The Working Waterfront - November 2020

News of Maine’s Coast and Islands

THE WORKING

volume 34, № 9

published by the island institute

Maine climate assessment provides dire numbers

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november 2020 n free circulation: 50,000

workingwaterfront.com

FRIENDSHIP IN FALL—

Photographer Michele Stapleton spent a late-summer day capturing the beauty of one of the state’s premier working waterfront communities, Friendship. Her photo essay is on pages 14-15.

By Catherine Schmitt

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new assessment of climate change and its effects on the state provides concrete numbers that confirm what many here already sense— Maine is warming.

The average temperature is 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than in 1895; the Gulf of Maine is 2.9 degrees warmer. The weather has become more extreme and variable. More rain falls more often, causing more flooding, washing pollutants into streams and rivers, threatening to undo great gains in water quality over the last few decades.

Storms pummel the coast, and even a monthly high tide can cause flooding, because the sea is rising.

Meanwhile, droughts are made worse by warmer temperatures.

The 370-page assessment, released in September, represents the work of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Maine Climate Council. The 34 authors and numerous contributors, led by Ivan Fernandez of the University of Maine, Robert Marvinney of the Maine Geological Survey, and Cassaundra Rose of the Governor’s Office of Policy

Innovation and the Future, began work a year ago.

“There was a lot that had to happen and it had to happen fast,” said Fernandez. As a result, the assessment is more summary than synthesis. The

different sections, each with its own highlights and references, vary in tone and level of detail. Still, it is the first comprehensive assessment since the 2009 continued on page 6

Luke’s Lobster, Island Institute join forces

Partnership aims to boost demand for Maine seafood, wild and farmed

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has challenged Maine’s fishermen and coastal communities in an unprecedented way. Diminished demand for Maine’s seafood has left Maine’s marine economy at risk. The

Island Institute and Luke’s Lobster have formed a strategic partnership and leveraged more than $2.5 million in funding and shared financial resources to build new markets for Maine’s premium seafood that will

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drive economic activity in coastal e-commerce business, creating a business model built on a commitment to communities.

This partnership aims to build resil- social outcomes and sustainability that ience in the seafood supply chain and can be replicated across the country. provide opportunities for Maine’s By increasing the availability of lobster, fishermen and aquaculturists. The crab, scallops, oysters, and other high quality Maine seafood joint venture between (both farmed and wild Luke’s Lobster, a private caught), the Island business with roots in All Maine Institute and Luke’s Tenants Harbor, and seafood-related seek to bolster demand the Island Institute, for Maine seafood and a nonprofit based in businesses are ensure enduring opporRockland, is a continuencouraged tunities for the state’s ation of a longstanding to apply, fishing communities. collaboration. For years, “Our response to the the two entities have regardless pandemic is focused on worked to strengthen of size. minimizing potentially Maine’s coastal econocatastrophic community mies, partnering with and economic disruptions fishermen and community leaders to improve resilience along while building resilience in anticipation of future crises,” said Rob Snyder, presithe shore.

Funding will be used to build dent of the Island Institute. and diversify the Luke’s Lobster continued on page 7

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Machias farm is betting on hemp

Crop well-suited for the Washington County economy

By Sarah Craighead Dedmon

B

en Edwards planned to begin harvesting in mid-September, but a new variety of hemp matured almost overnight, possibly in response to heavy rains.

“For whatever reason, this strain is maturing really quickly,” said Edwards, pointing to plants with yellowing leaves. “Ideally, some of these would have stayed out here for another five weeks.”

Weather is only one of a dozen unexpected twists Schoppee Farm has encountered in its second year of operation. Located on the coast in Machias, Schoppee is Washington County’s first and, for now, only hemp farm. Ben, his wife Allison Edwards, and brother Peter Edwards last year set out to grow organic hemp for the wholesale market, where it would be turned into CBD oil and other health and wellness products.

Then, the market took a nosedive.

“The wholesale price for hemp products is about 10 or 15 percent of what it was last year,” said Ben. “So that’s about an 85-90 percent price drop, which is extreme.”

Edwards attributes the price drop, in part, to market saturation. Nationwide, thousands of acres of hemp were planted on speculation that large companies would incorporate it into consumer goods, such as drinks or supplements. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet released its guidance for consumable hemp products, putting that sector into a costly holding pattern.

So the Edwards took matters into their own hands, shifting from wholesale to direct-to-consumer sales.

“It was never our intention to be a consumer-facing company, but it became pretty obvious that we were going to be in trouble if we didn’t,” said Ben. Turning on a dime, the Edwards created a boutique line of products they sell through their website, shopschoppee.com. Customer reviews are glowing, and

Schoppee’s CBD-infused products range from confections, called Pâté de Fruit, to oils to topical creams.

WHAT IS CBD?

When the fields were planted last year, many locals assumed the rows of green bushes were marijuana.

Though hemp and marijuana are both members of the cannabis family, hemp is grown for its high concentrations of cannabidiol, or CBD, a chemical compound effective in the treatment of a growing list of conditions including anxiety, sleeplessness, chronic pain, and epilepsy, via an FDA-approved drug called Epidiolex.

Unlike its cousin tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), found in large concentrations in marijuana, CBD is not psychoactive, meaning it does not impart a “high.”

“Industrial hemp is simply a classification for cannabis that has a negligible amount of THC,” said Edwards.

The research on hemp’s 100-plus active compounds is still in its infancy, so the Edwards family has partnered with local doctors to stay on top of the findings.

Schoppee Farm also added two new Edwards to the workforce with the return of Ben and Peter’s brother Matt Edwards, and father Dr. John Edwards, who returned to Maine after coronavirus outbreaks loomed large in California. Now they can be seen criss-crossing the farm in ATVs and on motorcycles, helping with a harvest suddenly moving at breakneck speed.

Allison Edwards is the brains behind Schoppee Farm’s polished marketing strategy, a talent she discovered when necessity drove the Edwards to create a direct-to-consumer product line.

PHOTO: COURTESY SCHOPPEE FARM

Rows of hemp plants slope down to the coast of the Edwards family farm, where eight generations have worked the land.

PHOTO: COURTESY SCHOPPEE FARM

Schoppee Farm has always been a family affair. Ben, Allison, Peter, and Matt are the eighth generation to farm it, and it’s been in their family for more than 200 years. Peter says it was always their intention to restore the land to some kind of agriculture, and briefly considered returning to its roots as a dairy farm.

“We were looking for any crop that was good for the land and soil and also something that was functional enough that we could make the farm sustainable,” said Peter. “[Hemp] was the first crop that looked like it had real potential.”

Future generations and the local economy figured into the choice of hemp, and their choice of business partners. Almost all of the fertilizer comes from Washington County, including organic manure from Tide Mill Farm in Edmunds, and organic sugar kelp grown just off the Machiasport coast, by Nautical Farms.

. April 2020 . November www.workingwaterfront.com www.workingwaterfront.com 2020

Harvesters walk the rows of hemp, selectively harvesting plants which have unexpectedly matured.

When the harvest is fully underway, Schoppee Farm will employ between 50 and 100 local people per month, a well-received addition to the Washington County economy. PHOTO: SARAH CRAIGHEAD DEDMON

“Not only do we use their kelp for the plants, but we have a line of soaps that are made for very sensitive skin and we use their kelp as an exfoliant,” said Ben. “It’s fun to use their stuff in the beginning and end product.”

Edwards says he is looking for ways to help Washington County diversify its economic foundations, and hopes Schoppee Farm could be a proofof-concept for future Downeast farmers. Hemp’s September to October harvest timeline dovetails neatly between the blueberry harvest and wreathing season, two major agricultural industries Downeast.

“I have some real concerns about the primary local industries, the revenue generators that bring outside money in,” he said. “Blueberries and lobstermen, they drive the economy and they bring outside money in, but a lot of those businesses are not in the best shape right now.”

Maine recently announced its hemp program has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which means that beginning Nov. 1, Maine’s hemp growers will need to comply with strict federal guidelines. Unfortunately those guidelines are so restrictive, Ben isn’t sure what, if any, strains of hemp can meet them. When taken together with Gerald “Punkin” Lemoine issues, plummeting prices banking and insurance

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John Martin, Bud Staples, and Elsie Gillespie chat around the woodstove at the annual town meeting.

and other hurdles typical of a nascent industry, it’s fair to wonder—why is Schoppee Farm still bullish on hemp?

“It works,” said Ben. “That’s the bottom line. We Levi Moulden have phenomenal results from so many people with so many different issues. There are so many obstacles to get there, but CBD works for a wide range of issues, and it doesn’t hurt people. I love that.”

Rows of organic hemp grow near a blueberry barren at Schoppee Farm in Machias. Farmer Ben Edwards says hemp could be a profitable addition to the Washington County agricultural landscape because it’s suited to the climate and because its harvest dovetails nicely between the blueberry harvest and wreathing season.

PHOTO: SARAH CRAIGHEAD DEDMON Bud Staples

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Kaja Veilleux running a live auction.

PHOTO: COURTESY THOMASTON PLACE AUCTION GALLERIES

ON THE RECORD WITH—

Kaja Veilleux of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries

By Stephanie Bouchard

B

y the time Kaja Veilleux, owner of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, was 15 years old, he had already spent half his life tramping across Maine and Canada with his father and grandfather examining, assessing, buying, and reselling a wide variety of objects of varying value. But he’d never acted as an auctioneer himself.

Then, one night, attending an “old time auction” with his grandfather, who was acting as the auctioneer, his grandfather turned to him and said, “Kaja, you want to come up and spell me for a minute?”

Veilleux jumped at the chance. “I walked up on stage and started selling,” he said. “I’ve been selling ever since.”

In the 50 years he’s run his own business, he’s seen a lot of changes and he’s been responsible for some popular innovations, such as free appraisal day, which allows people to take their items to him for a free review.

These days, his business on Route 1 in Thomaston handles all kinds of personal property, from, as he says, coins to real estate, and, with the use of phone, internet and video, it has an international reach.

We talked to him about the changes to the business and what keeps him, now at 69-years-old, still passionate about his life’s work. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE WORKING WATERFRONT: How did you get into the business all those years ago, and what attracted you to it then and what keeps you interested today?

KAJA VEILLEUX: Oh, the hunt. The treasure hunt.

I am just constantly on the hunt, having deals. That’s what I love to do. I started collecting coins when I was eight years old and that led to my fervor of collecting and history. The only thing I was good in school was math and history. And my business is money and history. But the most important thing about our business is the preservation of these incredible objects that were made by humans from the beginning of time to now.

WW: Over the years you’ve obviously expanded quite a lot.

WW: How has the pandemic affected business?

KV: I started with a wife and baby and $60 when I was 20 years old. I would buy from all the other guys, and I went knocking on doors and finding stuff all over Maine and Canada.

KV: It really hurt us the first two months because we couldn’t do anything, because nobody knew what was going on, what to do. And then once we were able to slowly get back into the game, then everything started to evolve back the way it was.

WW: Did it grow organically or was it sort of a strategic plan on your part?

WW: Do you find that younger generations are not as passionate for collectibles?

KV: No, I never had a plan. I started doing auctions when I was about 15. We called them On Location Auctions. We’d set up a tent if it was a big enough sale, and we’d go and advertise locally. People would come and we’d sell all the stuff, and everybody would pay you and they’d take the stuff away. Now it’s much more complicated.

KV: Oh, they don’t seem to be collecting. They don’t see the connection to the history or the quality of the handmade objects, and the aesthetic value of all these things that connect us to our history of the country and history of other countries. It just amazes me that they will pay good money for something that will last three years when they can pay the same money, or a little more, for something that has lasted 300 years or 500 years.

WW: You’ve gone virtual now?

KV: It’s very hard for me. I like to have my live audience. The energy you can get in the room and develop in the room with face-to-face clients is— there’s no price you can have for that.

WW: And it’s harder to build that connection online?

KV: It is. I’m starting to get used to it. We have three online platforms. We have as many as 21 phones, and we have bodies in the seats. It’s still a lot of action to follow. Things can get real busy on the platforms and on the phone, but it’s always more fun to look at someone’s eyes and coax them into going one more. Now we’re live streaming our auctions, so I’m hoping that I can coach them to go one more time by watching me on the screen.

WW: Do you have an in-house team to do the streaming video?

KV: We’re doing live stream video out of the office.

We have a whole team that comes up from Portland and sets up all the cameras and sound, and oh my God, it’s extremely expensive. Extremely.

WW: Have you had downturn periods when you were thought things weren’t going to work out?

KV: No. Never had that. I never have any doubts. I go forward. It’s the only path I know. At one point, we had a store in Palm Beach, which was a total disaster.

I lost a fortune on that one.

WW: Was getting involved in real estate auctions a natural extension of what you were doing?

KV: Yeah. We handle personal property. A house is personal property. And so, we handle everything from coins to cars and real estate.

WW: How much of your time is spent traveling?

KV: The other week, I did 1,300 miles.

WW: You’re not slowing down?

KV: I hope not. I’m still as passionate as I was when I was 20 years old—at least my mind is.

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

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Heidi Neal in the Rockland Loyal Biscuit.

PHOTO: TOM GROENING

ON THE RECORD WITH—

Heidi Neal of Loyal Biscuit

By Kelli Park

WW: How did your banking background help you?

career in banking was beginning to lose its luster for Heidi Neal, and so she followed the lead of her dog to find her new calling as the owner of Loyal Biscuit Company, which now has stores in Rockland, Rockport, Belfast, Bath, Hallowell, Waterville, and Brewer.

Born and raised in Rockland, Neal worked in marketing at Camden National Bank and Midcoast Federal Credit Union, with brief stints at the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Samoset Resort.

Her love affair with Loyal Biscuit Company, a petsupply boutique in Rockland, began with a tradition cherished by her dog, Fenway, who enjoyed weekly field trips to the store, starting in 2009.

Neal was in the process of shifting gears toward a teaching career when a casual conversation with her husband inspired her to pursue what, at the time, was only a daydream. That conversation was the catalyst for a chain of events that has proven that timing is everything.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE WORKING WATERFRONT: What drew you to the pet supply business?

HN: I had the marketing, I had the events, and I had a good understanding of developing a brand, commercial loans, and financial terms. In my last role, I was the vice-president of branch operations and branch manager, so I oversaw people. Eventually all of that came into play.

WW: What’s the average customer like? Age, gender, income…?

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HEIDI NEAL: I was saying how much fun it would be to bring my dog to work with me every day—that’s where my brain was! My husband said, “Why don’t you buy (the business)?” So I emailed the owner and she said that the store was for sale and, if she didn’t have a buyer by Christmas, she was closing. That was Dec. 15, 2009. We met with the owner, submitted an offer an hour later, and away we went! I gave a threeweek notice at my job and we bought the store on Jan. 19, 2010. It was the right time, right place. Everything just fell into place.

WW: Did you do any market research, locally and nationally (at the time of purchase)?

HN: Uh, no! My husband was like, “If you’re going to do it, you better do it now.” There was no research.

There was nothing! Basically, everything about the whole transaction and the way you’re supposed to buy a business did not happen. But it worked out.

HN: They care about nutrition. They care about the food they put in their mouths in their own families.

