in the park. People look at each other sideways. Even when we’re not talking about it we’re wondering if, when, it’s coming to our house. “Our feelings of uncertainty may be the new norm,” Dr. Nirav Shah, Maine’s CDC director, cautioned during one of his superbly clear and human news conferences. He was announcing more deaths. Weird. Relentless. Claustrophobic. Ubiquitous. “At the time of crisis, we tend to ponder deeply,” Xiao, the poet-philosopher wrote around the time Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus, saw its first days of no new cases. “I hope we both go more to nature and steer our families in a right direction. We will enjoy life with compassion to glow to the moment when our bodies decay, so that others may see the light… We will have an interesting time ahead, let us just wait and see.” Dana Wilde, a former editor and college professor, lives in Troy and writes the Backyard Naturalist and Off Radar columns for the centralmaine.com newspapers. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
The Maine Sunday Telegraph recently asked its readers to submit insight into what book they’ve been reading to cope with the endless days of shelter in place. I didn’t respond, as I for one have been reading six different books simultaneously for about two weeks. When one book becomes tedious, there are always the five others. And when all these current six have been fully absorbed, I can just move on to six more of the other hundreds of volumes cluttering my life. No batteries, nor device chargers, required. In recent weeks, I’ve learned through these books a lot about early Maine history, the origins and economic evolution of fracking for oil and gas, the fragile status of America’s global military-industrial complex, the curious origins of words, and the work of magician Harry Houdini and others who 100 years ago were busy debunking “mediums” and their fraudulent connect-with-the dead séances. With books, the opportunity for insight is endless. Next week, who knows? Maybe I’ll move on to the techniques of Japanese book-binding or the nuances of magnetosphere physics. Or maybe just find a good recipe for Tandoor chicken. Strap yourselves in, folks. Find yourselves a dozen good books. Or more. It’s becoming clearer each day that this has only just begun. Tom Walsh is a retired journalist and frequent contributor to The Working Waterfront, whose home in the middle of nowhere overlooks West Bay in the Hancock County village of Gouldsboro.
. APRIL . May2020 WWW.WORKINGWATERFRONT.COM www.workingwaterfront.com 2020
Offshore wind is back in motion
Regulators, developer explain process to fishermen
By Tom Groening
scenic character, air and water quality, or other natural resources in the area of the turbine. A project also must conform to the federal Natural he perception that Maine’s forays into offshore wind power have been on hold aren’t Resources Protection Act, Livesay said, and not quite accurate, said Jake Ward of the “unreasonably interfere” with recreation or naviUniversity of Maine. Under the name New England gation, or harm estuarine or marine fisheries. A Aqua Ventus I, the university is pursuing siting a developer also must provide a navigation plan, a floating wind turbine off Monhegan Island as a fish and wildlife plan, and a removal plan. Brian Hooker of the Bureau of Ocean Energy test for possible further development. Management (BOEM) outlined the federal role in “Someone this morning said this is coming fast,” Ward said of the university’s bid, speaking at a ses- offshore wind. BOEM’s jurisdiction lies in the waters sion of the Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport that are three to 200 miles off state land. The multion March 5. In fact, he has been involved in the phased, multi-year approval process includes planning and analysis, assessments of waters and pursuit of offshore wind power since 2007. “This is not coming fast,” he deadpanned. “I had wind potential, and construction and operation. BOEM is reviewing the Vineyard Wind project kids when this started. Now I have grandkids.” Vector Ecologist, Chuck Lubelczyk, "flags" for deer ticks along undergrowth on Vinalhaven. The deer ticks, in Massachusetts, and Hooker said a final decision Several years ago, UMaine had pursued—as attracted to the white cloth, cling on, believing it is a host. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN Maine Aqua Ventus—siting two floating wind is expected by the end of the year. The National turbines off Monhegan to learn more about the Marine Fisheries Service is part of the review profloating technology and the potential to produce cess and is represented on a task force that includes electricity. To that end, a one-eighth sized floating representatives from Maine, New Hampshire, and turbine was deployed off Castine in 2013, and has Massachusetts. Annie Hawkins of Responsible Offshore Develsince been retrieved. opment Alliance, a Washington adWard said the project is now operating as New By Wanda Curtis honeysuckle. ” Coastal areas also D.C.-based have milder vocacy group formed to protect fi shery interests England Aqua Ventus, and is seeking to site a sin- winters and cooler, moister summers, both of in offshore said her group ingle, 6-megawatt oating turbine. Late last year,this the which benefitwind tick development, survival. aine’s fltick season started early 170 members. federal Department of Energy awarded, athevector proj- cludes According to Maine CDC, a total of 2,132 year, says Chuck Lubelczyk Regulators must consider fishinglast interests, she ect $1.4 million for design, and the Maine Public were reported year, the ecologist at Maine Medical Center cases of Lyme disease said, and “We don’t feel that’s been done very well Utilities Commission voted to approve a 20-year highest number ever in Maine. There were also Research Institute. to date.” Developers use areported, “divide representing and conquer” agreement for was Central MaineinPower to purchase cases of Anaplasmosis Tick activity observed late February and 685 approach, separating states and projects to weakelectricity generated by the turbine. The early March tied to the mild winter. Ticks were a 44 percent increase from the previous year. en opposition. Off shore wind is the largest untapped energy sighted earlier than normal as far north as Bangor, 138 cases of Babesiois reported also represented a “We’reincrease. trying to take the dialogue back,” resource “by far,” Ward said. He explained how dramatic he reported. Hawkins said. theInfloating structure willtemperatures, use pre-cast Maine CDC’s website reveals that 105 cases of additionturbine to above-average Freddisease Mattera, who has fished for 40 years from Port concrete segments. and one case of Anaplasmosis were Lubelczyk said moisture is necessary to deer tick Lyme Judith, R.I., urged fi shermen to document where “We’re very confi dent it will survive” in the mahealth. Drying ground conditions that occur already diagnosed by the first week of April this they The workmajority now to make thecases case for mitigation rine environment, he grasses said. “Anything happening of Lyme were reported if as trees, shrubs, and start to turn green year. they are displaced by wind turbines. in the Gulf of Maine is going to be fl oating.” in the spring hinder ticks, he said, as the plants in Cumberland, York, Knox, and Penobscot “You must engaged,” he said. case was Still, permitting remains to be secured. Fishing Thestay single Anaplasmosis pull moisture from the soil. Depending upon counties. Beth Casoni, director of interests will be included in weighing proposals, the amount of rain or late-season snow, ticks reported in Somerset County. the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, echoed view, sayregulators fishing advocates urged those In a press release issued earlier thisthat year, Maine can either said, have but a good start or a difficult time ing “comments matter” during public review, citpresent to be vigilant. CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said he couldn’t surviving. ing a project areareason off thefor Baythe State that was reduced Nick stateare Department of Envi- speculate on the dramatic increase Ticks Livesay spottedofinthe spring usually holdovers by 65 percent because of articulated concerns. ronmental Protection said the project off Monhefrom the previous year which never made their in tickborne diseases here. The greatly increasing This spring, UMaine’s said,prevention, the project gan fallwildlife, under state jurisdiction. The sitedeer, loca- numbers demonstrate the Ward need for way will onto such as white-tailed will hire a fi sheries liaison. tion law would hold sway, he said, which ensures Lubelczyk explained. Ticks appearing in early he said. there willare be nymphs, no adverse effect existing uses, “Lyme disease and other tickborne diseases are summer which areonresponsible for
T
Ticks make early appearance
M
most human cases of Lyme disease. They will emerge in the fall as the adult cohort. Tick populations are firmly established in many off-shore island communities and along the coast, he said, and have been especially prevalent in York, Kennebunk, Scarborough, Newcastle, and Rockland. Lubelczyk attributed the large tick populations in those areas to “the relatively high deer herd By andWanda suitableCurtis habitat for deer and Eurasian
on the rise, so Mainers need to proactively protect themselves,” he said. Maine CDC recommends residents and visitors protect themselves by using the following “No Ticks for ME approach”:
Fishermen’s group wants to raise mental health awareness an EPA-approved repellent Changing climate, resources,·· Use danger stress Wear protectiveproduce clothing
T
he Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association has won a $5,000 grant to promote mental health awareness in the commercial fishing industry. Monique Coombs, director of marine programs for the editor: nonprofit, said the funds will be used to deTo the velop informational materials to assist commercial fi shermen managing stress, and Ashley depresThank youinvery much for the anxiety, story about sion, as well as materials showing how to stay menBryan (“A journey of infinite hope, faith, art—and tally fi t. A website with phone numbers for fi sherprejudice,” February/March issue, and E-Weekly). men to reach out for help may also be in the works. For many years I have had on my studio wall a The grant was awarded by the Fishertitled Charitable Trust. print by Charles Wadsworth “Ashley’s Coombs said fi shermen may be experiencing Studio.” It shows Mr. Bryan against a window filled stress due to bits changes in theglass. industry over which with brilliant of stained Appropriate for they have no control. Th e ever-present danger in me, as I am a glass artist, and given to me by Mr. the work also adds stress. Wadsworth because I helped him with a writing “It’s not fishing produces stress for fisherproject back in thethat 1980s. men,” she said. “Many of themthe love being on But though I have enjoyed print all out these the water. It’s dealing with a lot of uncertainty due years, I never knew very much about Mr. Bryan to thingsexcept like climate regulation and himself that heand lived on Littlechanges, Cranberry how those things are going to impact their busiand did wonderful, bright, cheerful work. Now I ness income.” knowand more, and I have already ordered a copy of
· Perform daily tick checks According to the National Institute · Use caution in tick-infested areas for Occupational Safety and Health, commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the U.S. Its data shows that commercial fishermen experienced a fatality rate of 114 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers between 2000 and 2017. That compares to an average of four deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalents among U.S. workers. I read it I’ll the book that you all reviewed—when Common hazards include vessel disasters, falls overknow even more! board, and a of onboard andwas equipment And at thatvariety same time that Mr.gear Bryan in the . Coombs said fi shing is a very isolating industry, U.S. Army at Normandy, my brother Bob Lane withat some fishermen out age, on the water and from was, about the same master of a away tugboat families for days at a time, which adds to stress. in Southhampton that helped in the landings. So “Depression, anxiety, andI’llthoughts of about suicide in reading Mr. Bryan’s book learn more are not uncommon in any fi shing community, my brother’s experiences too—and with pictures!no matter coasttoyou Coombs. And I which would like add:are Weon,” havesaid been enjoying“It is anWorking isolating, dangerousand occupation, full offor unThe Waterfront Island Journal certainty and expense.” many years. Our own connection is with another The grantIsland, is justthe a beginning, she said, but Cranberry one in Muscongus Bay.it’s a step toward bringing issues into the open to be What goes around comes around… or is it vise addressed. Th e hope is to humanize the fi shing versa? industry and make the public aware of stressors fiAlice shermen face every day. Lane Johnson Alex Todd, a 10th generation fisherman from Watertown, Mass.
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Letter to the Editor
Chebeague Island, said changing regulations, such as those concerning right whale protections, are among the biggest stressors for him. “There’s also a lot less mobility between fisheries today due to licensing issues, which makes things more stressful, too,” he added. “I know some fishermen have gotten therapy and it’s helped them, but many are reluctant to admit they need help. “I get relief from stress by going to the gym or playing my guitar, but everybody is different,” Todd said. “I appreciate what the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association is trying to do by drawing attention to these issues.”
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
Rock Bound
Let’s travel to some other waterfronts
Developments succeed and falter, history ‘in plain sight,’ and... By Tom Groening WHEN I ARRIVED at the Island Institute seven years ago, the newspaper featured a column that reported on working waterfront access issues around the U.S. The few times I wrote the column, my approach was to bop around the web, reading news stories about development and the inevitable conflicts that followed from the nation’s coasts. I found the resultant collection of stories illuminating. I hope you, too, find this survey interesting, because rather than wade into the virus here, I want to take you on a trip. From Bay Journal, a nonprofit newspaper reporting on the Chesapeake Bay region, comes a story about a fleet of old wooden vessels appearing during recent low tides along the Nansemond River at the city of Suffolk. “Suffolk’s history in its purest sense is maritime history,” said archaeologist Brendan Burke. “It put Suffolk’s legs under it and stood it up as a modern industrial city.” Brian Bates of Longwood University notes: “The curious thing is, it was hidden in plain sight. You look out
there and you see just a bunch of little bumps sticking out of the water at low tide. But then when you actually get above it, you go, ‘Wow, that’s actually a boat. And there’s another one.’” Locals who had fished there for years were unaware of the wrecks. The maritime district began to fade after World War I, Bay Journal reports, when five railroads began dominating local transportation. The market synergy that comes with joining boats and boat owners remains viable, at least in Everett, Wash. The Herald Net reports on a 266-unit apartment opening on the city’s waterfront, the first such development there. Many of those residents “are going to want a boat,” said Jeff LaLone, a co-owner of an adjacent marina and boat sales business. In St. Petersburg, Fla., the Tampa Bay Times writes about a new 26-acre, $92 million pier opening May 30. The city announced the debut of its “new waterfront playground” with what the paper calls a splashy YouTube video. The cost almost doubled over the years, as more features were added,
including seawalls and storm water improvements. The project will feature several restaurants and a “soaring, aerial net sculpture.” Closer to home, a project on St. John, New Brunswick’s waterfront is in jeopardy by possibly losing “critical federal funds after the province turned down a city grant request,” the CBC reports. “The $218-million residential and commercial Fundy Quay project is planned for the former Canadian Coast Guard site at the foot of King Street,” CBC reports. “But it hinges in part on the six-acre property being made ‘development ready,’” which would mean a rebuilt sea wall, removal of contaminated soils, and raising the site in anticipation of rising sea levels. The feds and city each committed $10 million, but provincial government declined to fund the project. In Astoria, Oregon, a brewery has purchased, for $8 million, a waterfront warehouse to house its operation. Late last year, the Astorian newspaper weighed-in on the development in an editorial: “One of the core principles behind the Riverfront Vision Plan is to
encourage a mix of uses that support a working waterfront and the city’s economy.” City council debate had centered on “preserving views of the Columbia River and the Astoria Bridge and restricting development,” the paper wrote, but it concluded by urging the council to recognize “the importance of a working waterfront to the city’s prosperity." Myrtle Beach and Charleston are two of South Carolina’s biggest tourist draws, but Rider magazine highlights recreational opportunities in the 100 miles of “in between” swampy, salt marsh, coastal land. “Undiscovered is fine by me,” the writer notes, because it allows him to grab one of his motorcycles to “ride road, dirt road, or off-road, depending on the day and my desires.” The Francis Marion National Forest offers 259,000 acres of multi-use land, he writes. Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront.
Reflections
Keep doing art… every one of us
Creative work continues Down East, in spite of virus Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.
By Mark Macey ORIGINALLY, THIS column was going to be about Dear Elizabeth, a play I directed for Stage East, here in Eastport. Being a reader of The Working Waterfront, you likely saw the lovely photo spread of the show in the April issue. I looked forward to writing about that experience, but as I sat down to do so, the words wouldn’t come. In the face of this pandemic, there’s something else I feel takes precedence. First, I’m proud to say that the Eastport Arts Center and Stage East have moved much of their programming online. For myself, I’m continuing to run Laugh Lab, a sketch comedy class, and Children’s Theatre Workshop, a theatre program for youth—all online. I’m also managing an online, multidisciplinary project called Life in
Washington County for Stage East. We have over 30 participants involved and look forward to sharing everyone’s work. It’s been a time of adjustment and change, and for organizations dedicated to bringing people together, a challenge to think outside the box. But it’s not these efforts I’m interested in exploring. I want to talk about what art can do for you right here, right now. Art, at its simplest, is communication. We say something by making art, something that we can’t say any other way. What we say can be social, political, psychological, etc. It can be clear or vague, but we always express something through art. This moment brings with it a series of
We say something by making art, something that we can’t say any other way.
complex circumstances and emotions. It’s precisely this complexity that art handles well. I encourage all of us to take what we’re experiencing, good or bad, and tell our communities about it. Make something; make anything. Maybe your community is just your family, maybe it’s just your friends, or maybe it’s the entire world. Regardless of scope, we need each other. What’s more, we need to hear each other because it’s through communication that we create community. We might think of art as something done by artists, those other people who know something we don’t. This is not the case. I’ll tell you a secret: everyone is an artist! Really, I promise. So write that poem, finish that song, paint your favorite person, dance by the water at midnight, and please, pretty please, have so much fun doing it. When there are no rules, you can’t do something “right” or make something “good.” You’ll say something important whatever you do, and you and the people you share it with will be so much richer for it. In time, this moment will pass. It may be haunting and difficult to think
about even then. There are, of course, greater concerns than picking up a pen or paintbrush right now. I’ve noticed, however, a renewed appreciation for the arts. Our lives are made fuller in this moment by our favorite books, movies, music and so on. I think we’d find participating in the arts equally rewarding, both now and in the future. In closing, I’ll borrow the words of Robert Alexander, the founder of Living Stage Theatre Co. He says, “Every human being is an artist and in the moment of creation, we are at our most sane, most healthy, and most fulfilled.” Mark Macey is working with Eastport Arts Center and Stage East, community theater groups aiming to increase work with new participants and audiences, especially youth. A graduate of the University of Utah with a B.A. in Theater Studies, he lived in Salt Lake City before moving to Maine.
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
9
Rockland Working Waterfront—
This image, probably from the early 20th century, shows a welldeveloped working waterfront at the end of what today is Tilson Avenue in Rockland. We are grateful to the Penobscot Marine Museum for sharing the image. This and thousands of others are available for purchase as prints at the museum’s website. https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/
Guest Column
Personal stories about sewage and pollution Evolution of waste water treatment was slow, but steady By Albert Presgraves I STARTED SAILING as a youngster with my family in the 1960s. At that time, the only sewage disposal system in common use on boats was a marine toilet with a built-in pump that pulled in seawater and discharged the waste and water mix overboard. It seemed normal at the time. As a teenager in 1970, I went sailing with a family that did not have an installed head, but used the “bucket and chuck-it” method. That seemed reasonable, too. When I had my own sailboat as a young man in 1977, things were starting to change, although I was always careful about swimming in a crowded anchorage. The Environmental Protection Agency had issued regulations that prohibited direct overboard discharge of sewage from new boats in 1975, and from existing boats by January 1980. The old timers grumbled about how unnecessary that was! On my 25-foot boat, I had a PortaPottie, which was completely legal. Kind of gross to deal with, but good to have for guests. Still, I may have used the bucket and chuck-it method a few times prior to 1980.