Our customers really think of their dogs and cats as family, not just pets. They’re all across the board and we run the gamut on income. I have a $30 and a $120 bag of dog food.

WW: Have you noticed differences between stores?

WW: How many pets do you have?

HN: We have five dogs, which range from 12 pounds to 72 pounds, and a cat. Fenway, Chuck, Kevin, Piper, George, and Meredith are all named after TV characters from whatever show we happen to be watching at the time (except Fenway). They’re my little test subjects. If I’m ever on the fence about bringing something in, I take it home and let them try it out first.

WW: How do pets enrich our lives?

HN: In so many ways! There’s nothing better than sitting on the couch being surrounded by all five dogs in a pile. It’s the best! It’s just unconditional love.

WW: How do couples act? Are women more likely to push the husband to spend more?

HN: There are only six miles between Rockland and Camden, but it’s crazy to see the differences. I try to keep a consistent product mix, but there are definitely differences. There are things that I sell in the CamdenRockport store that I just don’t sell anywhere else. I’ve tried to drop them and the customers revolt! There is also a difference between the philosophy of the vets and their recommendations to customers; that is definitely an influence. Every market is different.

WW: How did you decide where to expand?

HN: Oh yeah! It’s the women. Absolutely. I think it’s the same thing at home, with kids—it’s typically the woman who does the grocery shopping and the meal planning and picks the ingredients that the kids are eating. I think that just naturally extends to the Our customers family pet. really think of

WW: What are the their dogs and differences in how men vs cats as family, women shop?

HN: I look at the population of dogs because the number of dog owners is public information. I look at the household income, the population, and location, especially parking. If you have to walk two blocks with a heavy bag of dog food, it’s never going to happen.

WW: Have those stores performed as you expected they would?

HN: Women take their time.

If they’re picking out a toy, they look at a whole bunch of them. I find that most men just grab the first thing they find and throw it on the counter.

WW: How do you see your role within the community?

HN: Rockland, Camden, and Belfast have exceeded our expectations, but they’re also our oldest stores (eight-plus years). I’ve found that it takes almost three years for one of our new stores to take off, which Brewer is starting to do. We do better at a faster rate in smaller, tight-knit communities with a hometown feel.

HN: There’s nothing better than being able to help someone take care of their dog. I love having those conversations. We want to be a source of education.

We also work very closely with local shelters and rescue organizations in our markets. That’s a big part of who we are.

not just pets.

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

CLIMATE

continued from page 1 Maine’s Climate Future report from the University of Maine.

“We know a lot more than we did in 2009,” said Fernandez, who also co-authored the 2009 report and subsequent updates in 2015 and 2020.

“Everything has accelerated and intensified. The timeline has gotten shorter.

In 2009, we were talking about change at the end of the century. Now we’re talking about ten years left to change the world.”

Fernandez noted that people today are more mindful of the need for adaptation and related science. Concerns about biodiversity, pathogens, pests, and invasive species are greater now, too.

In a few cases, the subcommittee did present new analyses, including an estimate of how much of Maine’s carbon emissions are sequestered by the state’s forests (more than 60 percent), and specific projections for future sea level rise.

The subcommittee recommended the state “commit” to manage for 1.5 feet of relative sea level rise by 2050 and 3.9 feet of sea level rise by the year 2100, and “prepare” to manage for 3 feet of relative sea level rise by 2050 and 8.8 feet of sea level rise by the year 2100. (These projections are higher than the current 2-foot rise by 2100 in the Coastal Sand Dune Rules.)

A 1.5-foot rise in sea level would increase the frequency of high-tide flooding 15-fold, submerge two thirds of Maine’s coastal sand dunes,

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A “king tide,” the highest tide of the year, floods a backyard on Vinalhaven.

PHOTO: COURTESY JOANNA REIDY

reduce acreage of high salt marsh and eelgrass, accelerate bluff erosion, and reduce the dry beach area (above high tide) by 43 percent.

Combined with storm surge, sea level rise could lead to the loss of about 22,000 jobs and building damage of $17.5 billion by 2050, according to a separate report prepared for the Maine Climate Council by Eastern Research Group and Synapse Energy Economics.

Additional costs due to lost ecosystem services to society as a result of sea level rise total nearly $2 billion.

The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee also identified priority data gaps, which reveal a pattern of

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discontinued monitoring, aging infrastructure, and outdated information.

The NERACOOS buoys in the Gulf of Maine are 20 years old. Floodplain maps for most of Maine’s rivers are out of date. Intertidal zone maps are based on 50-year-old, low-resolution data. Maine historically had three pollen-counting stations; today there are none. “Best management practices” for protecting water quality in lakes and streams were established 30 to 50 years ago.

Beyond calling for expanded, improved, or new monitoring, in only a few areas of the report does the subcommittee suggest action. The biodiversity chapter, for example, recommends

protecting a network of diverse and connected lands and waters to ensure survival of plants and animals, many of which are at the southern or northern limit of their ranges in Maine and the Gulf of Maine.

The assessment is meant to inform the entire process of the Maine Climate Council, said Hannah Pingree, director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. That includes six working groups, whose recommendations, informed by the scientific assessment and hundreds of people across the state, will become a Climate Action Plan delivered to the legislature and Gov. Janet Mills on Dec. 1.

“It’s a really solid compilation of the overwhelming current and future impact that climate change is going to have in Maine,” said Pingree of the assessment. “And it’s a compelling case for action.”

Action may take the form of legislative bills, requests to the federal government, or rule changes by state agencies, said Pingree. Despite the ambition of the Maine Climate Council, the state’s economic situation—when even resources for essential human needs are lacking—presents a challenge to addressing all of the needs identified in the assessment. “We are committed to working with the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee to prioritize monitoring needs, but at the same time we need to take action, fund mitigation, and do things to reduce our impact on the climate,” said Pingree.

For more information, visit climatecouncil.maine.gov.

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www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

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cRanBeRRy RepoRt LUKE’S

continued from page 1

training for businesses considering certification, and reinstatement of funding for several projects through Luke’s Lobster Keeper Fund that were put on hold when COVID hit. The project will also research decarbonization of the seafood supply chain.

The shared solutions will enhance the ability of the Island Institute’s Tom Glenn Community Impact Fund to combine decarbonization, solar, and piece ofclimate purple rope to the end Glenn of the other projects with buoy line or toggle, butto allMaine’s attachments Fund grants and loans small must be made with a splice or a tuck. businesses. The entire project will be I know it’s to compare foloverseen by aastretch five-person national lowing Maine whalewhich rope will requireadvisory committee offer ments with plein air workshop, feedback anda recommendations onbut an a person basis. could return home from eion-going ther and demand say that for they’d been paintDriving Maine’s premium ing in their sparedemystifying time. If Bruce were seafood requires seafood writing an essay on how he Aspent his for the American consumer. considwinter vacation, painting would be erable focus of this partnership willa parttoof create it. Another partcontent would be the be digital aimed description I heard him tell his brother at educating consumers about the Markand about walking to getofdoughnuts, ease health benefits preparing in February, with our and seafood at home, as son wellRobin, as telling our grandchildren Henry andaquaculCora. I stories of Maine’s fishermen, was away with friends in Portland, The and turists, and coastal communities.

Stephanieproduction was away and witheducational friends in content Florida. Father sonensure were in Maine’s charge. campaign will and help “Yeah, we got doughnuts The premium seafood stays top ofatmind Cookie Jar and looking then walked to the with consumers for a sustainbeachtraceable, for a picnic to throw rocks.” able, andand healthy protein.

Eating homemade and Maine seafood donuts producers, throwing rocks at the beach—if that harvesters, or fishermen interested isn’toffering a mirrortheir image of manyonchildin products the hood summers on Islesford, I don’t Luke’s Lobster website can apply at: know what is. q https://lukeslobster.getbento.com/ maine-seafood-vendor-form/ Barbara Fernald liveswill on Islesford (Little All applicants be considCranberry Island)an withobjective her husband Bruce. ered through process

ting, painting lines, eating , and throwing rocks

“Down the peninsulas and out on the islands, we have upwards of 60 percent to 70 percent self-employment.

One way the Island Institute supports communities is by helping businesses leverage technology like e-commerce so they can stay in touch with and reach new customers. The lessons sford. we bright redfrom with aour black stripe) and,with like learn partnership pizzas, Luke’s every other lobster in Maine Lobster will fisherman be instrumental in busier strengthening this winter, he read about, talked about, Maine’s coastal busire the nesses, and experimented withsimilar purpleefforts paint. while informing eason. around The latest whale ”regulations require the country. portu- allLuke’s Maine lobster fishermen to use new Lobster launched its riends e-commerce markings onplatform the ropeswithin they attach to days of rip to having lobster to traps.

Depending on how close all but one of itsclose 26 g was national to shore they fish,and theyits will11have to add shacks internaere so tional 2-4 purple marks on each buoyfrom line. shacks, to keep buying ou did fishermen On warps that are 100-feet or less there and bringing seafood to ques- consumers. must be one 12-inch withInitiallypurple the mark direct-tober at consumer in a few fathoms the trapitsand a 36platformofoffered existing e sub- seafood inch purple mark within 2 fathoms of inventory, but quickly added meet- seasonal the buoy.seafood If the warp is longer that 100 products with short floor!) harvest feet, the requirement for aof12-inch windows such asisGulf Maine ce and dayboat purple mark near the a second 12scallops andtrap, fresh halibut. h our The inchsuccess purple of mark halfway to theonline buoy, Luke’s Lobster’s Maine. platform and a 36-inch near the buoy. will bemark enhanced through oal of thisBruce figures he will be putting 1,500 project, bringing additional Maine onsid- seafood to 1,800products markingsto onconsumers. his rope in all; two n, but toBeyond three weeks extra workbenefit if he does the ofeconomic to virus- harvesters it without hiring help. Aproducers, number of fishand seafood this time funding ermen are applying paintbroader to their enviropes requires meeting t to it. ronmental by resting and them in 3-foot longcreated gutters social objectives I can collaboratively made from lengthwise-halved pipe.

by Island PVC Institute Bruce’s first attempt was with spray paint and Luke’s Lobster. These include paint, providing but he soon moved assistance on to the more effitechnical on clean “time energy cient brush and latex paint.improvement and water quality e and projects Some to fishermen will add B a 3-foot fishing wharves, Corp

down, islanders mix prep work and gatherings

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which includes review by a selection committee made up of two members from Luke’s Lobster, two members from the Island Institute, and a member from the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. All Maine seafood-related businesses are encouraged to apply, regardless of size.

“This is exactly the type of win-win opportunity we look for,” said Luke Holden, founder and CEO of Luke’s

Lobster. “There have been many bumps in the road in 2020 for Luke’s Lobster and the Maine seafood community, but this gives a much needed shot in the arm and helps us leap forward rather than falling behind in our mission to bolster coastal economies and have an enduring social and environmental impact. We can’t wait to bring a broad selection of Maine’s premium seafood to consumers around the country.”

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Maine’s ‘flying hospital’

LifeFlight of Maine has helped 30,000 patients, and counting

By Laurie Schreiber

O

ne August day, a Midcoast resident cut her finger while slicing fruit. Within the next few weeks, the small accident developed into septic shock—high fever, respiratory failure, kidneys shut down. Her survival depended on being treated at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Within minutes of being called, LifeFlight of Maine had a helicopter on the scene. Its emergency medical crew hooked the patient to a sophisticated ventilator aboard the helicopter, administered medications to increase her blood pressure, and monitored her precarious condition using a blood analysis tool. Thirty minutes later, they arrived at Maine Medical, where specialists set the patient on the course to recovery.

Since 1998, LifeFlight has responded to hundreds of crises, from major trauma to complex cardiac events, as well as stroke, respiratory, neurological, surgical, burn, environmental, high-risk obstetrics, and pediatric.

“The helicopter is literally an ICU,” said LifeFlight’s founding executive director, Thomas Judge. Outfitted with medical devices such as diagnostic ultrasound, ventilators, infusion pumps, pharmaceuticals, cardiac monitors, and more, “It really is a flying hospital.”

A LifeFlight helicopter in the air over Southern Maine.

A paramedic, Judge has volunteered PHOTO: COURTESY LIFEFLIGHT OF MAINE for the St. George Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Association for 40 years.

The former board chair of Maine Emergency Medical Services, he has a wide background in the design and imple- rules” or IFR infrastructure. Most mentation of emergency medical care systems, and is involved in EMS develop- helicopters, he explained, fly ment throughout the U.S. and the world. using “visual flight rules”—pilots “We’re a small organization, but we have a very big international footprint and must be able to see the ground. we’re known for quality innovation,” he said.

IFR uses sophisticated instruJudge recalled early days as a paramedic. Getting to the islands was tricky. mentation to fly in zero visibility.

“Long before LifeFlight, we’d be out on boats,” he said. “We’d resuscitate someone “Virtually every island with a on the back of a fishing boat. We’ve seen everything over the years.” year-round population has an Used at the request of emergency medical services providers or physicians, instrument approach,” he said. nearly 90 percent of LifeFlight’s missions fly from rural, community hospitals to LifeFlight is now building highMaine’s trauma centers or Boston’s specialty centers. LifeFlight has transported precision IFR routes and recently Kate O’Halloran about 30,000 patients—but it’s not simply transportation. With three helicopters received delivery of a $6.2 million PHOTO: COURTESY LIFEFLIGHT OF MAINE and a fixed-wing aircraft based in Bangor, Lewiston, and Sanford, along with crit- light twin-engine helicopter to ical care medical teams and lifesaving equipment, it brings a specialized medical operate in all environmental center that complements the work of local providers across Maine, including conditions with the latest generaoffshore islands, remote mountains, and wilderness areas. tion of technology. Flight-testing is expected to begin this fall.

“We’re getting people where they need to go to get the care they need,” said Judge.

Now the foundation has hired a new executive director, Kate O’Halloran. A LifeFlight employs nearly 120 full-time personnel, including pilots, mechanics, Maine native, she comes from a career in academia and development. Among communications specialists, administrative staff, critical care transport nurses, her accomplishments, she helped lead significant campaigns at Colby College, and paramedics. Working in shifts, they’re ready to go anytime.

MaineGeneral Health, and Carrabassett Valley Academy, and spent the last three years as a strategy and development consultant for numerous Maine nonprofits.

LAST TO FLY The foundation is preparing to expand its donor base and launch a significant capital In 1998, Maine was the only state without a dedicated air medical service. Since campaign to address increasingly complex emergency medical needs. The pandemic then, LifeFlight has developed a comprehensive aviation infrastructure, including has also increased costs; transports now include equipment and protocols such as dedicated hospital helipads and installation of automated weather observing isolation systems and decontamination procedures.

The investment is critical for fulfilling a promise, Judge said. stations at community airports.

“It’s one of the most profound promises in the history of humanity—if you call Getting the service going was complicated, said Judge, due to Maine’s far-flung us, we will come,” he said. population and little funding.

He cited an incident involving two people who live near Maine Med, but were So in 2003, Judge founded the LifeFlight Foundation to raise money for aviation sailing when the boom knocked one unconscious. The other managed to get to a and medical infrastructure and technology, and clinical education and training.

“In Maine, philanthropy makes the difference between run-of-the-mill service nearby island, where a summer family called LifeFlight.