Island Institute Board of Trustees
Emily B. Lane, Chair Tom Tinsley Vice Chair Charles Owen Verrill, Jr. Secretary Douglas Henderson, Treasurer, Finance Chair Donna Wiegle, Programs Chair Kristin Howard, Development Chair Bryan Lewis, Governance Chair Michael P. Boyd, Clerk Natalie Ames Sebastian Belle Shey Conover David Cousens Megan McGinnis Dayton Michael Felton Luke Holden Nathan Johnson Michael Sant Barbara Kinney Sweet Kate Vogt Carol White John Bird (honorary) Louis W. Cabot (honorary)
There were some other options, but the most common waste disposal solution for boats was to continue to use the marine toilet, but add some plumbing and pump the waste into an onboard holding tank. Although most people wanted to comply, for a few years it was difficult to find a pumpout location. For the past 20 years or so, that has not been a problem. One solution that is still legal today is to discharge sewage overboard if the vessel is over three miles from shore. That doesn’t seem like a big problem, unless the vessel is a cruise ship, but they supposedly don’t do that anymore. Although it seemed like a big change at the time, prohibiting the discharge of toilet waste overboard certainly made harbors more pleasant for the environment and for water sports activities. Today, this kind of disposal would be unacceptable to most people, as far as I can tell. Some men are still known to pee overboard, but even that is probably getting less common. Certainly in crowded harbors. These changes to marine discharge regulations were a result of the 1972 Clean Water Act, which also provided
federal funds to upgrade, rebuild, and build new wastewater treatment facilities all over the country. Implementation of these requirements did take some time, however. After I moved to Peaks Island in 1981, I was quite surprised to find that the municipal sewer system, with about 180 houses and businesses connected, discharged into Casco Bay with no treatment of any kind. The EPA process to obtain federal funding for sewage improvements required public meetings to review alternatives and costs. At one meeting I attended, a lobsterman announced that treatment was a particularly bad idea because “the best lobstering in the area is right around that discharge pipe.” I have no idea if that was true, but a new treatment plant became operational in 1993. During the same time period, around 1990, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection had a program to identify “straight” discharge pipes of sewage from houses along the shores of all waterbodies, including islands. I know there were several straight pipes on Peaks Island, and they were common all along the coast, I’m sure. Those have
THE WORKING WATERFRONT
Published by the Island Institute, a non-profit organization that works to sustain Maine's island and coastal communities, and exchanges ideas and experiences to further the sustainability of communities here and elsewhere. All members of the Island Institute and residents of Maine island communities receive monthly mail delivery of The Working Waterfront. For home delivery: Join the Island Institute by calling our office at (207) 594-9209 E-mail us: membership@islandinstitute.org • Visit us online: www.islandinstitute.org/membership
all been eliminated, supposedly, and certainly most of them are gone. Now, our environmental concerns have moved on to other problems, including storm water pollution, drinking water contamination from pharmaceuticals and personal care products, agricultural runoff, and hazardous industrial contamination, just to name a few. Oh yeah, there’s climate change from our huge emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. It can make one nostalgic for the old pollution problems we could more easily identify and correct. At least now the water quality in harbors appears to be cleaner than it was before 1980. We can enjoy that success as we figure out how to address the remaining, bigger problems. Albert Presgraves and his wife Jenny Yasi built a passive solar house in 1989 on Peaks Island, where they raised their two daughters and went sailing in the summers. Now in Freeport, they run Whole Dog Camp for training dogs and educating about behavior science. Their sailing adventures since 2008 can be found at www.alpeaks.blogspot.com.
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
The cottage after it was jacked up, in anticipation of a new foundation. PHOTO: COURTESY TIM FLOOD
The Flood family cottage, a former fish house, is prepared to be set on a higher foundation. PHOTO: COURTESY TIM FLOOD
Friendship family on its own for sea-level rise fixes With limited resources available, Flood family bears cost of retrofits By Stephanie Bouchard
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hen Tim Flood, 60, was a kid, the sea would find its way inside one of his family’s cottages on Muscongus Bay only once in a while during the winter. But within the last five years, the ocean has been a regular visitor to the twostory building not just in the winter, but in the summer, too. The family knew it had to do something or else the building would be lost to rising sea levels. Sea level rise is a reality that everyone in coastal and island communities live with. Municipal governments have discussed what to do about it, and some have even put together detailed plans for coping with it and have sought out funding to implement those plans, or at least parts of them. But private property owners, like the Flood family, are largely on their own to figure out what to do to protect their properties. The Flood family has owned its property in Friendship since the turn of the last century, when their ancestor, Dr. Everett Flood, purchased it from Capt. Ambrose Simmons. Simmons, a fisherman, operated a schooner called a pinky. He’d sail from the cove to the Grand Banks to fish, and when he returned home, he’d tie up his vessel to a wharf built in the cove. On that wharf was a fish house where the captain would salt the fish he brought in. That fish house is the
building the Flood family is now working to save from the rising seas. “It’s really a historic building,” Flood said. “We wanted to preserve that for future generations.” The Flood family today calls the former fish house The Defiance and rents it and six other cottages on their 65-acre property to summer visitors. It is built on the wharf, with the ocean flowing under it. It has no plumbing except for the kitchen sink. A plumbed bathroom is in a separate building on shore. When the ocean became a more frequent winter visitor a couple of decades ago, the family was worried the sea would knock the building off its foundation so they cut panels out of the floor about five feet wide by 15 feet long and bolted them together. The panels would lift up with the incoming water and settle back down as the water flowed out. That worked for a long time, Flood said, but the water now comes in two or three times a summer, when they are likely to have tenants in the building. How much water enters the building depends on the tides and the moon cycle, he said, but there’s sure to be some water inside if the tide is over 11feet, 3-inches. Given predictions that the ocean is only going to continue to rise, the Flood family decided to be proactive. They hired S&S Excavators of Cushing, which began the process of raising the building by 28 inches last January. Over the winter, the company poured the new,
higher foundation—working around the tides—and lowered the building in place on the new foundation. The cost for the project—estimated to total somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 by the time all the ancillary work is completed—“was a major problem for us and a concern,” Flood said. The family wasn’t able to find any resources to help private property owners deal with sea level rise, he said. That doesn’t surprise Robert Marvinney, a geologist with the state’s geological survey staff who monitors sea level rise for Maine. “Individual property owners are mostly on their own,” he said. State and federal sea level rise grants are focused on supporting public infrastructure. “They’re not ignoring the property owners in the area,” he said. “It’s just really tough to see how to spend public funds to improve private property.” Especially when the cost estimates for public infrastructure work are already eye popping in many communities, such as Damariscotta, where, five years ago, that community’s flood resiliency plan was estimated to be $1.4 million. Given the funding realities, the Flood family still opted to get their sea level rise project done. The family is paying for the entire project, Flood said. “It’s not an insignificant cost. In our minds, it’s worth doing because we want to preserve the historic nature of the building and preserve it for future generations of our family.”
The water now comes in two or three times a summer… The Sea Level Rise Resiliency team at the Island Institute works to ensure island and coastal residents and community leaders have access to information and resources to help adapt to climate change, and supports businesses and municipalities in planning for and building infrastructure that improves their resilience to rising seas and other climate change impacts. More information can be found at: www. islandinstitute.org/climate-impacts Resources for home owners: Go to the state’s geological survey website at: https://www.maine.gov/dacf/ mgs/hazards/index.shtml to learn more about sea level rise forecasts in Maine, and find a property’s owner’s guide for coastal residents. Check out Maine Sea Grant’s Preparing for a Changing Climate at https://seagrant. umaine.edu/focus-areas/preparingfor-a-changing-climate for additional resources.