“No one wakes up and says, ‘This is the day I’m going to have a heart attack,’” he for parts of Maine or state-of-the-art for all of Maine,” he said.

Maine’s poor “aviation weather” demands state-of-the-art navigation systems. continued. “People say, ‘I live in the city. Why would I need LifeFlight?’ Do you ever The organization is now in the midst of a “first in the nation” demonstration go skiing? Do you ever drive on the highway? We’re all in this together. That’s why the project with the Federal Aviation Administration to build “instrument flight foundation is so important. We might not need this today, but somebody does.”

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020 WWW.WORKINGWATERFRONT.COM . APRIL 2020

Researchers track deadly ‘blob’ Off shore wind is back in motion Regulators, explain process to fishermen in Capedeveloper Cod Bay

scenic character, air and water quality, or other Oxygen sensors attach to lobster measure levels naturaltraps resourcesto in the area of the turbine.

By Tom Groening

T

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 interfere” withsurface recreation or and naviquite accurate, said Jake Ward of the “unreasonably

By Craig Idlebrook “You have really, really warm waters, gation,bottom or harm estuarine or marine fisheries.

University of Maine. Under the name New England cooler waters.

And those two, they’re notA developer also must provide a navigation plan, Aqua Ventus I, the university is pursuing siting a mixing, ” Pugh said.

“Everything on the bottom is a n the fall of 2019, lobster fishermen off the coast fi sh and wildlife plan, and a removal plan. floating wind turbine off Monhegan Island as a of Cape Cod pulled up traps and discovered a using oxygen, so the oxygen is getting used up on Hooker of the Bureau of Ocean Energy testghastly for possible furtherlobsters. development. bottom. ” find—dead An invisible force theBrian Management (BOEM) the federal role in “Someone this life morning this is coming The study builds on outlined efforts already underway had snuffed the of thesaid crustaceans while fast,” still offresearchers shore wind. and BOEM’s jurisdiction lies in the waters Ward saidtraps, of thealong university’s bid,life speaking a ses- by harvesters to chronicle oxygen in their with the of anyatother that are to 200This miles off state land. The multision of the Fishermen’s inthere.

Rockport levels in three the bay. year, the Massachusetts marine lifeMaine unlucky enough toForum be stuck approvalAssociation process includes onFishermen March 5. alerted In fact, Massachusetts he has been involved in the phased, multi-year Lobstermen’s and planning andThe analysis, assessments of waters and pursuit of offshore power since Lobster Foundation of researchers, who wind discovered that 2007. and construction andprovide operation. is is not coming fast,”hypoxia, he deadpanned. “I had wind potential, Massachusetts paid to five the“Thlobsters died from BOEM is reviewing the Vineyard Wind project kids when this started.

I have grandkids.” lobster boats with oxygen sensors or lack of oxygen.

The Now researchers in Massachusetts, and Hooker said a fi nal decision Several years ago, UMaine had pursued—as to attach to traps. When lobster looked at past data to see if this “The oxygen is byfishers is expected the end e sensors National Maine Aqua Ventus—siting two floating wind pullof upthe theyear. traps,Th the phenomenon had happened Marine Fisheries Service is part of the review proturbines off Monhegan learn more about the transmit readings to a device on before, but found the tomortality getting used up a taskthen forceuploads that includes flevent oatingappeared technology the potential the boats,onwhich the to and be unique.

A to produce cess and is represented onfloating the bottom.” representatives from Maine, New Hampshire, and electricity.

To that a one-eighth readings to a central server. similar event hadend, been recorded sized turbine was deployed offsaid Castine in 2013, and has Massachusetts. In addition, researchers have in the Gulf of Mexico, Tracy Annie Hawkins Responsible shore Develsince retrieved. been ofusing more Off sophisticated Pugh,been a Massachusetts Division opment Alliance, a Washington D.C.-based adWard said the project is now operating as New sensors to record temperatures at of Marine Fisheries senior marine vocacy group formed to protect fi shery interests England Aqua Ventus, and is seeking to site a sinmultiple depths of the bay. fisheries biologist. offshore windPugh, development, said her group ingle, 6-megawatt floating turbine.

Late last year,last the inThe goal, said is to try to diagnose what “Once we started digging in the literature cludes 170 may members. federal awarded theexpeproj- conditions trigger another dangerously low year, weDepartment did find that of … Energy Cape Cod Bay does Regulators fishing interests, she ect $1.4amillion fordecline design,in and the Maine event must and, consider if possible, to alert fishers rience seasonal oxygen in thePublic late oxygen said,other and “We don’t feelthat that’sthe been done verymay well Utilities approve 20-year and stakeholders conditions summer Commission and early fall,voted ” said to Pugh.

“Theaseverity to right date.”for Developers “divideofand agreement hypoxia inuse thea depths theconquer” bay. It of it is new.”for Central Maine Power to purchase be approach, separating projects to weakelectricity generated by the turbine. become a basic states early and warning system for In September, researchers launched a two-year could en opposition.

Off shore wind is the largest untapped energy study to learn what might trigger such a critically stakeholders.

“We’retrying trying to take dialogue back,” resource “byevent far,” in Ward He explained how “We’re to figure out,the based on the inforlow oxygen the said. bay and, possibly, how Hawkins said. the floating structure use pre-cast to detect suchturbine an event in time will for harvesters to mation we have, which fork in the road we’re FredtoMattera, who said. has fished for 40 years from Port concrete segments. going take,” Pugh move traps out of harm’s way. urgedarmed fishermen to document where “We’re verythe confideeper dent it will the less ma- Judith, This R.I., season, with the sensors, Typically, thesurvive” water, inthe they work nowlobster to make the case for mitigation rine environment, he said.

“Anything fishers reported only one if dissolved oxygen there is available in thehappening environ- Massachusetts they displaced by wind in the Gulf of Maine is going to be floating.” twoare cases of finding deadturbines. lobsters in traps, she ment.

Usually, wind and waves churn the waters or “You must stay he said.

Still, permitting remains to the be secured.

Whether thatengaged,” was because the fishers used enough to mix in oxygen from surface toFishing allow said.

Beth Casoni, director of the Massachusetts interests will be included in weighing proposals, the data to pull their traps or because conditions bottom-dwelling marine life to survive.

Lobstermen’s Association, echoed view, sayregulators said, but fi shing advocates urged those to say.

An unusually warm summer in 2019, however, were different this year, it is too earlythat ing “comments matter” during public review, citpresent to process, be vigilant.

The study is projected to be completed in the upset that causing stratification, or a more ing a project area off the Bay State that was reduced Nick layering Livesay of water the state Department of Envi- summer of 2022. intense temperature and oxygen. ronmental Protection said the project off Monhe- by 65 percent because of articulated concerns.

This spring, UMaine’s Ward said, the project gan will fall under state jurisdiction. The site location law would hold sway, he said, which ensures will hire a fisheries liaison. there will be no adverse effect on existing uses,

I

Port Authority wins grant Fishermen’s group wants to raise Funds will improve marine terminals mental health awareness

T

Changing resources, danger stress a $4,098,360climate, grant through the U.S. terminals continueproduce to grow, create jobs, and he Maine Port Authority has received

waterfront,” he said. “It will help two Maine

Department of Transportation Maritime

provide critical logistical infrastructure to help According to the National Institute for Occupagrow Maine’s economy. ” tional andwill Health, commercial fishing public is one of The Safety project provide additional the most dangerous in the U.S.Marine Its data and private logisticaloccupations assets at Merrill’s shows that commercial fishermen experienced a faTerminal with warehousing, breakbulk, tality rate of 114 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivaand drybulk–to-container loading capacity. lent workersthe between 2000 Specifically, project will:and 2017. That compares to• anonnect average International of four deaths per 100,000 full-time C Marine Terminal equivalents among all U.S. workers. and Merrill’s Maine Terminal through the Common hazards vesselhaul disasters, overconstruction of include a heavy roadfalls along board, and arailroad variety of onboard gear and equipment. existing tracks shing is a very isolating industry, •Coombs Renovatesaida ficurrently

vacant state-owned with some fishermen out on the water and away from warehouse at the Merrill facility families for days atcross-docking a time, which adds to stress.with • Consolidate activities “Depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide terminal access are in any fishing community, • Anot dd uncommon capacity for bulk-to-container andno matter which coast you are on,” said Coombs.

“It container–to-bulk operations. isSince an isolating, dangerous full ofthe unattracting Eimskipoccupation, as its operator, certainty andMarine expense.”

International Terminal has seen container The grant a beginning, she said, volume growisbyjust 20-30 percent year over but year.it’s a stepduring towardthe bringing issues the open to be Even pandemic andinto economic crisis, addressed.

Thevolume hope isisto humanize the fishing this year’s total projected to match the industrycalendar and make the public aware of stressors previous year. fi shermen face every day.

Alex Todd, a 10th generation fisherman from

By Wanda CurtisThe port authority sought Administration.

T

funding from a port infrastructure program he Maine Coast Association for improvements at theFishermen’s International Marine hasinwon a $5,000 grant to promote mental Terminal Portland. awareness Marine in the commercial sh“The health International Terminal fihas ing industry. a significant increase in volume in experienced Monique Coombs, director of marine programs recent years, and this $4.1 million investment for nonprofi t, said the be used to dewillthe allow the terminal to funds make will improvements to velop informational materials togrowth, assist commercial keep pace with its substantial ” said Sen. fiSusan shermen in managing stress, anxiety, and depresCollins, who advocated for the grant. “This sion, well as materials showing to stay menmajorasseaport is northern New how England’s only tally fit. A terminal website with numbers shercontainer and phone is utilized dailyfor by fibusimen to and reachcustomers out for help may our alsostate, be in including the works. nesses across TheBean, grant Sappi, was awarded by the Fisher L.L. Aroostook potatoCharitable growers,Trust. and Coombs said fishermen maygrowers. be experiencing Washington County blueberry ” stress duechairs to changes in thetransportation industry overapprowhich Collins the Senate’s they havesubcommittee. no control. The ever-present danger in priations theJon work alsoCEO adds of stress.

Nass, the Maine Port Authority, “It’sthenot fishing stress for fishersaid funds willthat add produces to ongoing investment in men,” she said.

“Many of them love being out on the Portland facility. the“This water.will It’s dealing of uncertainty due be the with latesta lot investment into the to things like climate and regulation changes, and successful redevelopment of Portland’s working how those things are going to impact their business and income.”

9 7

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Rock Bound

Electric issues spark ownership thoughts When should the public own public services?

By Tom Groening FOR A TECHNOLOGY that’s more than a century old, electricity is in the news a lot these days. The headlines— and political ads—here in Maine center on the corridor Central Maine Power wants to build from hydro generation sources in Quebec, and the legislative proposal to have the state purchase and operate our two largest electric utilities.

Both issues sit like the above-water parts of icebergs.

The power corridor would help Massachusetts meet its mandated goals for renewal electricity sources. Moving away from coal, oil, and nuclear power is unequivocally a positive development, but opponents worry about the environmental impacts to Western Maine forests and streams.

Developing hydropower also means creating an impoundment over thousands of acres of land, sort of the equivalent of Noah’s flood on otherwise healthy habitat.

A key question for me is whether the connection means more generation, or merely a different customer purchasing the power. The Natural Resources Council of Maine asserts that it is the latter—Massachusetts will pay more than the hydro’s existing customers, so no net gain in renewables.

The second issue is tied to your wallet. a plow truck to clear the way for me as Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, has I drive to work? It’s far more sensible proposed that the state purchase both for all of us to chip in on the cost and CMP and Versant (formerly Emera) enjoy the benefits.

In the 19th century, firefighting was a and operate them as nonprofits. It’s not unprecedented. In fact, there is subscriber-based service. If your busia customer-owned electric utility ness didn’t pay, your building wouldn’t in Maine—Eastern Maine Electric be hosed down.

So what public services should be Cooperative—which serves towns along the state’s border with New publicly owned?

Consider transportation as an Brunswick.

Without shareholders demanding example. We used to have private toll profits, a customer-owned utility can roads in Maine. The state ferry service deliver service at lower cost and give wasn’t formed until 1960. What about those customers a voice in supply and air transportation? Cities already build, on the taxpayer’s dime, multi-millionother operational decisions.

The utilities wave the “govern- dollar airports. Why do we watch ment take-over” and “socialism” competing businesses fight it out for passengers, each flying flags in opposition. airplanes with empty The socialism term seats? Taxes already intrigues me as an armchair observer of Without shareholders fund airlines to serve small, rural towns. political rhetoric. demanding profits, Could a governmentSocialism still evokes a customer-owned owned and operated fear for those who network of air service came of age during the utility can deliver between major hubs Cold War. Surveys have service at lower cost. with smaller companies shown, though, that a taking the secondary slight majority of those routes work? under the age of 40 do Sometime in 1980 or 1981, I saw not have a negative view of socialism.

A more dispassionate way to view Barry Commoner (1917-2012) speak these matters is in order. For example, at a college near where I was living in letting the free market rule snow New York. Commoner, a biologist and plowing makes no sense. Should I hire college professor, was one of the first to

talk about the concept of sustainability in public policy decisions.

At the time I heard him speak, the electric utility on Long Island was building a controversial nuclear power plant, and Commoner suggested that ratepayers “co-op” the utility, and explained how users could then make decisions through an elected board.

The concept transformed my thinking on public policy.

Commoner ran for president as a thirdparty candidate in 1980, and I, in my first presidential election, voted for him.

There is yet another option on the free market/socialism spectrum. Laws now allow for “B” corporations—for-profit businesses that are not bound to maximize shareholder profits, but rather answer to a higher good, like reducing carbon pollution or providing organic food. And another trend is emerging as baby boomer entrepreneurs begin to retire—employee ownership.

The bottom line shouldn’t be the bottom line. With a changing world, we would do well to shed political prejudice and examine all the options.

Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront.

Reflections

A new bridge, and new beginnings ‘Let’s find out’ is how answers are found 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 Hannah Greene “WHY WOULD a young woman like you want to come here?” This was one of the first things said to me during my initial days as an Island Fellow for Downeast Institute in Beals.

I was caught off guard. Is this a question that everyone gets asked when they move to a different place and start a new job? Or is it just when you happen to be doing both of those in rural coastal Maine in the midst of a global pandemic?

Having lived in the Midcoast for the past 14 years, I thought I had come to know and love this state well. When presented with the opportunity to move to the Downeast region, I was confident it would seem like a familiar experience, perhaps only a slight extension of the

bounds of my comfort zone. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

For example, driving over the short bridge connecting Beals to the mainland in Jonesport reminds me faintly of the ride over the Passagassawakeag River in Belfast. However, my view from the Jonesport-Beals bridge is one of lobster and fishing fleets with A.C. Inc.’s bright yellow smiley face flags blowing in the persistent wind, not the custom boats you see at Front Street Shipyard in Belfast.

Plus, the recently rebuilt JonesportBeals bridge had its grand opening only one week before my arrival—it is new, just like me.

I have quickly recognized a few other substantial differences between the Maine I previously knew and the Maine I am being introduced to. Growing up in the Belfast area did nothing to prepare me for the onslaught of fishing, aquaculture, and marine science terminology I have learned in the past few weeks.