. April . May2020 www.workingwaterfront.com www.workingwaterfront.com 2020
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Luke’s Lobster offers e-commerce for seafood Product marketing will help Maine coastal towns
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uke’s Lobster has launched an e-commerce platform to offer a number of Luke’s seafood products direct-to-consumer. (See: https://lukeslobster.getbento.com/shop-lukes/) This addition comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic as most of Luke’s Lobster shacks nationwide have temporarily closed. In an effort to keep as many jobs as possible, and support its fishermen, Luke’s Lobster is focusing on the grocery side of its business. “Launching an e-commerce platform was something we’ve had in the works, but had not planned to launch for many more months,” said Luke Holden, founder and CEO of Luke’s Lobster. “The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up our process and forced us to be nimble and adaptable, attributes that have always been key to our success. No one is immune to this global crisis, and we’re all in this together, taking it day by day, hour by hour.” The goal, Holden said, was to provide a way for customers to enjoy Luke’s products at home, with a number of easy-to-prepare seafoods. Maine’s lobster-fishermen depend on companies like Luke’s, which has its own lobster processing plant in Saco, to remain strong buyers so there will be a place to sell their lobster when the season gets underway in a few months. “Ensuring we can remain partners to our fishermen is at the core of who we are,” said Holden. “Getting this e-commerce site up and running quickly to create an attractive outlet for lobster-based products helps us, but it also is critical for the small fishing villages up and down our coast.” Luke Holden. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN In a typical season, Luke’s buys approximately five million pounds of lobster from co-ops and wharfs on the Maine coast. “In the face of COVID-19, we basically had to take our strategic longer-term plan for an e-commerce launch and completely tear up the playbook to launch nearly immediately,” said Holden. New products, like Gulf of Maine scallops, are available at the online shop; orders are being accepted all week, with shipping on Thursdays for delivery on Fridays, said Ben Conniff, Luke’s co-founder and chief marketing officer. Live lobster continues to be offered. Halibut may also be offered in season. The e-commerce site will launch with six primary products, including Lobster Mac ‘n Cheese, made with Cabot Creamery cheese. Like Luke’s Lobster, Cabot Creamery is a certified B-Corp sourcing from its 800 farmer co-op members John Martin, Bud Staples, and Elsie Gillespie chat around the woodstove at the annual town meeting. throughout New England. Other products featured include Luke’s Lobster Meat with Seasoning , Luke’s Lobster Bisque, Twin Lobster Tails with Lemon Garlic Marinade, and Luke’s Spicy Crab & Sweet Potato Bisque. In addition to making these products available to customers through its e-commerce platform, Luke’s Lobster is ramping up SEND KIDS TO SUMMER CAMP! its online recipes, providing customers with creative ways to prepare seafood, including a series of fun how-to videos from Luke’s family and friends (and Holden himself).
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
Waiting for spring
Photographer Michele Stapleton explores quiet side of Harpswell MANY STATE BEACHES are closed because of the pandemic, but with the weather improving, Mainers are clamoring for beautiful places where they can get in their daily dose of exercise. As a resident of Brunswick, I’ve always loved Harpswell, and especially Route 123 (the part of Harpswell that gets less attention). The small Potts Point Preserve at the very southern tip of Route 123 offers a short walk (best made at low tide), and if you park the car and also walk the neighborhood at the tip of the peninsula—Hurricane Ridge—you’re treated to a quiet stroll among some sweet summer cottages with an impressive amount of gingerbread detailing. For more info: Harpswell Heritage Land Trust: https://hhltmaine.org/get-outdoors/potts-point-preserve/ —Michele Stapleton
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
Our Island Communities Isle au Haut prepares to go solar, with new storage technology After exploring options, multi-faceted, microgrid approach chosen
Boats and the lighthouse as seen on the approach to Isle au Haut. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING
By Stephanie Bouchard
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iving on an island fosters innovation. For the 50 or so year-round residents of Isle au Haut, innovation can look like using PVC pipe as a curtain rod because there are no real curtain rods at hand, or it can look like the future of the nation’s electrical grid
The 6-mile-long by 2-mile-wide island has been facing disruption of its electricity supply. So islanders, as they do every day, got creative. And in the process, integrated technology that’s been available for decades with emerging innovations to create what could be a renewable energy model for the rest of the U.S. and perhaps the world. Isle au Haut gets electricity via underwater cable
from the mainland, about 7 miles away. But that cable, painstakingly installed along the ocean floor in 1983 by Parker Waite, a local diver, has surpassed its estimated lifespan by almost double and could fail at any time. If the cable fails, the island can run its backup diesel generator, but that would triple the cost of electricity for residents, says Jim Wilson, the president of Isle au Haut Electric Power Company.
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
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“It would be an economic disaster,” he says. Created by Portland–based Introspective Systems, the software—which is also What’s more, using the diesel generator as the island’s main electricity source being considered for use in Europe and Africa—calculates the cost of electricity would also require more maintenance and is not climate-friendly. in real time so consumers can manage their energy choices. Five years ago, knowing islanders were living on borrowed time, the electricity “We’re doing optimal resource allocation,” explained Kay Aikin, Introspective company board began researching options. Among them: creating a microgrid for Systems’ cofounder and CEO, during a webinar about the island’s project presented the island, which would be independent from the mainland power utility company. last summer to the Smart Electric Power Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in To go the microgrid route, they would have to be able to generate power on the Washington, D.C. island. For that, they considered microturbines, refrigerator-sized devices that burn fuel That means, for example, the software figures out when it’s most cost-effective to generate electricity. They to heat a building using the also looked at wind turbines air-to-water heat pump/ and solar. A solar microgrid, hot water tank system or to says Wilson, penciled out at use a building’s backup heat a fraction of the cost of all source, such as a kerosenethe other options, including fueled monitor heater, replacing the cable. then individual consumers, So solar it was. With the using a dashboard interface support of islanders, the resembling a tablet power company is getting ready to install a renewable microgrid energy system computer, can select the option that makes the most sense for them. And they can this summer, which includes a 300-kilowatt solar array of 900 panels. do so knowing that their privacy is protected: The consumer’s energy management Getting this project to the launch-point has been “an adventure,” Wilson says. choices are not shared with the power company. When one tricky situation was solved, another one popped up. It’s pretty exciting stuff, Wilson says. “When this whole thing goes together, it’s Among the many challenges they faced was one everyone interested in going to be a very different system than we thought we would have when we started.” converting to more renewable energy such as solar or wind has to tackle: storing How to pay for this new energy system and make it as affordable as possible for intermittently produced energy for later use. One of the most common storage the electricity company and islanders has been another nut to crack, says Nicholas solutions are lithium-ion Filler, the power company’s batteries, but they were not vice president. well suited for the island’s The $1.8 million project project for a number of is being financed through a reasons, including cost and variety of sources including anticipated lifespan. private investment, donations After examining several of materials, grants, and other storage options, the loans. But islanders will power company settled on still feel quite a bite. The supercapacitors built by usage rate for electricity will New York–based Kilowatt remain the same at 32 cents Labs, a power management a kilowatt-hour, Filler says, company. Supercapacitors but each property owner will are electronic devices that have to pay an assessment store and release energy at a fee of up to $6,800 to help rapid rate without degrading cover the costs of the project. the way typical batteries Property owners will be do, says Kilowatt Labs’ given the option of paying chairman, co-founder and the assessment all at once or managing director, Chip through a 20-year payment An aerial view of the Isle au Haut Thoroughfare. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN Seibert. plan. The island’s solar-powered Despite the additional electrical microgrid will have one megawatt-hour of storage in supercapacitors costs to their household budgets, islanders have been supportive of the project, housed in two, 20-foot-long containers resembling trailers. Kilowatt Labs is also Wilson says. They recognize the need, for one thing, but also there are factors that providing a power management system housed in a 10-foot container that channels take some of the sting out of the additional cost. the power to and from the microgrid. If property owners make the switch to the air-to-water heat pump/hot water storage system, the savings on their heating costs will soften the pinch of the REDUCING WASTE increase to their electric bills, he says, And by going with solar panels and heat With storage figured out, the island’s electricity company then faced the issue of a pumps, the island overall will greatly reduce its use of fossil fuels. huge seasonal discrepancy in the amount of electricity needed. The island’s population increases from around 50 to between 250 and 300 people in the summer. To meet the CATCHING ATTENTION electricity demand of the summer months, the island needs a larger energy system. In The innovative project has caught the attention of a number of industry-related the non-summer months, this larger system produces more electricity than is used. organizations, including Efficiency Maine, an independent administrator of While the cable is still functioning, the island’s electricity company can sell that excess energy efficiency programs. Ian Burnes, director of strategic initiatives for power to the utility company on the mainland. But once the cable fails, any electricity Efficiency Maine, says the organization has agreed to provide more than $65,000 produced beyond what can be stored in the supercapacitors will be essentially wasted. in grants to help support the project with the expectation that the data collected The solution? Installing air-to-water heat pump heating systems in residential, from the island will inform the organization’s future efforts. municipal, and commercial properties on the island to transform the excess “We are cautiously optimistic about this,” Burnes said. While he is not sure this electricity into hot water that can then be used to heat buildings, which are currently type of project is right for every community, it could be a strong piece of the heated with a variety of sources ranging from wood to oil to kerosene. puzzle of how to integrate renewables into the electric system mix. “This has the No one expects that every property owner on the island will convert their potential of offering a lot of benefit.” heating systems to the heat pump/hot water tank system, says Molly Siegel, an From Wilson’s perspective, there’s no doubt that what they’re doing on Isle au Island Institute Island Haut has the potential to Fellow. The systems, Siegel make a huge difference says, are expected to cost to communities on the around $9,000 installed, mainland in Maine, and for which is a steep outlay for the country as a whole. Ian Burnes, Efficiency Maine most year-round islanders. “The implication is much, But those who do can much broader than just for expect substantial savings Isle au Haut,” he says. While in heating costs. it’s not a perfect solution, Accounting for the size of the building and how well it’s insulated, the heating he acknowledges, it has “tremendous” applicability and “could be a very signification pump/hot water system could cut a property owner’s heating costs by half, says economic factor” for any place that heavily relies on fossil fuels. Wilson. That puts the payback time on the upfront costs of the heat pump system Chip Seibert of Kilowatt Labs agrees. The energy industry tends to predict that between four and seven years. solutions like Isle au Haut’s will only take shape in a decade or two, he says, leaving all of us, in the meantime, still reliant on fossil fuel-powered electricity generation. THE ‘NEXT, NEXT’ GRID “We have to have a plan that takes one baby step at time,” he says. “When you How the microgrid is controlled is what makes Isle au Haut’s energy system the look at what the Isle au Haut is doing, that’s a really interesting baby step that “next, next grid”—an algorithm-based computer program complemented by actually is a pretty big leap in the scheme of things.” machine learning and artificial intelligence. This story first appeared on the website Ensia.com.