Raised playing on the rocky coast and helping out on family fishing boats, it is

no wonder that many of the elementary school students I’ve met in Beals know more about these things than I do.

I have also had the pleasure of observing authentic small-town life.

While I thought Belfast was small, Beals has a year-round population of less than 500. One of my favorite aspects of island living has been simply listening to how locals talk to each other. Everyone is referred to by first name, every family member is accounted for, and it is not uncommon to know who owns every house and property on the island.

Although I have only lived in Beals for about a month, I feel as though I’ve already been let in on more insider knowledge than in all my years in Maine. I can show you which rock on Great Wass Island is referred to as “ship stern rock.” And I can describe how to find the elusive cloudberry that grows in Beals but hardly anywhere else in the country.

So, what is my answer to that looming question at the start of this column? I say, “Let’s find out.”

“Let’s find out” is the approach the education program at Downeast Institute uses to encourage student questions and curiosities about the natural world. This approach takes the pressure off educators to know the correct answer to every question asked, especially when students pose questions that may not have been answered before.

In the same way, the “let’s find out” approach encourages me to begin my new adventure with the curiosity and excitement to learn everything this wonderful place, people, and environment have to offer. Even though I certainly do not know all the answers that lie ahead.

Greene graduated from Wheaton College in 2020 with a B.A. in environmental science and double minors in public policy and public health studies. She will be based on Beals Island, working with the Downeast Institute.

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

11

‘V’ FOR VICTORY— This image shows a ship launching in Portland in 1942.

Bearing the huge Allied “V” for victory, Ocean Gallant, a cargo carrier built for Britain under the lend-lease program, is shown being towed out to sea. The ship was christened by Mrs. Peter V.O. Evans, wife of the director of the British Ministry of Shipping. The photo is attributed to Albert Freeman.

Op-Ed

Another way to understand the Gulf of Maine Warming waters outside the region is part of the story

By Steve Kasprzak The article in the October 2020 issue of The Working Waterfront, “Warm current feeding Gulf of Maine outpacing cold,” quoted Carla Guenther, chief scientist with the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries in Stonington, on why the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 98 percent of the world’s oceans.

This statistic is, I believe, misleading, since the remaining 2 percent of warmer ocean water is located north of the Gulf in Hudson Bay in east-central Canada and the Arctic Ocean.

The surface areas of Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean are 13 and 150 times larger, respectively, than the gulf. These bodies of water are warming at least twice as fast as the Gulf of Maine, and their warmer waters flow directly into the Labrador Current.

Guenther used the analogy that the Gulf of Maine is impacted by a cold-water tap, specifically the Labrador Current, and a hot-water tap, the Gulf Stream.

She hypothesized “We have conditions drawing from the hot-water tap more than the cold-water tap.”

Guenther added: “The latest ecosystem report from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass., says the gulf is seeing proportionately more hot water than cold water over the last five years. It’s not that we have a burner on in the gulf. It’s that the sources of water are changing.”

Yes, the sources of water are changing, since the temperature of this cold-water tap has not only been warmed, but its flow is also reduced by Canadian and 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, Philanthropy Chair Bryan Lewis, Governance Chair Michael P. Boyd, Clerk Sebastian Belle Shey Conover David Cousens Megan McGinnis Dayton Michael Felton Nathan Johnson Michael Sant Barbara Kinney Sweet Katherine Vogt Carol White John Bird (honorary) Louis W. Cabot (honorary)

Russian mega hydroelectric reservoir dams hoarding the spring run-off.

Russia openly admits to using heat pollution from the long-term storage of spring run-off in colossal hydroelectric reservoir dams built on its Siberia Rivers, for its own benefit. These reservoirs represent enormous, man-made heat sinks, used to fulfill a national strategy of an ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer.

The strategy has been extremely successful. Russia declared the Northwest Sea Passage from Europe to Asia was free of ice on July 15, almost five weeks earlier than in 2019.

Russian author P. M. Borisov wrote the following in his 1973 book, Can Man Change The Climate?: “The north of the Atlantic Basin may be compared to a bathtub into which cold water is poured from two taps (the Labrador and East Greenland currents) and warm water (the Gulf Stream) through one.

By regulating the taps we can change the thermal balance of the Atlantic and with it the climate of the surrounding continents.

“The recognition of the important role of the ocean currents in forming the climate has determined regional improvements of the climatic regime since the end of the last century by changing the direction of the warm and cold currents. At the same time, extensive hydro technical measures have been devised to regulate and transfer the river run-off.”

As I documented in my recently published book Blue Deserts, heat pollution from these mega hydroelectric reservoirs has changed the albedo, or

reflective power of the downstream estuaries and coastal seas, from ice and snow cover to open water.

Sea water is now absorbing 90 percent of the sun’s energy, instead of it being reflected away by snow and ice surfaces. These much warmer Arctic waters eventually flow into the Labrador Current.

Further compounding the warming of the Labrador Current is warmer waters flowing directly from Hudson Bay through Hudson Strait and into the Labrador Current.

Margaret Munro of Postmedia News, quoted John Smol, an environmental scientist, in “Scientists sounding alarm as Hudson Bay area thaws,” in the Oct. 9, 2013 edition of the Edmonton Journal: “The study says the change is ‘unprecedented in the past approximately 1,500 years,’” based on analysis of sediments in the region.

“Smol says there are plenty of other signs of the remarkable shift underway in the region, including fish kills caused by heat stress, dropping water levels and three weeks less ice cover on Hudson Bay than there was prior to 1995.”

Given the research I have uncovered and examined, I am convinced of the cause and effect between mega hydroelectric reservoir dams and the rapid warming of the sea, air, and land surrounding and downstream of these industrial complexes, contributing to the negative impact on fisheries.

Stephen M. Kasprzak lives in Cape Porpoise. His book Blue Deserts was published this year by Tall Pine Publishing.

THE WORKING WATERFRONT

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Children’s author brings worker rights champion to life Steadfast chronicles progressive advocate Frances Perkins

By Tom Groening

I

t was clothing and a tragedy that brought Jennifer Merz and Frances Perkins together.

Merz, who recently retired to Phippsburg with her husband, is a collage artist and writer who has published three children’s books; the third, in September, is Steadfast: Frances Perkins, Champion of Workers’ Rights.

Perkins (1880-1965) was labor secretary in the Franklin Roosevelt administration, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. She was born in Boston, but both her parents were from Maine, and Perkins and her family spent summers at her grandmother’s homestead in Newcastle.

The clothing connection, which led to the book, came about in a serendipitous way.

Merz, who hails from Mount Vernon, N.Y., was living in Allendale, N.J. and working in Manhattan in the textile industry, acting as a coordinator between the design shop and the production of clothing. But art was her first love, having earned a B.A. in studio art. As a younger woman, she’d drawn and painted, and when her daughters were grown, she returned to that love.

“I started to take classes at the School of Visual Arts, in Manhattan,” and finally earned a master’s degree in illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

“It was at that juncture that the seeds of this book were sown,” she says.

It was 2011, and the school was marking the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, which claimed the lives of 145, mostly women who worked in the Manhattan business. The factory was on the top three floors of a building whose doors were either locked or didn’t open outward.

Merz and other students were preparing textile art for the commemoration.

“I started to do a lot more research into it,” she remembers. “I wanted to learn more about this chapter in textile history, in New York history.”

She learned that Frances Perkins was working in the city at the time of the tragedy.

“She was a young social worker. I found out that not only had she witnessed it, but she was galvanized by it,” Merz said.

Perkins became an advocate for changes to working conditions, including protecting child laborers, and mandating safe exits and sprinkler systems, “things we take for granted now,” Merz said.

Twenty years later, Roosevelt asked her to serve as his labor secretary. But her acceptance came with conditions. She wanted the president to work toward the elimination of child labor, and the establishment of a minimum wage and worker compensation.

Merz continued to learn more about Perkins and her service, which lasted the entire 12 years of the FDR administration.

“What I didn’t know was her involvement in the New Deal,” Roosevelt’s signature recovery program for the Depression years. “And she was responsible for Social Security.”

For more on this part of Perkins’ life, Merz recommends The Woman Behind the New Deal, by Kirstin Downey. But she felt another, younger group needed to hear the Frances Perkins story.

“I became very impassioned to get the word out to children—particularly girls,” she said. Her two earlier children’s books—That Dancin’ Dolly and Playground Day—were inspired by her daughters.

“I always keep my daughters in mind,” she said.

And Steadfast, “hopefully, will influence a new generation of children.”

The title comes from a motto of sorts. Perkins attended Mount Holyoke College, and the class of 1902’s motto was “Be Ye Steadfast.”

Jennifer Merz poses with Steadfast at her home in Phippsburg. Merz shows the textile collage process she used in the illustrations. PHOTOS: TOM GROENING

“I found out that not only had she witnessed it, but she was galvanized by it.”

One of the lessons Perkins learned, and which is reflected in the book, is that change can be made on a smaller scale than might be imagined. She would gather 40-50 people together to urge acceptance and activism for the New Deal initiatives, and saw it built a wave of support.

The book is aimed at children ages 6-9, which Merz believes is a good age range “for a discussion” of the ideas for which Perkins is known.

The illustrations are rich in texture and appear almost three dimensional. Merz showed how she would painstakingly cut fabric to create the layered collages, which she augmented with historical photos. She even relied a bit on digital manipulation, repeating images to create crowd scenes, and a scanner to create single images from many layers.

Steadfast may be purchased at JenniferMerz.com, on Amazon, and at the Frances Perkins Center. Though the Perkins homestead is in Newcastle, the nonprofit Frances Perkins Center is in Damariscotta. More information can be found at: FrancesPerkinsCenter.org

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

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Deer Island marks 250 years of endurance New Brunswick island off Eastport includes several towns

By Ashley Green

U

ntil as late as 1770, Deer Island— which lies between Eastport and New Brunswick, and is part of the Canadian province—is believed to only have been used by the Wabanaki peoples, primary Passamaquoddy, for hunting. In many ways Deer Island has remained essentially unchanged over the years. The homes of many multi-generational island families remain, with the names of the early island inhabitants still marking birth certificates as well as towns to this day.

Until 1758, when Lord William Campbell, the then governor of Nova Scotia, distributed land grants for the Bay of Fundy area, New Brunswick was still a part of the colony of Nova Scotia.

Col. Joseph William Gorham received a grant for Deer Island in 1767. The island had been named for its Passamaquoddy name, Edukimminik, meaning “deerhisisland.” However, the conditions of Gorham’s grant stated that he must sow and cultivate, as well as settle the land. Gorham was unable to do so because of his appointment as commandant of Newfoundland in 1770.

It was then that he sold the land to an officer named Thomas Farell, who was said to happily give land to those who lived or wished to live on Deer Island.

However, according to other records, this depiction of Farell was not entirely accurate. Farell owned the grant of ownership yet made no attempt to assist settlers in their lives, refusing to grant them permanent deeds.

Because of his ownership of the land, settlers were unable to legally organize and function as a settlement.

The community suffered under Farell’s ownership. Residents were unable to flourish. Records show 35 family heads had signed a petition pleading for ownership of their land.

The island was willed to his children upon Farell’s death in 1822. The Loyalists and their families finally received title deeds to their land and the island began to flourish.

The island’s towns—Fairhaven, Leonardville, Stuart Town, Lord’s Cove, Chocolate Cove, Richardson, Cummings Cove, Lambertville, and Lambert’s Cove—ranged along the coast. Islanders remember recent history when residents mostly

IN 1987, seven St. George residents sat down to discuss the rumors that the Marshall Point Lighthouse Keeper’s home was to be torn down and sold to a group who had interests in constructing a hotel. The former lighthouse keeper’s home had been vacated by the Coast Guard in 1981, and had been the subject of vandalism and decay.

With back and forth discussions with the Coast Guard and the town, it was agreed that a lease would be granted to the St. George for the use of the buildings and grounds, including the lighthouse.

Working with the town’s historical society, headed up by Jim Skoglund, it was decided that a museum would be established on the first floor of the building and an apartment set aside on the second floor. With the establishment of a museum committee and a grant from the state, plus the dedicated work of volunteers, the Lighthouse Museum opened in 1990.

In 2020, 30 years later, the museum continues to be one of the most visited sites on the Midcoast, setting a record of over 19,000 visitors in 2019. Visit the Marshall Point Lighthouse & Museum at Marshallpoint.org.

BR

This story first appeared in Eastport’s The Quoddy Tides, and is reprinted here with permission.

ATIN

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G

Marshall Point Lighthouse Museum turns 30

CEL E

Coastal Briefs

socialized with members of their own village. Each village had its own school, church, and stores.

The early division and isolation on Deer Island became a thing of the past with improved transportation, telephone, and now internet connection changing the atmosphere from one of several small villages to one larger island community. The island has remained a united front in 2020—a year of uncertainty that celebrates the 250th anniversary of Deer Island’s settlement. The year 2020 marks 250 years of endurance and the promise of continued unity.

RS!

YEA

Merrymeeting Clay

Casco Bay Glassworks

Brooksville fish passage restoration continues

THIS SUMMER, another phase in the watershed-wide effort to restore fish passage to the Bagaduce River was completed. This work was completed on property owned by Maine Coast Heritage Trust at a former mill site at the head of the Bagaduce River.

The project goals were to improve fish passage, repair and stabilize the dam, and create improvements for public enjoyment and safety, including a small parking lot.

The work also included a new pulloff and dry hydrant for fire trucks.

“This project has so many exciting elements to it—rich human history, important wildlife values, community significance, and a great partnership involving many people,” said Ciona Ulbrich of Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

This is the third in a set of five projects prioritized by the Three Town Alewife Committee (Brooksville, Penobscot

and Sedgwick), and focused on by a set of community members and organizations partnering in a multi-year effort to restore fish passage to the Bagaduce River watershed.

In 2018 and 2019, nature-like fishways were installed at the outlets of Pierce Pond and Wights Pond in Penobscot, in close partnership with that town’s select board and alewife committee. Once this project improves passage for Walkers Pond, the partners hope to complete two more projects in 2021: one in Brooksville and one in Sedgwick.

Together, the projects will restore fish passage to entire watershed, rebuilding the population of forage fish in the river and Gulf of Maine. This will mean more food in the food chain for mammals, birds, and fish including groundfish, and will be great for wildlife and the health of the river, bay and beyond.

Kathleen Perelka, Sunshine Series #1

386 MAIN STREET

•

ROCKLAND, MAINE

TheArchipelago.net

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(207) 596-0701

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Friendship in the fall

This fishy town wears the season well PHOTO ESSAY BY MICHELE STAPLETON

Friendship, a village at the end of a peninsula in Knox County on Muscongus Bay, is as fishy as they get. Perennially among the top ten lobster-landing ports, Friendship offers a protected harbor, good working-waterfront infrastructure, and, yes, beautiful scenery.

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Golden Western Bay

The pulsating kaleidoscope of Jill Hoy’s world Stonington-based painter infuses color into fishing village scenes

By Tom Groening

I

f we could see the Maine coast through Jill Hoy’s eyes, it might be like looking through a broken kaleidoscope. You’d still be able to make out the shapes of rock, tree, sea, headland, and boat, but their angular components would become saturated and vibrate with color.