Supercapacitors are electronic devices that store and release energy at a rapid rate…
“We are cautiously optimistic about this.”
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
Essay
Maine: A pattern of renewal after hardship A historical analysis of the state’s ability to bounce back By Jack Sullivan I WAS LOOKING forward to doing something fun to celebrate my home state’s 200th anniversary of statehood. I wanted to have a few friends over and make a toast to the 23rd state of this great nation— maybe even pour one out for Joshua Chamberlain. Unfortunately, March 15 was the weekend it was no longer medically acceptable to have visitors in your home. It was not a time for celebrating at all. Jobs in Maine and elsewhere suddenly disappeared, and the stock market saw a sharp decline. Yet, truth be told, it makes perfect sense for Maine to celebrate its 200th anniversary in the midst of uncertainty and economic crisis. Maine has seen booms and busts of epic proportions for as long as it has had a modern economy. These devastating busts and our perseverance in recovery make Maine so special and worth celebrating in the first place. So instead of celebrating my favorite state with my friends, I found myself practicing social isolation and poring over dusty college text books, specifically my books on Maine history. It was in those books that I was reminded of how often Maine has faced economic turmoil. The Pine Tree State is exactly what the name implies—a state whose identity and economic vitality depend on nature. Pine lumber is one of many resources that have propelled Maine to economic prosperity, only to see it unceremoniously fizzle and leave Mainers unemployed. Nature has granted us expansive opportunities, but natural resource economies can be fragile. Competition from away has pushed Maine out of certain natural resource markets. New inventions can cause a resource to become obsolete. Other times, nature stops giving when we’ve taken too much. Each of these scenarios can—and have—put large numbers of Mainers out of work.
A graph of cod landings from the 1860s to the 1890s shows a sharp downward slope, much like the graph I was looking at earlier that day—that of the Dow Jones Industrial average for March 2020. Mainers have been seeing these sharp declines since statehood. Around the time of the Civil War, Maine landed 57 percent of all cod tonnage. However, in the late 1860s, a combination of competition from Massachusetts and Newfoundland and inadequate railroad access to Maine ports caused our cod fishery to diminish, putting fishermen out of work and forcing them to adapt. In this case, adaptation meant carving out a new niche in the marine market. Investors in Maine shifted their focus from offshore fisheries to the burgeoning lobster industry—a solution that has paid off through today. This pattern extends to the 20th century in other ill-fated natural resource industries. Ice harvesters became obsolete when artificial refrigeration entered the market. The collapse of that industry and the ensuing loss of jobs had nothing to do with the work ethic of the harvesters or the quality of the product, just like those Mainers currently out of work had no control over the pandemic. Likewise, in the early 1900s, the rise of steel and concrete in construction took its toll on Maine’s
Maine has seen booms and busts of epic proportions for as long as it has had a modern economy.
An illustration of a cod schooner at sea in the mid 1800s. IMAGE COURTESY MAINE HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
granite industry. Sometimes, as in the case of the 1,500 on Hurricane Island whose lives were tied to the granite industry, people lost their livelihoods suddenly and learned overnight they had to start from scratch. More recently, Maine has found itself facing steep declines in manufacturing jobs. “We have seen the rise and fall of textiles, boots and shoes, and pulp and paper,” writes Stephen J. Hornsby, director of the Canadian-American Center at University of Maine and co-editor of The Historical Atlas of Maine. “All these industries created particular types of settlement—commonly one industry towns— which boomed during the good years and then suffered greatly as their industries closed. We are seeing this right now with the old pulp and paper towns.” In my own lifetime, I’ve seen mills close, putting substantial portions of a town’s population out of work. I’ve also seen those towns remain vital because of strong leadership, creative problem solving, and unbreakable willpower. Those assets can prove to be far more valuable than tangible resources like lumber, granite, and cod. In last month’s issue, we examined Biddeford, and how its former mill buildings were being repurposed to catalyze community resurgence—proof that the innovation needed to overcome such challenges exists here in our state. Even in the period since the pandemic derailed the economy as we knew it, I’ve seen fishermen improvise by selling their products straight to consumers, bypassing the channels that have been hamstrung by COVID-19. Maine has the resources to survive hardship—it’s not in the industries on which we rely, it’s in our history, our character, and our blood. Jack Sullivan is a multi-media storyteller with the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
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Book Review
Mythic storypoems of spirit and survival Native poetry is rare, but rendered so powerfully here Review by Carl Little IN A DOCUMENTARY about his life and work, award-winning Native-American writer N. Scott Momaday stated, “There is no such thing as poetry in Indian traditions.” Interviewing him in March, NPR reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked him to explain. “It’s a storytelling tradition,” Momaday said, “so you have songs and prayers and spells and stories. But you don’t have verse.” Jason Grundstrom-Whitney’s first collection, with musket fire / in the 1600s”). In the lovely Bear, Coyote, Raven (Resolute Bear Press, “Dragonfly,” Bear observes this compound-eyed Robbinston, Maine, 2020), features nearly insect perched on his kayak with some envy. “My 70 poems that both confirm and disprove eyes lose most of what surrounds me— / insects, Momaday’s claim. A Bear Clan member of the birds, frogs, jumping fish, menagerie clouds,” he Passamaquoddy Tribe, Grundstrom-Whitney muses, while the dragonfly “sees more of me than offers his share of songs, prayers, spells and I know myself.” When the three friends stories—especially the latter— roam the western U.S. in the inspired by his tribal origins, latter part of the collection, but his poetry is formed from sometimes hitchhiking, this stanzas and the engaging reader turned to Google to look rhythms of the speaking voice. up some of the tribal names: The three creatures of the the Tohono O’odham, who title are friends who interact live in the Sonoran Desert, the in human and animal ways. Tarahumara from Chihuahua, They gather around a sacred Mexico, and the Haisla of fire, tell stories, make mischief, British Columbia. And what and regard the world with is “counting coup”? Wikipedia humor and despair. They listen explains it’s a ritual of the Plains to Charles Mingus (“Avian Indians for gaining prestige by Bebop”), stumble drunk down touching an enemy and escaping the streets of Machias (“After without being wounded. Raven Stole the Light”), and In a recent article in Publisher’s experience misadventures Weekly, Grundstrom-Whitney while dining from a dumpster explained how the book’s (“The Continuous Buffet”). Several poems reference modern-day issues use of white space “mirrors the deserts of the such as habitat loss. In “Sawdust,” Bear looks for a Southwest” where he has spent time with various tribal nations, while the place to hibernate: “Around poems’ rhythms reflect developments we stole, the fact that “drumbeat / even high mountains is part of the heart—at leveled for mansions.” The Native gatherings you hear poem ends with a question: it.” Several poems feature “Where to go / when there recurring sounds: “ka is nowhere to go?” thum/ka thum” in “Eagle Another poem, “Thin Woman” or the derisive Bears,” addresses climate “squawk-squawk-squawk” change. Three emaciated in “Bear Leaves Business.” ursine figures appear in In the same article, Quebec City, driven south Resolute Bear Press by the melting Arctic. With publisher Valerie Lawson no place to hunt, these bears explains how, when she feed on the “hormone-fed and her husband, Michael sides of beef ” they find in Brown, were assembling the city. The empathetic 3 Nations Anthology: Bear “felt death reaching Native, Canadian & New in his new language— / England Writers (2017), she drought, hurricanes, fire, discovered “the richness, auto-immune illness. / It and relative scarcity, of seemed he added a new Jason Grundstrom-Whitney indigenous writings in the word daily.” Other creatures make appearances: owls, region” and felt compelled to uncover it. Kudos to mules, deer, and a philosophical and ancient her and Brown for introducing us to Grundstromdesert tortoise (“They figured she had been shot Whitney’s remarkable storytelling—and poetry.
With no place to hunt, these bears feed on the “hormone-fed sides of beef” they find in the city.