In a lively conversation with Hoy in her Stonington gallery, dozens of her oil paintings hung or lying nearby, she intimates as much, noting that people probably see colors differently from each other. To further illustrate the point, she looks out the open door and lists the shades of blue, gray, and green she sees in the paved walkway, the pinks and purples that dance off the clapboards of an ostensibly white house.

“That’s a white house,” might be a first thought, she says, “yet there’s all kinds of colors on that house. There’s a spectrum of light bouncing off the clouds, and it reflects off the white surface.”

Hoy’s paintings are not didactic in this way, trying to force the viewer to see what she sees, nor are they an attempt to fuse Gauguin-like imagery on a Maine landscape traditionally rendered in muted tones.

“These painting are a bit ‘wake up to your world,’” she admits, but this is how she sees that world.

Her color-charged paintings do challenge the ingrained notion that Maine’s beauty is subdued. Still, she remembers, with a smile, her late husband and fellow artist Jon Imber saying to her, “Jill, you’ve got to learn about gray.”

She has learned. Grays give the eye a resting place, Hoy explains.

“I also use a lot more blues now,” including shades she’s never before mixed on her palette.

Her relationship with Imber, who was afflicted with and died from ALS, was captured in 2014 documentary Imber’s Left Hand, so titled because the disease left the painter with control only of his non-dominant hand. There is a scene in the film in which Hoy and Imber confer on his work, and it’s fascinating to see the two confident artists discuss a painting in candid terms.

“Jon and I respected each other’s work,” she says, though she acknowledges that “he was much more porous than me,” readily absorbing new approaches.

Because she was anticipating a visit from The Working Waterfront, Hoy had arranged a corner of the gallery with paintings of boats, fish shacks, trucks, and yards full of fishing gear.

Jill Hoy in her Stonington gallery in September.

PHOTO: TOM GROENING

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

“These paintings are full of energy,” she says. “They’re alive, with a lot of information, but with increasing lyricism. I’m starting to become the painter I always wanted to be.”

That may sound self-promotional, but as one who has followed her work over the decades, it rings true.

As we look at each piece, Hoy fills in the back story. A view of the fishing boat Elva G., which belonged to John Ames, is pictured in a yard. Ames was dying, and in response to her query about painting the scene, he told her, “Better come soon.

It’s closing in.”

Another painting depicts a fisherman’s gear-strewn yard. Hoy asked permission to paint.

“I’m already painting,” was his wry reply, referring, of course, to his buoys.

Using this one as example of what she aims for, Hoy gestures to the line of traps, which seem to have been quickly rendered.

“It’s the rhythm of them,” that she wanted to capture. “It has the velocity of the place, of the moment.”

Painting en plein air hastens these moments, she says, though it often means “standing outside for hours.”

Hoy has wrestled with the notion of when a painting is finished. A few she shows me have achieved this status, she says, and she admits they are pleasing in their richness and texture, but don’t quite hum with the energy of the others.

Hoy has been visiting Stonington in the summer since 1965. Her father was a college administrator, and a colleague invited the family for a visit, and he was smitten. Because his work meant the family lived in different places, the town represented a kind of home.

“It was a somewhat itinerant life,” she says. “This was my anchor. It became, pretty much, the love of my life.”

Hoy’s home and gallery are in the heart of this fishing, and, increasingly, tourist village, which unfolds down a steep hill, offering views over islands and down Penobscot Bay that would inspire any artist.

“It’s a south-facing harbor. The light is beautiful. The architecture is great. It’s got the best granite.”

But the town is more than aesthetic fodder for Hoy. “This is a working island. I had to realize that’s what this is,” she says. Her long

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presence here and her affection for its people have opened doors to subjects for which others may not have access. She believes she has earned the respect of the fishing community.

“I think they know I work really hard. It has educated me to its tempo,” she says.

These days, she winters in New York City or Somerville, Mass. The off-season environments change her work. People and faces, in darker contexts, dominate in a small selection she pulls from storage to show me.

But the rugged beauty of Stonington, and her singular take on its charms, that seem to be her depthless inspiration.

“I go from Indian Point Road,” to the east of the village, “to Sand Beach Road.

That’s an infinite amount of information.”

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Book Reviews

The beauty and wonder of seaweed, artfully rendered Science and aesthetics combine as tools to understand the sea plants Review by Tina Cohen JUST BEING TOLD SOMETHING seems curious makes you curious to know more about that, yes? And so Josie Iselin’s newest book, The Curious World of Seaweed, promises and delivers– probably more than you ever knew you’d enjoy knowing about seaweed.

This is familiar ground for Iselin, building on her 2014 book, An Ocean Garden: The Secret Life of Seaweed. Both books cast the same spell. The visual imagery entrances you first. A designer and artist, she has made illustrations of many objects we would find on the coast, beachcombing or studying tidal pools, but when Iselin makes pictures of these things on her flatbed scanner, the colors, details, and shapes are intensified to reveal what we might not have otherwise noticed or appreciated.

Iselin confesses that initially, perhaps due to her “artist’s instincts,” she could “not grasp the passion or commitment to phylogeny or precise naming and placing,” but “I now see the taxonomist as the scientist most interested in the algae for itself.”

This book is homage to some of those scientists, many of whom are women.

Their “lineage of learning about macroalgae, the field of phycology”

the botany department at includes a “fascinating University of California, line of scientists and Berkeley, with “meticuexplorers,” she writes. lous pressings of their “Appreciating a particalgal finds.” In fact, the ular kelp or seaweed as collection there—at the an original explorer did, University Herbarium— or a specialized phycolohas become central to the gist might, can reveal an study of marine algae of algal-centric perspective the Pacific coast, holding that will be helpful as we 50,000 specimens from pick our way through the California alone. weeds of climate change, Iselin marvels: warming oceans, and The Curious World of “Alongside the pressdepleted fisheries. As we Seaweed ings are the historical grapple with concepts

By Josie Iselin (2019) lithographs that were the such as carbon sinks and ocean acidification,” she explains, “it is visual accompaniment to the original imperative that we recognize the role published descriptions of a seaweed’s kelps and seaweeds play in complex form and aspect—all part of the naming process. One does not think of nearshore ocean systems.”

Beginning in the 1700s, Europeans taxonomy as a visual discipline, and yet exploring the Pacific coast of North it is spectacularly so.”

Just about every page of this beauAmerica by ship often included scientists and naturalists who were collecting tiful book holds an illustration, a specimens for study. But interest in modern-day herbarium, as it were. seaweed certainly didn’t begin with While many are Iselin’s own, providing their “discoveries.” Indigenous peoples close-up opportunities for the reader have, of course, known and used to study the 15 specimens she delves into, she also includes examples from seaweed for thousands of years.

The field is also indebted to a group the University Herbarium and other of women in California in the 1800s, collections. With a few, she combines who gathered various seaweeds from her own rendering of the specimen around the Monterey Peninsula for with a historical one.

The book is an extravaganza of the art of seaweed, but that’s not all.

For each of the varieties she looks at, their history, scientific nomenclature, ecological roles, human uses, and environmental threats are also discussed.

The book’s focus is the North American Pacific coast, from Baja California in Mexico to Canada’s British Columbia. Iselin lives in San Francisco and describes her own regular forays of seaweed viewing and collecting in that area.

But Iselin’s family also call Vinalhaven home. Her previous seaweed book contained many specimens found there.

This California-dominant volume includes a generous two-page picture, an outlier near the book’s end, of Irish moss.

Iselin notes: “An Atlantic seaweed not found in the Pacific Ocean.

Collected in Penobscot Bay, Maine.” I think of that as a shout-out from Iselin to all us East Coast readers, especially those familiar with the Midcoast here.

Beauty and utility in the seaweed world exist everywhere; Iselin is helping us see it and care about it.

Tina Cohen is a seasonal resident of Vinalhaven.

Paul Doiron’s game warden heads north

Latest Mike Bowditch mystery is action-packed entertainment Review by Carl Little THE TITLE “game warden” conjures images of men and women in forestgreen fatigues with a mission to steward natural resources, which in Maine primarily means moose, bear, and deer, along with fish and fowl. Thanks to Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch mystery novel series, now numbering 11, that image has been, shall we say, dramatized— these dedicated conservation officers are first and foremost law enforcement and they can be badass.

In One Last Lie, Bowditch reconnects with his mentor and surrogate father Charley Stevens, but under mysterious circumstances. The older man up and disappears, leaving a cryptic note encouraging Bowditch not to try and track him down. And so, the actionpacked search is on.

Once again, the pace is brisk, the story engaging, and the cast of characters memorable. Doiron knows the warden service inside and out and is expert at describing the protocols. And the reader never forgets that Warden Bowditch has an eye for the natural world: the serene song of a mourning warbler or house sparrows “picking dead bugs out of the

be it sexual harassment in grilles of the semis in the the military, the negative parking lot.” impact of the AmericanReading Doiron’s novels, Canadian border on one comes to appreciate surrounding communihis wicked sense of humor. ties, the poverty of Maine’s A favorite moment in One Native Americans, or the Last Lie occurs when Jon fear of ICE. He also goes Egan, a squirrely snowout of his way to underplow driver, is being interscore crimes against rogated. When confronted the environment, from with previous misdeeds, encroaching developEgan says, “That’s all ment to clearcutting. ancient history,” to which In the course of 11 the detective replies, One Last Lie books, Doiron has “ ‘Those who forget the

By Paul Doiron covered much of Maine, past are condemned to Minotaur Books from Flagstaff Lake in repeat it.’ That’s a quote The Poacher’s Son (when Bowditch was from Santayana.”

The lowlife’s answer is priceless: a 24-year-old rookie) to way Downeast.

“I don’t listen to that kind of music. Much of the present novel takes place in Aroostook County.

I prefer country.”

Francophone aspects of the narrative When he isn’t sequestered away in his Rockland waterfront office working reflect the author’s family origins; as on his next book, Doiron is apt to be he explains in an afterword, his great fly-fishing. His hero Bowditch also uncle, the Rev. Romeo Doiron, was happens to be an experienced angler parish priest at St. James in St. Agatha.

When the Fort Kent police chief, and shows off his stuff in a memorable scene battling a brookie on remote Plourde by name, uses the word “désolé” to apologize to some fellow Moccasin Pond.

Doiron often incorporates references diners for his colleagues’ crass to cultural/societal issues in the text, language, I couldn’t help thinking of

another favorite crime writer, Louise Penney. Her Chief Inspector Gamache often uses that word—translated as “sorry”—and it leads me to fantasize about a future cross-border collaboration between him and Bowditch.

Another fantasy: a TV series called Bowditch along the lines of Longmire or Bosch.

Some Bowditch fans, including my son James, relish these books because to those living in exile—he’s in Brookline, Mass.—they provide a return to Maine, an escape to the woods and waters.

And then there’s the action: a python attack, a wolf dog devouring a turkey poult, a full-tilt boat chase.

In the end, the mystery is (mostly) solved, but these novels lack complete closure, and that’s just right: We want to know how Mike will resolve his conflicting love interests (Dani or Stacey), in what desperate situation he’ll find himself next, and when/if his luck will run out. Stay tuned.

Carl Little is the author of more than 25 art books, including Paintings of Maine, The Art of Monhegan Island, and The Art of Maine in Winter.

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

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Book Reviews

Family ties fray on a Maine island

The Guest Book pulls back curtains on summer haven Review by Dana Wilde TOWARD THE VERY end of Sarah Blake’s insightful novel, The Guest Book, one of the principal characters is collecting mussels on the shore of fictional Crockett’s Island, which lies just across a narrows from the real Vinalhaven.

“The tide sucked slowly backward as she worked. The lobstermen slowed through the Narrows, the day done, heading with their hauls into town. When she looked up, one of them waved. She lifted her arm in greeting, pushed her hat back off her forehead, and bent again into the water.”

The character, Evie, is a history professor pushing age 60, and her family, the Miltons, own the island.

The book covers the family’s history from the 1930s to the present, and the island is the central setting of the story and the characters’ inner lives.

The lobsterman waving from his boat is just about the closest encounter we have with local people in this story. A fleeting glimpse, early on, through the eyes of the Rockland harbormaster’s wife of the Miltons arriving from New York on their way to discovering the forlorn island with its forlorn “FOR SALE—R. CROCKETT” sign is the most we know of any locals. The Miltons know as little about them as they know about what goes on at the island.

This seems pretty true to life, like most of story, whose setting and milieu

neglect of his family the author once told an responsibilities. One of interviewer she knows the daughters, Joan, in a firsthand. sign of the time, crashes The Miltons are a hopelessly into love with wealthy New York a young Jewish man, family whose connecLen. The possibility, tions extend to the however, of a Jew coming top echelons of power into the Milton family and influence. The is a serious, unspoken patriarch, Ogden, is a complication. Especially successful New York given the Miltons’ troufinancier, with deep bling connections to ties in Europe. The Nazi Germany. matriarch, Kitty, is the One of Moss’s gracious, shrewd, plum The Guest Book

By Sarah Blake Greenwich Village upper-middle-class wife of midcentury America, Flatiron Books, New York friends is a young black writer-photographer, Reg who could be descended Pauling, whose degree from Harvard from an Edith Wharton novel.

In 1936 they buy the island on some- is a shocking credential Moss can use thing like a whim, and in the ensuing to introduce him to the Miltons’ social decades it becomes a summer haven for world. Reg, well aware of the racism family and friends. The story is about latent there, resists Moss’s idealistic desire to break him in. To complicate the complications inside the haven.

In the turbulent 1930s, Ogden makes matters further, Reg and Len have been a troubling financial decision in Nazi friends since childhood. It’s a recipe for Germany, and in connection with this, social disaster, and worse.

By the 2010s, the children and grandKitty makes a decision at home which she will deeply regret later. How could children have let many of the family responsibilities slide. The trust fund they have known what was to follow?

As their three surviving children that keeps up the island is running out come of age after World War II, cracks of money.

For those of us who do not frequent in the order Ogden and Kitty so cherish begin to appear. A son, “Moss,” becomes privately owned islands, there is some caught up in the artistic and cultural irony in what constitutes “running out ferment of 1950s New York, to the of money.” For while the story centers

on important themes of race and class frictions, the Miltons at the same time barely notice the middle and working classes all around them.

Crockett’s Island is a bubble where the Miltons throw parties, gather mussels, grapple (eventually) with their long, complex history of racism and phantom notions of noblesse oblige, and play out their dramas summer after summer. With hardly a glance at what has become, especially over the last few incendiary years, Trump country.

At the end of the book, Reg, now a very old man, makes two extraordinarily magnanimous gestures to Evie, the history professor. It is a sincerely touching moment, in a book with many touching moments. But somehow, none of it will put anything right. “We vanish,” is Evie’s final plaintive thought.

And I’m thinking: Not really. Wealthy people will still be making their way from the dock and up the lawn to that huge old house, not noticing the locals noticing. The Miltons may relinquish the island and fade out, but the wealthy, and the trouble, won’t.

The Guest Book is vividly written, insightful, and at points moving on the passions and shortcomings of otherwise well-meaning people on those private islands.

Dana Wilde, a former editor and college professor, lives in Troy in Waldo County.