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
Saltwater Cure
Spring comes, regardless
The signs are all there, and it’s worthwhile noting them By Courtney Naliboff REMEMBER LAST month’s column, when I was so excited about my staycation? And then exactly a month later we all found ourselves on an indefinite staycation? Except during this staycation I’m teaching a full remote-course load while helping my kindergartener with her remote learning and also attempting to remotely direct a musical. And my pager is on all the time and I have a fittested N-95 mask in my purse. That’s where we’re at, no need to go into further detail there. You’re all living variations on the theme, I assume, unless we successfully flatten the curve and are released back into the world in early May, but from where I’m at, in a sunny spot on the window seat, I can’t predict the future. Instead, I’m marveling at the fact that no matter what’s going on with the humans in the world, plants and animals are going to do spring with or without us. Today, the first sunny day after a long stretch of wind and rain in early April, we found the first hellebore blossom in the garden around the patio. The
purple crocuses are open wide, just past their peak. The tulips emerged early in the month, then got nibbled and unearthed. I replanted them and loaded them up with Deer-Off, and they seem to be doing well. Hopefully the deer are now finding other things to eat than my garden—we’ll see. A few magenta knobs of rhubarb are up next to the porch. Hopefully the yard bunnies ignore it; last year they gave it a good munch but we still managed to pick enough for sauce and cake. Chives are up in the cistern herb garden and garlic is up in the back bed. I’m planning a tall, sturdy fence around
No matter what’s going on with the humans in the world, plants and animals are going to do spring with or without us.
it this year if we can get the materials. Not donating half my garden to deer and rabbits seems extra pressing right now. We’re also hoping to finally buy the greenhouse we’ve been dreaming of to ensure an extra-productive round of tomatoes, and some season-extending greens. Pussywillow and witch hazel are on their way out, and forsythia, magnolia, and apple are on their way in. I expect to see some dandelions in the yard before too long and hopefully bees. A new apiary, run from Vinalhaven but with hives on both of the Fox Islands, has put honey on the shelves and we’re hoping to have some of the bees on our property soon. The lilacs in our yard, and a bush whose name I don’t know but I think of as a cauliflower bush, have fat leaf buds. Two chickadees, which I sincerely hope are a couple, have been frequenting the bird feeder Penrose got for her fifth birthday, and I had to pull out my Audubon guide to ID a brown creeper making staccato spirals up a spruce tree. Robins and doves have joined the crows nibbling on the lawn and fluttering from tree to tree, avidly watched by the cats, the dog, Penrose and I.
Produce from the Turner Farm, and eggs from island chickens, have both become a lifeline in this new way of living. Both are continuing to become more plentiful now that we’ve tilted past the equinox and into the longer and slightly warmer days. I’ll put arugula in pretty soon, and the rest of my seeds are waiting in the basement. I’ve seen a lot of victory garden articles and memes online, and on the radio today I heard an interview with Johnny’s Selected Seeds saying that they’ve had higher than ever home gardening sales. I’m not surprised. I always grow vegetables, but this growing season feels higher stakes to me. As much as I might fret and dither and signify each little sprout, the fact remains that spring is happening without any help from us. Maybe even a little better without us messing around quite as much. And as long as I’m here, I’m going to keep enjoying the view. Courtney Naliboff lives, parents, teaches, writes, and plays music on North Haven.
Journal of an Island Kitchen
Dinner in the time of COVID
Turning back to Maine traditions is a good strategy By Sandy Oliver MY PARENTS LIVED through the Depression and World War II and I have thanked God and the universe that in my lifetime I have never had to endure the privations they knew during those times. As you can imagine, though, while I grew up, our household oozed privation wisdom. Waste not, want not. Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. The cracker and milk suppers my mother spoke of that sustained her family as needed were transformed into pancakes on my childhood’s Sunday night, a way my mom extended the family food budget at a time when the assumed best practice was a meat, potato, and vegetable meal. I suspect the occasional fried baloney supper, with or without cottage cheese in the little bowl formed by the baloney, was an expression of a tight spot in the old cash flow, though Mom never said so. A roast of anything was a rarity and margarine the standard, as butter was too expensive. So far in this pandemic, I am blessed with sufficiency. COVID-19 isn’t going to drive me to baloney because I would
rather be a vegetarian than eat that. And I’ll use olive oil to dip bread into or go without before I turn to margarine, (she said bravely—we shall, of course, see; never say never and all that.) Thank goodness I like to cook, and that my work in food history has put me into contact with survival strategies from a millennia of human difficulties. History shows that salt, sugar, vinegar, and alcohol are the reliable substances for food preservation, and cellaring, fermentation, drying, and now canning are reliable processes for putting food by. The foods that end up being hard to acquire are almost always meat, fat, dairy products, and wheat flour. Vegans have the upper hand here, and those who know how to avoid gluten unless they are not stocked up on alternatives. In early New England, before the Erie Canal was built, wheat was costly, so bread was often made of a combination of cornmeal, rye meal, and wheat flour. You can make a steamed brown bread with molasses and these ingredients; it’s rich and satisfying, and some brown bread recipes let a cook substitute cracker or cake crumbs for flour. Some biscuits of our past were made with a mere two tablespoons of fat—
lard, butter, or drippings—to a couple of cups of flour, and baking powder and milk. My young friend Dylan texted me that he used bacon fat in his biscuits and I congratulated him on following in the footsteps of 19th century fishing vessel cooks. Of course, biscuits are better with butter, but its handy to know a way around it just in case. We in early Maine used to eat something called Poverty Stew—half a pound of salt pork cubed up and fried in which you cooked some cut up onion, then a quart of sliced potatoes, water to cover, and stewed together. Season with salt and pepper. Imagine chowder without the fish or clams. This time of year, a seasonal treat is parsnip stew made like chowder only with parsnips dug out of the garden as soon as the ground is thawed: i.e., right now. It can be made, as many chowders are, with evaporated milk, a pantry staple in many Maine homes. And so it goes. Add to that the wisdom of a Diet for a Small Planet, a classic from my 20s, half a century ago, wherein I learned that grain and legumes, with added dairy sometimes, plus nuts and seeds, provided protein. Early back-to-the-landers regaled
themselves on beans and rice, or humus and wheat pita, or refried beans on corn tortillas, as early Mainers did with baked beans and brown bread. Beans and rice and rice and beans, wisdom for our time now. And God bless leftovers: Within the past couple of years, some of us have discovered grain or noodle bowls, filled with cooked rice, farro or barley, or noodles (like Asian rice or buckwheat) topped with leftover cooked vegetables—a few roasted ones, cooked beans like black beans or chickpeas, perhaps, plus a few chopped pickles— beets or dill beans at this house, and a tablespoon or three of raw vegetables— grated carrots, chopped cucumbers, shredded cabbage or lettuce, chopped peppers; then you can slap a fried egg on top. Or some other dressing. Awfully tasty and economical when you clean out the fridge. Waste not want not; use it up and all that. Sandy Oliver is a food historian who lives, gardens, cooks, and writes on Islesboro.
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
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Guest Column
Island education: more than picturesque schools Deep lessons of community are being imparted, and embraced By Katie Norton GROWING UP IN A small town in Western Maine, I’ve known the feeling of community my whole life, where Hannaford grocery aisles are meeting places and hot dogs are shared at Friday night football games. But I came to know community in a different way when I moved to an island in Casco Bay and became a teacher in the two-room schoolhouse with just 15 students. There aren’t many unbridged islands left in Maine with a year-round population. Most of us islanders live amongst fewer than 200 year-round residents, and many are home to just 50 or 75 salty souls, all bound by their love of the ocean and its craggy shorelines. Many make their living from the sea, and the rest can’t bear for it to be out of sight. As in all of Maine, the sense of community thrives here, but the physical borders of ledge and salt water, combined with our smallness, concentrates and magnifies its meaning. Being the teacher for pre-K through 2nd grade at the Long Island Elementary School has given me a chance to be a part of this meaning, and to learn how it is taught, shared, and remembered. Island education is more than clapboarded schoolhouses and tiny class sizes. Our curriculum is filled with our community, and our community is enriched by our school. It only took days of teaching to see that island classrooms naturally become a place to shape and witness the possible connections between humans of all ages, and where the curriculum is naturally shaped by community. The first two weeks of February, my writing workshop focused on writing “love notes” to our seniors, and making posters to invite them to the Valentine’s Day lunch. The day of the big event, the whole school works together, cutting red and pink hearts for the windows, setting the table, and then
passing out our homemade cards when our guests arrive. Judy, our retired school secretary, returns Mondays to read with students, and kids hug her and greet her by name. Fifth graders help first graders practice their spelling words, crouching down with their little friends, the perfect teacher’s assistants. In spring, when the winter wind finally begins to let go, they work together in the school garden, letting the youngest have the first turn with the hose, tending tomatoes, and building rock pathways. At recess, the patch of forest at the edge of the playground becomes a tiny town where everyone can play and everyone has a job, moving as a pack in their land of pretend. Our classrooms are relics of the 1950s, with high ceilings and creaking wooden floors. An old chalkboard lines one wall, and 15-foot windows usher in the sun along the other. Most mornings, there’s a four-year-old struggling to get his foot into his sneaker, until a third grader comes along to assist. Girls giggle in the bathroom: one is seven, the other is ten, but the years between them do nothing to keep them apart. There’s a kindergartener who will tell anyone who will listen that she read her homework
Most mornings, there’s a four-year-old struggling to get his foot into his sneaker, until a third grader comes along to assist.
book last night, all by herself, and at least three kids in grades far beyond her, high five her, knowing, and more importantly, caring, how proud she is. I’ve learned from former students it has always been this way. That girls with tightly braided hair and freshly pressed white dresses skipped hand in hand across the grass just as the girls in leggings and Crocs do today. That boys have always planned to meet at the sand pile before school on their bikes. That they all mourned the day when the fifth graders graduate, joining the others who ride the ferry to the mainland each day. I like to imagine those now grown-up island middle schoolers, as I see them now, happily returning to their island home at the end of the school day, leaving the bustle of Portland on the horizon. Watching them play from my classroom window, I can see a reflection of my own small-town life. I’ve always made my home where I knew I’d come to recognize and become a part of the rhythm of a place. I spent my childhood riding my bike to school, spent hours playing music and sports with the same people from second grade to senior year. Just like any Mainer, I’d love to tell you where the best sledding hill is, or where to watch the sunset. Children of islands are growing up with an experience even more rare, and one worth exploring and sharing, during times when we are finding ourselves more isolated from our neighbors. Each day I spend here, I grow more convinced that we are keeping something alive that is fading in so many places, even parts of our beloved Maine, where life is increasingly fast and loud. Island kids are more than classmates, and we are growing a community of caring and connected people, based on the shared experience of living in and loving the same tiny, rough, and beautiful place. Katie Norton is the pre-K, first-, and second-grade teacher at the Long Island Elementary School.