‘Creeping creepy’ stalks island in The Other Mrs. Setting recalls Peaks Island, plus suburban amenities Review by Dana Wilde FOR CENTURIES, there’s been nothing like an island on the remote coast of remote Maine to spark the imaginations of writers and artists, both native and non-native. It can be an idyllic summer paradise of sailboats and cottages, or a windswept, lonely, sublimely frightening instance of rugged beauty.

A fog-shrouded haunted house, maybe.

In the most daring literary excursions, a glimpse of winter.

In Mary Kubica’s new novel, The Other Mrs., we get the glimpse of winter.

The “tiny island” where the story is set has a police department, ambulance service, health clinic, and multiple daily ferry runs taking commuters to work and kids to school in the city on the mainland, plus “abandoned military fortifications at the far end of the island” where teenagers are rumored to gather. It sounds a lot like Peaks Island, which I personally have never thought of as tiny, or remote, but, anyway...

All this is of acute concern to Sadie Foust, who has recently moved to the island with her husband, Will, and

their two sons, from the Chicago area, who pursues Will and is the flamboyant dead opposite of neurotic where Sadie was a physiSadie, and a little girl cian and Will a writer just named Mouse who tells completing his graduate the story of “Fake Mom,” studies. In need of “a fresh an evil stepmother. start” following incidents, Sadie projects a sort we soon learn, involving of clinical rationality the school bullying of toward everything that their teenage son and a happens, but it’s quickly tragic mistake at Sadie’s apparent that she is clinic, Will serendipijealous of Will’s interactously inherited an island tions with other women. house upon the sudden Extremely jealous. death of his sister Alice, She comes to believe which we soon learn was that Imogen participated a suicide. Along with The Other Mrs. in Alice’s death. She feels the house comes Alice’s by Mary Kubica inexplicably alienated daughter, Imogen, who from the first pages is a Park Row Books, Toronto, at her job as staff physiOntario, Canada, 2020 cian at the island’s clinic kind of haunting, punkedout 16-year-old version of Daphne du (where “the minds of the people are as small as the island itself ”). She’s hyperMaurier’s Mrs. Danvers.

Sadie tells us in the first sentence of sensitive to signs her teenage son is the story that “There’s something off facing more bullying.

She describes Will as the perfect about the house,” and it’s not long before we start to suspect there is something consoling, calming husband and father off about Sadie. She narrates most of who holds everything together, except the chapters, with interspersed, mostly amid her increasingly tenuous fits of shorter chapters narrated by Camille, jealousy. To make matters much worse,

a neighbor is horrifically murdered one night right down the street. When the police show up with routine questions, Sadie insists the murderer must be the woman’s husband, even though he was in Japan at the time. So who did it?

The backdrop of all this is the island in winter. And while this imagination of a Maine island has the feel of a kind of suburb-by-boat, still, the gothic images of winter well reflect the creeping creepiness of the story’s plot. There are slips and falls on unseen ice, a Wuthering Heights-in-Maine blizzard, a knife buried under snow, heavy overcoats, school cancellations and non-cancellations, and the general feeling of twilight bleakness that plays with your head on a winter afternoon in Maine.

The Other Mrs. is not going to win any awards for stylistic grandeur, but the story is told with remarkable pace, it has a surprise ending, and enough of the gothic side of winter.

The Other Mrs. is in the process of being turned into a Netflix movie.

Dana Wilde, a former editor and college professor, lives in Troy in Waldo County.

20

The Working Waterfront . November 2020

An upside for Maine—virus boosts school enrollments Families reluctant to return home choose island, coastal schools

By Robin Chernow

E

arly in August, the Island Institute received an inquiry from a Southport Island community member: Are other islands facing unexpected enrollment increases this school year?

How are schools responding to take extra care to physically distance when there is limited space for more students?

Enrollment increases are often a late-August conversation among island schools, when summer families consider staying on-island through the winter. This year, the conversations were more common, with a higher volume of families wanting to stay on-island, rather than moving back to more densely-populated regions with higher rates of COVID-19. Recognizing educational opportunities of small, in-person schools, some families decided to stay in Maine for the winter and enroll their children in coastal Maine schools.

New students have boosted school populations in communities where populations were steady or declining.

Casco Bay’s Long Island added a student to the 4th grade class, a welcome addition to the elementary school with 16 kids.

Bryan Feezor, assistant principal on Vinalhaven, notes that the pre-K-12th grade school population has been on a downward trend since he began working at the school in 2011, with 166 students enrolled this year. Principal Dr. Monte Selby said some families have moved away, others have arrived on the island, and several others are working via the remote learning platform, so class sizes are about the same as last year.

The school is able to fit students in the building, even with COVID spacing and safety requirements.

“Lots of challenges, but not as a result of numbers,” Selby reported. “Overall, the students and staff here are off to an amazing start.”

Other schools did not have much extra space to accommodate physical distancing requirements, even before learning of enrollment increases. Schools have been creative and agile in developing back-toschool plans, considering hybrid options and outdoor learning opportunities.

Challenged by limited spacing and staff to accommodate the full student body, the K-8 school on the St. George peninsula has partnered with the nearby Blueberry Cove 4-H camp to provide outdoor learning for one middle school group each day, allowing these students to experience meaningful learning and social experiences while limiting the population in the physical school building.

Islesboro Central School added 18 new students this year to its typical student body of 100. Both Islesboro and North Haven’s K-12 schools have adopted hybrid learning plans for middle and high school students to ensure adequate distancing.

School populations may have grown even higher if interested families had success securing winter housing. Potential newcomers to Swan’s Island and Isle au Haut were unable to find year-round housing before the start of the school year.

BEYOND MAINE

While increased student populations have brought challenges in planning and budgets, many community members say they bring social benefits to the schools. This trend extends beyond Maine and has occurred on the islands of the Great Lakes and Cuttyhunk, Mass.

Beaver Island Community School in Lake Michigan expected 45 students in its pre-K-12 school, yet the year started with 54 students, as seasonal families and visitors moved to the community for the winter,

Students in the Cuttyhunk school work on an outdoors activity. PHOTO: COURTESY CUTTYHUNK SCHOOL

seeking an in-person schooling option far from high rates of COVID. But it comes at a cost.

“Responding to COVID alone is expensive,” said Superintendent-Principal Wil Cwikiel. “At small schools, economies of scale don’t apply.” Cwikiel hired an additional full-time classroom aide, additional janitorial staff, purchased air filters and disinfectants, and anticipates higher fuel costs this winter as the school is keeping windows open to improve air flow.

The building is designed to fit 80-100 students, so the student body of 54 is not an issue. There were challenges providing high school course offerings to fit progressions for new students. For example, Beaver Island only has a certified French teacher, so the new student who studies Russian is taking his class online.

Still, Cwilkiel is glad to have the new students and families: “Our new students are a wonderful addition to our school and are really benefiting from our small class size and our individualized approach to students.”

School counselor Jess Woods works primarily with Penobscot Bay islands and confirms that small high schools often alternate or rotate course offerings, rather than offering every course every year. While this practice works well for small schools, it does offer challenges if new high school students transfer and have had a different course progression. Woods adds a

positive note: “Every time a family moves to the island, there is the potential to retain them as islanders.”

Cuttyhunk, a small island near Martha’s Vineyard, has not had a student in the K-8 school since June of 2019 when the sole 8th grade student graduated. But by early September, it was clear that several families wanted to enroll their children.

The school district had to revise its budget to accommodate for a fully open school, and teacher Michelle Carvalho had little time to plan, but the positives outweigh the challenges of now having four students in grades 2-7, who now learn and socialize together.

One parent acknowledged that her child would have to be more engaged than in a large class.

Another parent was grateful for the longtime yearround Cuttyhunk community.

“Many islanders have come up to me and told me how thrilled they are that the school is open again, and I have felt a great amount of support from the island community.”

Carvalho explained why: “Children bring a positive and vibrant energy to the island and we frequently engage islanders in being a part of our educational process.”

Robin Chernow is a community development officer focusing on education with the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

Letters to the Editor Traps were ghost towns

Trump spoke through Joyce

To the editor: As always, I enjoy reading the Island Institute’s stories. But the “Group works to recycle ‘ghost’ traps” in the September issue came close to home for me with an oft repeated “fact” that I know to be a misnomer, and so I’m driven to raise my hand and say something.

I know there are not millions of ghost traps out there with imprisoned lobsters languishing ‘til death. As a commercial diver I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours crawling around every island and ledge down to 60 feet between Vinalhaven, North Haven, and Mount Desert Island. I have gone by hundreds of ghost traps and never seen a lobster in any of them. I have watched lobsters, in traps connected to the surface by rope and buoy, back out of traps.

I think the lobsters that are caught just had the misfortune of being in that trap when it was hauled.

A while later and they would have been gone.

— Parker Waite Sedgwick

To the editor: I have never ever written a letter to the editor. I hope this will be the only one. Missing from the transcript of Jason Joyce’s remarks at the GOP convention in the October issue is—”My name is Donald J. Trump and I approve this message.”

I don’t oppose Mr. Joyce’s right to express his views and vote for a particular candidate. I understand The Working Waterfront’s mission is to represent the various people and communities of the Maine coast—their goals, ideals, and achievements. However, I ask the editor, what were you thinking? Will the next issue have someone from Portland with a Joe Biden plug?

In this political polarized climate The Working Waterfront has done a great job helping fan the fire and deepening the political division.

If your argument is that it was only a transcript, I would find that somewhat disingenuous. As editor you have the responsibility of presenting clear, unprejudiced, unbiased articles. I don’t see that effort here.

It may be the majority opinion of coastal Maine and their fisherman that Donald J. Trump represents their point of view; if so, then structure the transcript as such and not as a political advertisement. Mr. Joyce’s comments were made at the convention and should have stayed at the convention and not made it onto the pages of your publication.

— Weld S Morse Dartmouth, Mass.

Another view of tariffs To the editor: After reading The Working Waterfront’s October issue, I feel a rebuttal to Mr. Joyce’s ill-informed opinions regarding Donald Trump’s reelection is in order.

I was dumbstruck by Joyce’s three cheers for Trump’s “ending” the EU tariffs on Maine lobsters.

Doesn’t he realize Trump was the “genius” who started the trade war in 2018 that hurt sales of lobster to Europe? He was forced to undo his own disaster for the industry, and then he claims it as a victory?

It’s the same with the loss of sales to China.

Because of his 2018 trade war with that country, sales to China have fallen from $182.2 million for the year ended June 2018 to $94.6 million for the year ended June 2019. And under President Obama, lobstermen had the largest harvest in recent memory at 185 million pounds in his last year in office. So why were he and Biden “bad” for business? It seems to me Joyce’s man Trump is the problem, not the solution.

I’ve been hauling traps since 1969. Due to warmer ocean temperatures there is no longer commercially viable lobstering on the backside of Cape Cod. Most likely there soon won’t be where I fish off Plymouth, Mass.

Now that Trump has dropped the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords, maybe your waters will warm as quickly as ours, and guess what? Your lobsters will head for Canada and Mr. Joyce may well be the last of his eight generations of lobstermen.

— C. Kane Duxbury, Mass.

21

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Loves the columnists To the editor: It is always such a pleasure to receive The Working Waterfront each month, even though I have no relationship to a waterfront, per se, other than growing up in a Maine coastal town and living in one now, and, of course, loving the fruits of the sea.

There are no fishermen or women in my family for at least five generations, but I read every article and love the columnists. Sandy Oliver, Phil Crossman, Courtney Naliboff, Barbara Fernald, and Laurie Schreiber are true gems. Thank you for providing such informative and interesting reading.

— Martha B. Higgins Trenton The Working Waterfront prints letters to the editor, guest columns, and op-ed columns, as space allows.

Columns should be cleared with the editor before submitting, and should contain no more than 650 words. Letters should be about 300 words, and should be sent to editor Tom Groening at tgroening@ islandinstitute.org with “LTE” in the subject line.

Columns and letters should relate to newspaper content, or issues connected to the coast and islands.

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The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Saltwater Cure

A new way to be alive, and live Outdoor theater experiment is a success

By Courtney Naliboff A FEW MONTHS AGO, my column focused on doing things differently, and having them still be good. Take out instead of dine in. Picnics instead of cocktail parties. Online events instead of in-person.

I got some good mileage out of that attitude, but by the end of August, I was pretty tired of these different but still good ways of living. I wanted some of my old life back. To that end, I hadn’t really conceived of doing a fall play. I was Zoomed out, tired of technical difficulties and speaker mode, and plays where characters spent their time yelling at each other over the phone or their space helmets or whatever. It wasn’t that those things were bad, it was that the differences were exhausting me.

It took a dedicated student to nudge me back to life and inspire me to try something a little new and different, and a little old and traditional. When one of my high schoolers sent me some photos of the Belfast Maskers live, in-person, distanced, faceshielded summer student production, I realized that there was in fact more than one way to put on a show in these weird times.

I’ve always had my eye on the grove of locust trees in Mullins Head Park as a possible outdoor theater venue. Its striking silhouette evokes the African

savannah, which led me to the decision to finally stage Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt, a script that’s always caught my imagination. Even better, it focuses on a darkly prescient vision of a future subsumed by technology, and of a population divided through its use.

What could be better than a little fictional dystopia to accompany some actual dystopia?

I recruited a small cast to participate in this experiment. For the past few years, my goal with the fall and spring theatrical productions has been to select scripts with opportunities for as many people as could possibly want to participate, especially younger actors.

Tiny clowns in Twelfth Night, a whole gaggle of street urchins in Sherlock Holmes and the First Baker Street Irregular, extra children galore in How to Eat Like a Child. But in this case, I needed to keep things streamlined and safe.

I asked two siblings to be involved— I had a hunch I could use their pod status to my directorial advantage. My high school student, naturally, had a role, and two community adults agreed to take part. We’d rehearse outdoors whenever possible, and over Zoom when needed due to weather.

With the acting part of the theatrical production more or less under control, it was time to tackle the technical aspects. My husband, Bill, had graciously agreed to design the

soundscape, with a whopping 72 cues, from helicopters to lions to electronic music. Artist David Wilson came on board for scenery.

But beyond those challenges were implementation and installation. How does one power not only a laptop and speakers, but body mics for all the actors, so they can be heard from behind their face shields? Once one finds an appropriate generator, how many feet of extension cord does it take to get it far enough away from the audience that it isn’t overpoweringly loud? Is using a generator even a good idea at all during a drought? How do you rehearse with scenery so it doesn’t get rained on or blown away? (The answer to that one is, you don’t until the final dress rehearsal).

As production drew near, we encountered new problems and worked through them. On a gusty day, we learned that a face shield makes a very effective wind tunnel, and that the wind blowing over a body mic is loud indeed. We became experts at packing and unpacking vehicles, and shuttling furniture, pop up tents, and other equipment between our houses and the park shed. Actors learned to wear layers underneath their costumes, and huddled underneath a prop quilt “backstage” (which was just the area behind a tree).

I had few expectations going into the production. I wanted to put on a good

show, but viewed the process mostly as a way to work out the kinks of outdoor theater for the future. But by final dress rehearsal, it was shaping up to be a darn good show.