Riding out the virus on idyllic Islesboro Retiring from sailboat to island was right move
I ENJOYED Tom Groening’s interview with four islanders (which appeared in The Working Waterfront’s E-Weekly email on April 2, and also appears in print on the front page in this issue). The interviews reminded Kathy and me of how we came to love our island a long time ago. We bought waterfront property on Gilkey’s Harbor, Islesboro, in 1968 with the off-chance we might retire here. Twenty years ago when we retired from our real jobs, we began wintering on our sailboat in southern waters and summering at our home-built island cottage. Our plan was to live full time on Islesboro when age and a mellowing of our adventurist spirit compelled us to give up the boat. And that’s exactly what we did this last winter. To prove our determination to live out our retirement on Islesboro, we bought a plot from the late Paul Pendleton several years ago. We discovered that living on an ocean-going sailboat for
more than 20 winters is technically more demanding than keeping our island cottage “afloat.” The island and the good people here are all that we expected and more. We knew winters at our former home in the mountains of Vermont would make wintering on Islesboro much shorter and milder. In fact, I looked forward to Islesboro winters to catch up on those writing projects and handyman pursuits I’ve been putting off. Most importantly, we both looked forward to knowing our fellow islanders better and becoming more active in our community. With the recent addition of broadband service putting us in touch with “America” and the world as much or as little as we wished, the island has become as nearly idyllic we believe possible at this time in history. Knowing our friends on Islesboro and the actions taken, we’ll overcome the COVID-19 virus threat and be better for it.
—Dick de Grasse, Islesboro
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
Field Notes
Pandemic: March madness to marathon The skills we embrace now can shape a better world By Rob Snyder ALONG THE COAST, March madness is a state of mind linked to living off diminishing savings from last summer, the uncertainty of livelihoods linked to the next tourism and lobstering seasons, isolation, and bracing for a few final snowstorms. Most years, this lasts through April. During an average spring, I am concerned about the social fabric of the coast as stresses increase on community, economy, and home life. I worry about the impacts that this time of year can have on people who struggle with mental illness and addiction. Now add the pandemic. I can’t think of a worse-case scenario for communities that are already experiencing their most difficult time of year. Our communities are not idyllic. Our communities are imperfect, challenging, and beautiful places. Above all, they are communities. Fortunately, they are resilient communities built on helping each other, even when folks don’t like each other much. March wasn’t only maddening, it was a month filled with grieving, as we paused the lives we were leading and moved to a new and unknown way of life. This new life would be defined by integrating teaching, daycare, supporting loved ones (at a distance), home offices, isolation, and sometimes all of this at once. At the same time, even those who thought they had
steady jobs are now concerned about income and healthcare. For weeks, we would plan for the next two weeks. As a friend of mine reflected, “I kept sprinting to the end of the week—toward what I thought it would take to get to a new normal, and once I made it to the end of the week, everything changed again. After a few weeks of this I was exhausted.” I was living and seeing this exhaustion everywhere. And I concluded that sprinting is the wrong approach when you are running a marathon. An important shift in mindset started to emerge, driven by data showing that the pandemic would not end soon, and reinforced by leadership that couldn’t clearly see an end in sight. Collectively, we began shifting to a marathon runner’s mindset, albeit one with no map, and not knowing when the next aid station would appear. What does it take to successfully integrate all aspects of our lives with
The good news: I see people being vulnerable and relying on others out of necessity.
this longer term, uncertain future in mind, when so many different aspects of life require navigating all at once? The good news: I see people being vulnerable and relying on others out of necessity. When you are faced with a complex problem or a series of related problems, it requires thinking from across many domains of expertise. Within days of acknowledging the local impacts of the pandemic, towns began meeting in new ways that cut across all services. School leaders, healthcare officials, town managers, and transportation providers are meeting weekly to trouble shoot new challenges. What should ease the burden a bit is that it is no one person’s job to solve all the problems of the week. These problems are shared across the group, increasing the creativity and resources brought to bear. By sharing the burden, leaders are less likely to burn out. What can each of us offer to one another during the pandemic? What is happening in your neighborhood or community that can help each of us imagine what might be needed in the short term—the next few weeks—or the longer term—the next three months? What are you witnessing that you hope never ends? What acts of kindness, generosity, sharing of work, changes in attitude? How can we become a connected set of people who could quickly assemble and help if extra hands are needed for any number of reasons?
What will we put down and leave behind? In a recent article in the Financial Times, Arundhati Roy, author of God of Small Things, posed a way of seeing through the pandemic to other possible worlds: “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. “We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.” I love the vividness of Roy’s challenge. How can we, in the midst of the pandemic, notice and appreciate the best of who we can be, and how we can show up in our communities, and bring this forward to a post-pandemic world? This, to me, is the hope we can find as we navigate the disruptive times ahead. The new world we will inhabit is filled with possibility. Rob Snyder is president of the Island Institute.
Observer
The wonder of neighbors
Disagreements remain, but island fosters friendliness By Phil Crossman GIVEN THE SAME wildly divergent opinions that exist elsewhere, and are unmistakably present here as well, I’m impressed at how well we on the island mostly get along. Many of the people with whom I once shared childhoods and then adolescence and then the rest of our lives, are still here with me 60 or 70 years later, but we are so different, think about things so differently. Where and at what point did we each wander off along such different political and social tangents? Not surprisingly, those differences are most distinctly apparent politically. I have to give these friends the credit and respect they deserve. I can’t treat them otherwise simply because they disagree with me. But that’s not easy. I have to keep reminding myself that the way to deal with their support for this president, for example, with whom I so continually disagree, is to listen and
to acknowledge and to then seriously consider that their support for him is just as valid as my contrasting sentiments—because it is. I find I am continually issuing reminders to myself that I cannot let our differences get in the way of friendly cohabitation. But then I just as frequently remind myself that there is no need to get too carried away with that caution because there is no evidence and there has been none, that those differences are troubling any of them. They would each drop everything to come to my assistance if I needed it, wouldn’t they? And would I not do the same for them? It’s happened over and over through the decades. So, what’s my problem? Why am I even a little frustrated by my inability to carry the day and persuade everyone that I am right about everything? If we all had the same opinion about everything there’d be no need for such a conciliatory arrangement as this democracy.
OK, so now I have to ask myself if I would not prefer the peace and quiet (read: boredom) of finding ourselves all on the same page, to the present circumstances and the truth is, I would not, even enduring the daily angst that comes with trying to hold my head up during times when I feel a tangible chagrin about my country. Now, what set this off was a recent experience. Just after the COVID fiasco hit the ground, I had a heated exchange on social media about the administration’s handling of the crisis. I thought it was pathetic. My adversary thought I and the media were being unfair. A few days later I found myself at the gas station, having filled up before discovering I had no money (an oldfashioned gas station with a real live person and no credit card processing). The fellow with whom I’d argued was in line behind me, also waiting to fuel up, and overheard me offering excuses
to the station attendant and suggesting I would go get some money and come right back. He stepped out of his truck and came up to offer to pay for my gas, saying I could repay him when it was convenient or when we saw one another again. As it happens, my coming back to pay was perfectly alright with the attendant and my friend’s help was not needed, but it’s a fine measure of what it’s like to fiercely disagree in this unique environment, as opposed to what I might have experienced nearly anywhere else (except another of these islands). I do expect to continue disagreeing and arguing, but also look forward to it. Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven where he serves as selectman.
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
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Cranberry Report
Town meeting in the time of COVID-19 Island township manages to keep democracy on track By Barbara Fernald AS I WRITE TODAY, April 6, all through our state we are experiencing similar hardships. Isolation, worry about loved ones, and changes in how we get our groceries, to name a few. Today’s COVID-19 numbers in Maine are 499 confirmed cases and ten deaths. We watch the growing numbers worldwide, and pray that our town, our friends, and our families will be spared. There isn’t much difference whether you live on an island or not. This is tough everywhere. It’s distressing not to know when it will be safe again. Everyone is trying extra hard to keep each other’s spirits lifted. The last time I was in a grocery store on the mainland was March 11. At that point, there were no reported COVID-19 cases in Maine. Up here, most people felt safely removed from it. I was buying supplies for making pizzas for lunch for our annual town meeting. I was surprised to see the toilet paper shelves starting to look sparse. I went to three stores and was able to get a six-pack of the tissue in each store, while still leaving a few
dozen packs on the shelves. I picked up an extra bag of flour, but I didn’t bother with any meat. My plan was to stock up on groceries the following week. The next day, March 12, the first presumptive positive case of the corona virus was reported in Maine. On March 13, the superintendent of schools announced that all schools on Mount Desert Island and the outer islands would be closed until further notice. I remember thinking, at the time, that it was a bit of an over-reaction. Schools in New York weren’t even closed yet, and the two positive cases in Maine were in Portland. There was a lot of discussion among the selectmen and town employees about how to handle our town meeting on March 14. Should they go ahead with the meeting? Was it dangerous with only three cases of COVID-19 in Maine? On Thursday, Gov. Janet Mills had recommended, on the advice of the CDC, that “non-essential large, indoor gatherings of 250 attendees or more be postponed in order to delay a potential corona virus outbreak and substantially reduce its spread.” If we met, we would be in compliance with the recommendations at that time.
There is a procedure for postponing the annual meeting, but the town still needs to hold a meeting at the time, date, and place that was voted on at the end of the last year’s meeting. You would need five people to open that meeting, elect a moderator, and then someone could make a motion to postpone the meeting “to date and time certain.” On March 14, we held our annual meeting for the town of Cranberry Isles. There were fewer than 50 people at the Islesford Neighborhood House, but it was a pretty even sampling of voters from both the big island and ours. No one wanted to postpone to a different date because the future was so uncertain. There was enough room to keep a safe distance from each other, and most of us did the best we could. Our town clerk, Denise, passed the ballot box around when a ballot vote was required. For lunch, Serena and Katya started quietly offering pizza to people where they sat, trying to avoid any crowding near the kitchen serving window when we recessed for lunch. We were able to get through the meeting and pass the budget by 1 p.m. All warrant articles were discussed,
and most people were efficient in their comments and questions. The total appropriation for town operations was $2,736,170, slightly higher than last year’s $2,723,258, so no tax hike. Everyone was eager to finish as early to minimize exposure. In the days following, the situation changed very quickly. Many of us started our self-imposed quarantines the next day, March 15, and I was relieved when two weeks had passed and no one from town meeting came down with the virus. Had our meeting been scheduled a week later, I’m pretty sure there would have been a motion to postpone. It will be interesting to see how other towns in our state handle their annual meetings and when. We took a chance at a time when we were more innocent, and it worked out. We were lucky. Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island).
Fathoming
Next generation and a better climate
From Wiscasset to Bar Harbor, high school students are organizing By Kate Tagai YOUTH LEADERSHIP. It is the next generation’s world to inherit, and it is they who will need resilient leadership, compassion, and strength to adapt and thrive in a changing climate, so why not start now? It can be as simple as an adult asking the question, “What do you think?” and then really listening to the answer. For Thomas Korstanje, a senior at Mount Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor, it was his advisor lifting up his voice that helped him feel empowered to take a leadership role with the school’s Eco Team. Riley Stevenson, a junior at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle and coordinator for the Maine chapter of Youth Climate Strikes, challenges the adults in her life to ask the youth in theirs, “What are you interested in?” because youth have amazing ideas and are excited to share them. The path towards leadership can start with small actions. As Thomas Korstanje said, “It is powerful to see the changes that can be made because I have a voice.” It causes small shifts; students see their peers standing at the podium and speaking with passion about the
environment. They see how little effort it takes to compost school lunch rather than throwing it away and that action leads to a ban on plastic silverware which can lead to a group of students advocating to solarize their school. These small actions build into larger actions. Now, Korstanje is leading an initiative to get the towns on Mount Desert Island to pass climate emergency resolutions. Bar Harbor already has, thanks to the work of the Eco Team and others holding stakeholder meetings, providing data, and meeting with skeptical town councilors to educate them on why the initiative was so important ahead of the vote. The public turnout at the council’s meeting was phenomenal, and councilors took time to read and thoughtfully respond to the proposal put forward by youth, before voting to approve it. COVID-19, unfortunately, has thrown a wrench into the Eco Team’s plan to bring the resolution to every town on the island to discuss and vote on. There is an energy that is generated when people show up to an in-person meeting, and the impact of having so many supporters in the room was part of what made their proposal compelling. But resilient leadership is defined by the ability to adapt, and so Korstanje
and the Eco Team are switching gears, retooling their presentation and rethinking their approach as isolation and virtual meetings change the way individuals, schools, groups, and town councils work for the immediate future. Having everyone show up to a virtual meeting as muted boxes on a screen has less energy and a different overall impact. It is more challenging to have dynamic conversations across digital platforms or read the room in the same way you can in person. But they are pushing ahead and thinking outside of the box, or rather how to work within it. For some groups, like Riley Stevenson’s Coastal Youth Climate Coalition, the ability to connect across a virtual platform was how the group met long before a pandemic forced us all online. The coalition connects climate groups and youth leaders from Wiscasset to Mount Desert Island. Because of the geographic distance, the group coordinates through online tools and meets via online platforms. Stevenson relies on persistence and communication as key tools. She says she spends a lot of time “emailing into the void” to narrow in on people who are interested and groups that are active to build a network of environmental
leaders across the coast. The ability to connect, organize, communicate, and delegate are important skills she has cultivated through this work. For Korstanje, a key moment of success came when the Eco Team transitioned to a shared leadership model, which highlighted these same important skills. In the new structure, participants felt heard and could be actively engaged with the project work. The project leads were charged with moving the work forward and so were empowered leaders in their own right. For the coast of Maine, having these and other youth actively honing their leadership skills right now, while working to ensure a resilient future, means that we don’t have to wait for them to step up and take over. They are already here. All we have to ask is, “what do you think?” Kate Tagai is a senior community development officer with the Island Institute focusing on education and leadership.
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The Working Waterfront . May 2020
Fellows in place
‘Selfies’ and others capture Island Institute Fellows One of the Island Institute’s most lauded endeavors has been its Island Fellows program, which places recent college graduates on islands and in communities, where they do public service work. In the midst of this “stay at home” period, we asked some of the Fellows to provide us with “selfie” photos, showing them in the communities in which they work.
Diana Furukawa is in Millinocket. “In the midst of a few intense weeks of COVID-19 community response work,” she writes, “I took a break to run along Millinocket Stream and enjoy one of the last snowstorms of the season.” Caroline Carrigan, who is on Swan’s Island, writes: “This is one of the first beaches that I was brought to on Swan’s Island (thank you, Stevie), and it remains my favorite. I won’t name the location. If you know, then you know that you’re lucky to know.”
Dylan McBride is in Milbridge. She’s standing in front of this fish process gear she “came upon by chance while taking a walk. The photo was taken by Gary Jacobson.” Molly Siegel, photographed by Abigail Hiltz, on Isle au Haut.
Ellie Mason is in St. George. This photo of her on the shore at Hupper Point was taken by her partner Freddie Hassett. She writes: “It’s where I saw many sea birds and even a fairy house on the way through the woods. This (fairly hidden) beach has become my calm oasis in the midst of any storm.”
Dan Debord is on Monhegan. “These days, all of our island meetings are either virtual or on hikes like this one (while keeping appropriate distance from each other, of course). As we slowly shift towards spring weather on the island, it’s comforting to see that our natural environment is carrying on with the usual seasonal changes even if our lives feel so abnormal right now.”
www.workingwaterfront.com . May 2020
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OUR BUSINESS IS TO LEND YOU MONEY. OUR MISSION IS TO GROW YOUR SUCCESS. Cele b 21 Y rating In Bu ears sines s!
Hundreds of benches, tables, and chairs in stock! You can pay more but you can’t get better quality teak garden furniture. Guaranteed for a lifetime! Check out our NEW 4500 sq. ft. showroom filled with exotic LIVE EDGE SLABS made into dining and coffee tables, side tables, and consoles. Unique home decor, too.
681 Bath Rd. ( U.S. Route 1 ), Wiscasset • 207-882-7225 and 38 Sea St., Boothbay Harbor • 207- 633-9899 Open April 15-October 15 Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.islandteakcompany.blogspot.com
Nobody finances commercial fishing like Farm Credit East. Like agriculture, the fishing industry has its own unique credit needs. And we’re proud to serve them both.
Financing For: Boats & Trucks Real Estate Permits Bait Storage Facilities
No other lender offers more expertise, specialized financial products, or dedicated services to achieve your goals.
Wharves
farmcrediteast.com | 800.831.4230
Operating Lines
Equipment Haul Out & Repair
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Become a member of the ISLAND INSTITUTE and help support small business owners like Samantha Ames. “I’m combining all of my passions and creating a Maine-based aquaculture business. I’m starting with growing oysters and kelp to provide fresh, sustainable seafood to people worldwide.” Samantha Ames, recipient of a Tom Glenn Community Impact Fund loan which enabled her to purchase her grandfather’s fishing boat.
INTERESTED IN BECOMING A MEMBER? 3 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY: 1 - Online at giving.islandinstitute.org 2 - Call the Island Institute office at (207) 594-9209 3 - Mail your gift to: Island Institute, PO Box 648, Rockland, ME 04841