I was pleased, if slightly surprised, to see the audience pour in that afternoon, bolstered by the perfect weather and, perhaps, the utter absence of anything else to do. They spread out in the trees, on blankets or in beach chairs, masked and distanced from other pods. It was disorienting at first to hear their reactions—their laughter, or unnerved response to the sound design emanating from the speakers hidden in the trees, even their applause—and then, it lifted my spirits. More than anything, that was the missing element from all of our online performances, and, more than anything, that is the driving force behind live theater.

Outdoor theater is weather dependent, and Maine is heading into the cold, dark times. But should we still be in a pandemic come spring, I’m feeling energized and excited to revisit outdoor theater, especially now that we’ve completed our shakedown cruise.

Courtney Naliboff teaches theater, music, and writing and lives on North Haven.

Observer

Cohabitating with the chickadees The state bird is an easy companion

By Phil Crossman I’M NOT AN ornithologist but I do enjoy providing for and being entertained by birds, and I can count on that happening day after day as, ever accommodating, we monitor feeders on all sides from each kitchen window, nearly always mindful of our responsibilities.

On those rare occasions when I am lax, the numerous regulars, mostly black capped chickadees, our state bird, are quite brazen in letting me know I’ve failed them. On more than one occasion I’ve heard what I thought was a bird colliding with my window, as they now and then do, mistaking the clean glass for open space, only to find it’s a chickadee pecking at the window to alert me to the fact that the feeder is empty or nearly so.

The chickadees don’t migrate far or much at all—doubtless they have

discerned there’s no need, since they chickadee in the nearby lilac, aware that are so well cared for right here. Perhaps the shortest distance between it and because this species has been patron- the feeder is a straight line, often finds my head an annoying izing our feeders and obstacle and, on more this neighborhood for than one occasion has so long, the chickadee is remarkably untroubled A chickadee in the come very close indeed to aggressively demonby my own presence or that of friends and nearby lilac, aware strating that annoyance.

On the other hand family, while nonethethat the shortest they haven’t hit me— less finding the deep foliage of a vibrant lilac distance between it yet—and I take that to bush next to the feeder and the feeder is a indicate that they know, on some level, that I an irresistible refuge. straight line, often have something to do One would think, with the feeders being given the repeated finds my head an repeatedly replenished retreats to the security annoying obstacle… and so tolerate my of those branches, that otherwise annoying and this bird is very insecure impeding presence. and cautious. In fact, But each fall the chickthe opposite is true. I have found, walking up the steps from adees have occasion to become particmy driveway to my front door, that a ularly and justifiably proprietary when

visitors that are not our customary diners here at Chez Seeds in Abundance descend in large numbers, and with very little regard, none in fact, for an established pecking order, to fuel up for the long flight ahead. The environment around the feeders during this time is not unlike that which exists here around Memorial Day as our comfortable routines are dependably disrupted by the arrival of our own seasonal visitors.

On the other hand, also not unlike most of us, the chickadees do seem to accommodate the intruders without too much fuss.

Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven.

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

23

World Ocean Observatory

Our status as a maritime nation Understanding the sea as lifeblood of ideas

By Peter Neill HISTORIAN Howard Zinn (19222010) is the author of The People’s History of the United States, a contrarian view of American history that should be read by everyone regardless of political persuasion. Zinn provides a provocative alternative perspective on our nation’s story as institutionalized in the text books, a telling argument for taking a second look from a different point of view at something so complex and dynamic as human history.

I have always felt that Americans have no real understanding of our history as a maritime nation. The subject is mostly absent from the texts and the specific maritime histories have been, most often, enumerations of customs house documents, ship voyages, and the odd naval battle. Only recently has that begun to change as historians from other disciplines have discovered the broad impact and richness of maritime endeavor as a core theme in the American narrative.

Let’s take two points of view: internal and external.

If you look at the topography of our nation, you see a system of

watersheds—great lakes connected to rivers and the sea; streams descending from major mountain systems, east and west; and myriad rivers feeding the Mississippi, a central, north-south artery that splits the nation.

Those waterways were the homes of indigenous people that became paths of early exploration and settlement. Many of our largest inland cities are located on the confluence of navigable rivers.

The Erie Canal, an engineering marvel, linked the heartland to the east coast ports and Europe. Lewis and Clark followed the rivers and streams into the west, through the Rockies to the Pacific.

Along these waterways passed the grain, cotton, tobacco, and other agricultural products, the iron and steel and coal and timber, and the manufactured goods, distributed internally, to the eastern ports like New York, Boston, Charleston, and Savannah and around Cape Horn to western ports of San Francisco and Seattle and beyond, as the essence of an emerging American world trade.

The external perspective is also instructive. It reveals that trade is more than export; rather, the exchange of

goods from Europe and further east, and, most importantly, the imported return, the arrival of immigrants, refugees from religious tyranny, entrepreneurs, and outlaws, who are our forebears by the thousands.

We strive to honor our remaining indigenous people, but the rest of us colonials, came from away, from Ireland, Scotland and England, from Scandinavia, from Germany and Italy, from Africa (albeit an involuntary passage), and eventually from all the nations of the world, these diverse ethnicities combining to create the complex nation that we are. Most of these people came by ship across oceans, and, today, certainly by different vessels, they are still coming.

What Zinn and other historians have recognized is that the principal value exchanged by this process was not just the trade goods and financial accountings, but also the ideas and beliefs, the art, the music, and the literature that are the cultural fabric of our moment.

We listen to world music and appreciate world art. We are open to multiple

religions and spiritual practice. We fuse food traditions, fashion, fads, medical treatments, exercise, sport, and language. We may have new and different portals now, but the process began long ago when the first sailors left shore in search of something beyond their own experience, beyond their limited horizon.

When I look at things now, I wonder where the sailors are. We have become fearful and oppositional and closeminded. We have become complacent within our horizon and hostile to new people and new ideas. We need historians like Howard Zinn, or new leaders to show us the way back to the sea, the sea that connects all things.

Peter Neill is the director of the World Ocean Observatory, which produces weekly radio essays that can be heard on WERU-FM, 89.9, on podcast at apple. com/us/podcast/world-ocean-radio/ id425361249, and at http://www. worldoceanobservatory.org/worldocean-radio. He lives in Sedgwick.

Journal of an Island Kitchen

Discomfort food

It’s not all peaches and cream

By Sandy Oliver HARD TIMES like this pandemic leave us hankering for comfort food: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, pasta, ice cream. Have you heard about Covid 15? That’s the weight we packed on while stuck at home. But what’s discomfort food?

Food that hurts the cook to prepare.

Like sharp points on lobster claw legs, for example. Making a batch of Lobster Newburg for a large wedding years ago left the cook and me with punctured palms. Consider, too, the violence required to crack lobster or crab claws.

Hot pepper juice stings your eyes even hours after you wash your hands.

Onions always make me cry and none of the tricks like holding bread in my mouth ever helped me. When I slice up a lot of them, like when I make bread and butter pickles, I drop them at arm’s length down the food processor tube, and I close my eyes when I add them to the cucumbers.

Even so, I feel tears start.

Psychological pain for the cook?

Nerve wracking food. Like a really valuable beef tenderloin. Having grown up in a pot roast and ground chuck family, my first tenderloin roasting experience scared me witless.

Unmolding a gelatin dish without melting it, or turning out a flan or crème caramel, is daunting.

Wedding cakes are too scary a baking experience for me, and best left to pros.

Actually, a whole genre of caterers’ tales includes wedding cake horror stories.

The baking part isn’t so bad, but the frosting! Sharp, clean lines of decoratively piped buttercream quietly soften in summer heat. Pipe a little, chill a little, pipe again for hours to do one cake. Transporting, then assembling the layers, takes nerves of steel.

Then together with other reception waitstaff, I’ve watch horrified as cakes collapse slowly while bridesmaids and groomsmen spin out endless toasts, or guests sit through video collages of the couple’s childhoods, as summer heat softens buttercream, and fillings ooze.

Cooking for a crowd terrifies some, but experience gradually diminishes the fright of running out of food or mistiming servings for 50. Apparently cooking at all terrifies some.

What about discomfort for the eater?

For me, hot peppers induce a sweat, numb my tongue, and clog my Yankee sinuses. Wasabi hurts me. The first time I ever ate sushi with that fiery horseradish in it, I thought someone had dropped boiling oil on top of my

head. I get mad if I accidentally buy corn or potato chips with hot barbecue flavoring. I find even vinegar-flavored potato chips painful.

For a long time, people have been afraid of fish bones in food, and that awful sensation of a tiny bone stuck in the throat. In truth, anything a person doesn’t like to eat creates discomfort. For my sister, that’s peas. A very small number of Americans but larger numbers of foreigners and reality TV show actors eat insects, another discomfort food category.

Organ meats disgusts some. Or food with a head. Once a waitress at a fine Portland restaurant carefully explained to our table that the fish one of us ordered came with its head on, eyes and all. While fine with us, she said only a few days earlier, one diner began screaming in horror when wait-staff delivered up a whole fish.

I’m in terror of decaffeinated coffee. As a houseguest once, I enjoyed the freshly brewed unwittingly breakfast decafé; by noon, I had a splitting headache and could barely see straight. Ever since, like all good addicts, I ensure my caffeine supply with a vial of NoDoze if I suspect I’ll be with decaffeinated friends.

Some love traveling because of different, potentially discomfort,

foods, but, I’ve heard the Chinese say that you live an extra day for each new foodstuff you eat; easier to manage in some countries than others. Seven weeks in England didn’t turn up as many new foods as a trip to Cyprus where I ate candied unripe almonds, green walnuts, and different species of fish. I tried so many new things there that I added a whole month to my life.

In England, I searched in vain for good old comforting ice cream, but found that most of what I tried was more ice than cream, qualifying as discomfort food.

In the larger scheme of things, though, I suspect that comfort food mostly tastes familiar, evokes our pasts, and good memories, like Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes, or cake and ice cream for birthdays. For a Louisianan, jambalaya with—eek— cayenne might trigger contentment.

As for me, baked beans and brown bread, and Indian pudding with vanilla ice cream for dessert will do it. Or chocolate pudding with the skin on top.

Sandy Oliver is a food historian who gardens, cooks, and writes on Islesboro.

24

The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Field Notes

The way forward is through

It’s time to adopt the new leadership paradigm

By Rob Snyder A GOOD FRIEND of mine often says that when faced with difficult situations, “The only way forward is through.” To say that we are faced with difficult situations right now would be the understatement of the century.

One of the greatest challenges we face at the moment is a crisis in confidence in elected leaders at all levels.

When people lose trust in leadership, whether it be local, state, or national, we all lose.

For example, in Maine, we know the private sector alone will not bring broadband to our rural communities.

We need strong governmental partners at the local, state, and national level to garner the resources to solve this problem. Our local leaders work tirelessly to build support in a community (or at least to temper opposition) for a common vision. When this is achieved, our communities become more efficient and effective partners for state, federal, or private sector partners.

The opposite can also be true. At a broadband conference hosted by the Island Institute in 2019, private sector representatives estimated a 30 percent added cost to their projects when community engagement processes fail.

When engagement processes are run badly, communities lose confidence in leadership and the cost of addressing challenges goes up, both figuratively and literally.

The skills for engaging a diverse group in problem solving is fundamental to local leadership and, I would argue, leadership at every level. Methods of community engagement—and the concern for doing it well—can vary widely. In many cases, the approach to local problem solving and community

A common refrain among older engagement can be tied back to vastly different skills and experiences learned elected island and coastal leaders is that “Younger people are not stepping across generations.

Historically, through the 1980s, lead- up.” This begs the question, why?

For the past 18 years, I’ve been a ership was, generally speaking, monolithic in nature. Leaders projected a part of work that’s attempted to help singular authoritative voice, held a elected leaders find, recruit, and build vision for the future, and commanded the capacity of younger people to step respect from atop a hierarchy. This was into community leadership. The results also a time dominated by male leaders. have been mixed at best. The problem Those who came to power in that era, may be that roles are defined as they and who may remain in power today, were in the past When younger people see they can learned behaviors, patterns of communication, and organizational structures make change, they are more likely to participate. If this is true, then what they believed were most effective.

Against this historical backdrop must we do?

Perhaps the techcomes a new generaniques and technologies tion aspiring to leaderfor running towns need ship. Today’s leaders to change. For example, are emerging in a world defined by unprecedented When younger can we look at how, in the pandemic, towns are change. These leaders people see successfully deploying see a need for greater social media to garner collaboration, transparthey can make more audiences for town ency, and inclusivity.

They are building flexible change, they are conversations? Can towns change how and when organizations that can more likely to they meet and offer more have an impact in this participate. asynchronous opportunienvironment. ties for participation, so Professionals in their that the couple juggling 20-40s seek leaders who three jobs and young kids have the skill to create a can get involved? Do laws shared vision, and who are able to distribute decision making need to change to make it easier to and accountability. Today’s emerging attract younger leaders?

Even with such changes, emerging leaders are aware of how power is wielded and how the techniques of leaders need to develop a difficult power work to keep some at a disad- skill set that can still include an older, vantage while allowing others to grasp experienced generation. For example, when appealing for more inclusive and retain power.

I’ve lived at the crossroads of these and transparent online platforms in two leadership paradigms over the past town government, a young leader two decades and have found that the will need to explain how it is still differences in generational expecta- possible to make clear and efficient tions of leadership can lead to signifi- decisions. It will be important to show that opening the process to public cant misunderstandings and mistrust.

criticism doesn’t undermine trust, but builds it.

There are ways to ensure far more inclusive public processes, and get work done in a timely manner. The skills involved in doing so take time to develop but the outcome could bridge two generational experiences that have much to offer one another, rather than being flashpoints for disappointment and disenfranchisement.

Our communities are a microcosm of society writ large. We are all looking to those who can help solve real world problems with practical solutions, to offer progress. We all want someone who can show us that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Along the coast of Maine, we have an opportunity and an imperative to bridge generational differences and appeal to our shared concern to strengthen our communities. The question of leadership will persist long after the election, and I believe our communities have something very crucial to contribute to the conversation.

This column was written before the election, but it will circulate after it. Please know I do not presuppose any outcome or the potential disruptions that will follow. Instead, it is a personal reflection on where we stand as a coast and what we might consider to keep moving forward while the world continues to change around us.

Please vote.

Rob Snyder is president of the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

Community Fund grant helps island lighthouse Swan’s Island light restoration nears finish line FIFTEEN YEARS of restoration work on the historic Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station on Swan’s Island is approaching completion. One of the final steps is being made possible by a grant to the town of Swan’s Island from the Belvedere Historical Preservation Fund (Downeast) of the Maine Community Foundation.

The Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station (sometimes referred to as the Swan’s Island Lighthouse) has two main buildings (light tower and keeper’s house) and two ancillary buildings, the bell house and the oil house.

The oil house, which will be restored with the help of the grant, is a small brick building built in the 1890s for

storage of kerosene, then a newlyintroduced fuel for the light tower lantern. The oil house is located at the base of a steep slope. Curbs encircling the foundation were originally designed to improve drainage, but over the years they have cracked, broken, and been displaced, and the absence of effective drainage causes additional damage to the foundation with each passing year. Additionally, masonry seams on all four walls need to be raked out and repointed, using techniques and materials appropriate for historic brickwork. This will be a stable, sound, and historically accurate restoration, and the restored oil house will usefully extend storage capacity

for maintenance materials for the light station buildings.

Restoration of the oil house (and ultimately, also the bell house) will enhance the importance of this historic site. Visitors to the Burnt Coat Harbor Light station see an almost intact 19th century light station, with light tower, keeper’s house, and essential ancillary buildings. This assemblage of four historic light station buildings is relatively rare, and as is the case with many lighthouses, the location is spectacularly beautiful.

Interpretive materials are available for visitors, showing how the keepers and their families lived and what the keepers did to keep the light shining.

For more information, visit the lighthouse website, maintained by Friends of the Swan’s Island Lighthouse: www. burntcoatharborlight.com The town acknowledges with gratitude this grant from the Maine Community Foundation, as well as all the other contributions of money and hard work that have “kept the light shining” at the entrance to Burnt Coat Harbor.

The Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station is located at the tip of Hockamock Head on Swan’s Island, in a 20 acre park with 1.8 miles of hiking trails. The tower, as well as the keeper’s house, is usually open to visitors during the summer season. For more information, see: burntcoatharborlight.com.

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

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Cranberry Report

Moving into these mood-inspiring times Keeping sadness and anxiety at bay is a struggle

By Barbara Fernald IT’S OCT. 4 and we are about seven months (feels like 20) into this COVID pandemic. I don’t have much to write because there is not a whole heck of a lot going on.

“What did you do today?”

“Not much, you?”

“I don’t really remember.”

My moods are like a pendulum swing that only goes half-way. The arc travels from a day where everything makes me cry to a day where life is not so bad, and I’m at least able to be grateful for something. I never quite reach that happy end of the curve before swinging back to the doldrums and beyond.

For one thing, the yearning to see my grandchildren is visceral. It feels like a toothache in my chest, a hollow kind of pain that is no fun. FaceTime chats and videos help enormously, but nothing compares to being “Gamma” in person, reading books and singing bedtime songs.

I’ve talked to many other grandparents who feel the same way. I know I’m fortunate to have had a summer visit from my dear ones, when others have

not seen theirs since last Christmas or before.

Most mornings, upon waking, anxiety hits my stomach like the anticipation of a trip to the dentist. It’s not specific, just a general dread that comes with the realization that the world and our country are in a pretty big mess right now, and things are not suddenly better overnight. This year just keeps delivering the blows and I’m wary of how the rest of the fall will play out. The endless uncertainty is taking its toll on all of us.

Reigning over a kingdom of fear and self-pity provides moments of physical rest as I sit paralyzed by indecision on how to proceed with my day. Those moments, though, will eat away at my spirit and they are not how I want to spend my time. When I find myself in that spot, which has happened a lot since March, I know it’s time to do whatever I can to reverse course on the mood pendulum. I don’t often hit the “happy” apex, but I sure feel a lot better when I am swinging in that direction. I remember that motion is my friend. As the saying goes, “Move a muscle, change a thought.” Simply standing up and

stepping outside can help one deal with everything from anger to panic attacks.

Once I’m outside, I can go for a walk. I find starting out my walks with a stomping movement to be very grounding. In these days of general unpredictability, it’s a relief to walk with intention. If I want to take my coping skills to the next level I will reach out and ask someone to go for a walk with me. (For some reason this is one of the hardest things for me to do.)

A human connection gets me outside of myself and offers a fresh perspective on any situation. There may not be a whole heck of a lot to talk about these days, but we commiserate, we validate, and we usually find something to laugh about.

On days where I just can’t seem to move a muscle, I still have a powerful antidote to despair: the gratitude list. No matter what my situation, I can always find things to be grateful for. On my worst days, I can still start the list with, “I’m grateful I don’t have a sharp stick in my eye.” (See? That wasn’t so hard, unless you happened to impale your eyeball just now.)

At this time of year, living on Little Cranberry Island, there is so much to appreciate. I’m grateful for being able to take uncrowded walks outside. I’m

grateful for every friend who stops to have a conversation when we meet in the road. Add to the list; the bright red leaves of the high bush blueberry plants that pop up in unexpected places, the knife-edged light of November, the sound of the sea, the abundance of birds that are coming back to my feeders, the Co-op Store and Cranberry General which have been working so hard to make groceries available on the islands, and a working ferry system delivering mail, packages, and passengers.

No one knows when this depressing era will end and I’m sorry to report that living on a favorite island does not automatically make it better. The skills for coping with COVID depression must come from within. Let’s be kind to each other, even as we despise the turmoil we’re in.

At the very least we’ll be ready with a great list when it’s our turn to be thankful at the Zoom Thanksgiving meal.

Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island).

Fathoming

Maine, the drought, and yes, wildfires New climate conditions bring new risks to our state

By Kate Tagai AS THE ASH from California sequoias and Oregon redwoods created a haze on what should have been a sunny day, I began to wonder, could our forest burn? What is the risk to my and to my neighbors’ houses and to the deer, turkeys, and barred owls that live in the ecosystems within these acres and regularly leave their tracks through our yards? Could Maine one day face the same tragedies the West is facing?

Yes. It could happen here.

Maine has 17.6 million acres of forested land. In 1947 more than 220,000 acres burned on Mount Desert Island where 1,000 homes were lost.

In 1977, 4,000 acres in Baxter State Park burned, and in 2007 a prescribed burn got out of hand and burned 800 acres near Columbia Falls. Nine other communities in the region battled smaller wildfires that weekend.

Maine has burned and we are at risk again.

Along the coast, we often talk about climate change in terms of nuisance flooding and rising ocean levels, but changing rain patterns, increased drought severity and frequency, rising temperatures, and a decrease in

ecological diversity along with more invasive species stressing the forests can put us at greater risk for fire.

In September, a red flag warning was issued for southwest Maine, with Cumberland, York, Oxford, and Androscoggin counties facing critical fire weather conditions. With 50 percent of Maine in severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, along with high winds forecast, the danger was real. In 2020, Maine has had 941 wildfires. There were 355 wildfires in 2019, according to maineforest. org. Wildfires can tell a story about the health of the forests and land. Spikes happen during periods of stress.

The last time Maine had more than 900 wildfires was in 2001, also the last time the state had such severe drought conditions where surface water levels declined, trees were stressed, and fire danger was elevated. Drought conditions can occur about every decade in Maine and wildfires spike during dry years.

Wildfires in Maine have been increasing since 1903. The Forest Protection Division of the Maine Forest Service, forest rangers, and local fire departments work to deploy trained fire fighters to extinguish wildfires quickly, so the amount of land burned

during these fires has decreased.

Education is also a key part of reducing the impact of human set fires.

“We really try to emphasize people cleaning up around their houses,” said Jesse Thompson, assistant fire chief for the town of Union. When called to investigate smoke, the department tries to educate homeowners on how to reduce risk.

Beginning in spring, the department prepares forestry equipment—rakes, shovels, back pumps, and chainsaws— and reviews tactics.

“Water doesn’t burn,” Thompson notes, “so we encourage people to burn brush during the winter when there is snow on the ground.”

In the fall and spring, when risk is greater, the department limits permits to evening hours, because as a volunteer fire department many of the firefighters work out of town.

The Forest Service sends information to local departments, and while the predicted fire-class day is set by conditions in each of the state’s 12 zones, individual departments can adjust it to fit local conditions.

“We get about ten calls a year for grass and brush fires,” Thompson said.

The number of calls hasn’t changed

much in the last few years, but fires are growing bigger and faster than before.

“When we issue a burn permit, we tell them if they think they are starting to lose control, to call earlier rather than later so we can get ahead of it.”

On the wildfire occurrence map published by the Maine Forest Service, wildfire causes are mapped by small colored dots. In Northern Maine, equipment use, powerlines, lightning strikes, and campfires are the prevalent causes.

In the southern counties, arson, debris, fireworks, smoking, and structure fires are the culprits, supporting Thompson’s assertion on the importance of education. It’s easy to fight fires that never start.

As rainfall patterns, weather, and forest ecology all change with our changing climate, we need to be aware of what is happening in our back yards and how our risk is changing.

Kate Tagai is a senior community development officer with the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

26

The Working Waterfront . November 2020

Island Institute deploys Island Fellows Downeast Fellows working on projects in Hancock, Washington counties

O

ver the past 20 years, the Island Institute’s Island Fellows program has invested in island and coastal communities from Casco Bay to Eastport. Though the program is well known on the 15 year-round island communities, expanding the organization’s impact into other regions is an important part of creating a thriving coast. This year, four of our eight Island Fellows are adding capacity and technical expertise in coastal communities in Downeast Maine’s Hancock and Washington counties.

Adding the energy and passion of our Island Fellows to this part of the state means investing in some of Maine’s smallest, oldest, and most remote communities.

HANNAH GREENE Down East Institute//Beals Island Greene graduated from Wheaton College in 2020 with a B.A. in environmental science and double minors in public policy and public health studies. She will be based on Beals Island, working with the Downeast Institute.

MARK MACEY Eastport Arts Center//Eastport Macey works with the Eastport Arts Center and its constituent groups to develop and implement youth and adult programming. He also helps the staff with events both on and off-stage.

A graduate of Dell’Arte International’s PTP, he also holds a B.A. in theatre studies from the University of Utah.

The region has some of the highest levels of unemployment and includes the five coastal communities with Maine’s lowest median home income. Yet the region is an essential part of the state’s marine economy, hosting important international trade ports and communities that land millions of dollars of lobster each year.

We know that rural communities matter, and helping the organizations that help to foster vibrant communities will help to keep our Downeast communities shining as bright as those first-in-the-nation sun rays for which they are known.

— Andy Theriault, strategic lead for Island Fellows program

DYLAN MCBRIDE WCCG, Women for Rural Healthy Living//Milbridge McBride is working with the Washington County Council of Governments and Women for Healthy Rural Living to develop the Bike Bus, a bicycle repair and riding program for youth. She has a B.S. in medieval studies from Smith College.

RAINA SCIOCCHETTI Sullivan-Sorrento Historical Society// Sullivan Originally from Northern California, Sciocchetti graduated from Unity College with a degree in environmental writing and media studies. She is supporting the Sullivan-Sorrento Historical Society to support the development of new programs and broaden its support.

Linkel Construction, Inc. Locally owned and operated; in business for over twenty-five years.

• • •

•

•

Simply beautiful contemporary with incredible attention paid to interior details. Bright south facing property which includes 3.7 acres and a selective view of the water. Open kitchen, living and dining opening onto a deck, 2 bedrooms and 2 full baths in main house with master suite over the garage.

Efficient propane heat throughout and a beautiful Swedish wood stove in the living room for fall evenings and another wood stove in the master bedroom.

Included with this property is a beautiful ROW to the bay where you can launch your kayak for an afternoon on the bay. The shore is accessed by a path through lovely woods to a gradual rocky shore. On one of the loveliest peninsulas in Surry, this is a wonderful place to call home. $525,000.

TACY RIDLON 207-266-7551

Specializing in slope stabilization and seawalls.

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) certified.

Experienced, insured and bondable.

Free site evaluation and estimate.

One of the most important investments you will make to your shorefront property.

We have the skills and equipment to handle your largest, most challenging project.

For more information: www.linkelconstruction.com 207.725.1438

BROOKS TRAP MILL & MARINE SUPPLIES

A large selection of traps and trap kits

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Enter to win a $100 gift certificate by visiting our website or “Like” us on Facebook.

Jonesboro, ME (207) 434-5791

Portland, ME (800) 244-8727

BROOKSTRAPMILL.COM Thomaston, ME (800) 426-4526

West Bath, ME (855) 848-6027

www.workingwaterfront.com . November 2020

27

WALES TO NORTH HAVEN This photo shows a fall picnic at Bartlett’s Harbor on North Haven, circa 1960.

Pictured, from left, are the siblings Garnet Thornton, Gertrude Thornton Grant, Reginald Thornton, and Ethel Thornton Haskell.

As children, the Thorntons came from Wales in 1909 with their parents, Lewis and Jane Hughes Thornton, who worked at the Herzog estate at Crabtree Point on the island.

PHOTO: COURTESY NORTH HAVEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Seven coastal towns land SHIP grants Maine Coastal Program awards $155,050

T

he Maine Coastal Program has awarded $155,050 to support seven waterfront development projects. The funds are awarded through the Shore and Harbor Grant Program (SHIP). The grants provide coastal towns with funds for harbor management, dredging studies, and public access and waterfront planning through municipal and regional projects.

Rockland, $30,000 Downtown waterfront site design and implementation roadmap: develop an integrated plan for a cluster of cityowned properties which will balance public and working waterfront uses, and other commercial uses.

Bowdoinham, $30,000 Waterfront redevelopment of former municipal public works site: create a detailed master site plan and engineering drawings for redevelopment of a waterfront property with local and regional importance.

Brooksville, $29,750 Betsy’s Cove parking lot repair and expansion: plan construction of new sea wall to withstand current and future flooding, storm surge, and sea-level forecasts while creating additional parking.

Deer Isle, $7,800 Right of way discovery project: deed research and legal analysis to provide the basis for establishment of public

contested

property and supporting infrastructure to foster economic development.

Stonington, $30,000 Enhancement to Stonington Public Landing: plan for expansion and enhanced use of the public landing to meet local needs and foster economic development.

SHIP is funded through NOAA’s National Coastal Zone Management Program. The grants aim to assist in sound waterfront planning and harbor management, balanced development of shore and harbor areas, planning for waterfront infrastructure improvements, climate resiliency and access to the shore.

rights-of-way in three locations in Deer Isle.

Swan’s Island, $20,000 Dock replacement: perform geotechnical investigation for reconstruction of a wharf for safe use by fishermen and others.

Wiscasset, $7,500 Recreational pier expansion: survey and engineer town’s recreational pier

presents

Let’s Talk Maine Seafood NOVEMBER 18, 2020 2:00 to 3:00 PM Learn how to prepare an entire meal featuring the best of Maine seafood, prepared using traceable, sustainable food sources from the coast of Maine.

BRIANA WARNER CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms and an Eating Well 2020 Food Hero LUKE HOLDEN Founder and CEO of Luke’s Lobster and third-generation lobsterman BARTON SEAVER Author of seven seafood-centric books and founder of Coastal Culinary Academy

REGISTER AT ISLANDINSTITUTE.ORG/EVENTS We’ll be giving away cookbooks, “Kelp is the new kale” T-shirts, fresh lobster, and more!

You must pre-register and attend to win.

Contact us for our local retail partners

More information at www.maine.gov/dmr/mcp/grants/ shore-and-harbor-planning-grants.html

28

The Working Waterfront . November 2020

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KITTERY PORTLAND ROCKLAND SEARSPORT SOUTHWEST HARBOR JONESPORT Photo by Wayne Hamilton ©. Typographical errors are unintentional and subject to correction.

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ISLAND INSTITUTE ...and help support Island Fellows like Dylan McBride. “ Many coastal organizations have demands they need to fill but they don’t have the funding to hire someone or the capacity to lead a project.

Fellows offer an extra set of hands and expertise.”

Dylan works to develop and implement the Bike Bus, a mobile bicycle repair and riding program for youth in Washington County.

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY! 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