FOS
August 9, 2006
Friends of Acadia Schoodic Committee Meeting
Present: Rob Brooks of Penn State University, our guest speaker. Dick and
Anne Barton, Rosemary and Garry Levin, Jay and Nancy Horschak, Jim Wagner, Tom
Mayer, Jeanie Wilson, Bill Zoellick, and Pauline Angione.
Presentation by Rob Brooks
Rob is with the Department of Geography at Penn State. His focus is on
landscape-scale conservation issues. He directs the Penn State Cooperative
Wetlands Center. His background is as a wildlife biologist; he now teaches
graduate courses in wetlands ecology and management.
The focus of Rob's work has been focused on large scale wetlands
understanding, including creation and understanding of "reference"
wetlands sites. This work supports additional work in wetlands management and
wetlands restoration. The goal is to be able to raise the bar in restoring
wetlands, so that restored wetlands actually begin to approximate healthy
wetlands sites. Fundamental to this work is the availability of metrics
that can be used to characterize a wetlands.
Rob's organization also gets involved in habitat restoration to assist in the
recovery of threatened species.
One key dimension of Rob's work is relating the different scales of
investigation -- relating the findings gathered from intensive investigations to
both watershed level and regional scale investigations. Another dimension
involves looking at stream, wetland, and riparian indicators at the same time.
Rob closed by raising the question of whether we could expand the notion of
the Atlantic Slope Consortium, which he has been working with in the mid-Atlantic
states, to include the coast from Maine to North Carolina. He envisions a
flat organization, loosely affiliated collaborators, with the goal of advancing
the state of the science and its application to watersheds and estuaries of the Atlantic
slope through cooperation and collaboration.
After Rob's presentation there was a general discussion. Jay Horschak pointed
out that both the Union River Coalition and the Salmon Coalition in eastern
Maine are potential allies.
Friends of Acadia Report
Bill Zoellick reported on the efforts of a group of private conservationists,
assisted by Maine Coast Heritage Trust, to acquire a conservation easement on
the property owned by the Winter Harbor Water Company. This matter was brought
before the Winter Harbor Select Board at its regular meeting on August 7.
The Water Company currently owns property surrounding Birch Harbor Pond.
It supplies water to the town from wells, but views possession and protection of
Birch Harbor Pond as an important "insurance policy" in case something
happens to the wells -- the town would still be able to use the Birch Harbor
Pond water as the town water supply. However, private investors have
approach the Water Company with an offer to buy the land and pond outright -- an
offer that could provide the Water Company with cash for capital
improvements. The downside would be that the Water Company would no longer
own the pond.
A group of conservation buyers, assisted by the Maine Coast Heritage
Trust, has offered to help the Water Company develop a third option to
outright sale, on the one hand, and no sale at all, on the other. In this
middle option the Water Company would sell a conservation easement on its
property for $300.000. The easement would protect the land from future
development, while making exceptions for development by the Water Company that
is directly related to the Water Company's primary business of supplying
water. For example, if the Water Company need to drill a new well or build
pumping facilities to make use of the water in the pond, such developments would
be permitted.
This matter was presented to the Winter Harbor Select Board because the town
of Winter Harbor has a right of first refusal on any offer made to acquire all
or part of the Water Company land. In other words, the town has the option
to acquire the conservation easement, instead of having it pass to the
conservation buyers.
It was apparent at the Select Board meeting that there is potential for
confusion regarding the terms and consequences of this arrangement. For example,
there was confusion regarding the first refusal option, with some people
thinking that the town had the option to own or acquire more than the
conservation easement being offered to the conservation buyers. There was also
some confusion as to whether the town already had an ownership interest in the
property. (It is owned by the Winter Harbor Water Company, which is distinct
from the town itself.) There was also concern that this transaction would
remove property from the tax rolls. (It does not, since the Water Company
does not pay taxes.)
The Select Board voted to put the matter before the town for a vote. Since
the member of the Select Board, all of whom are highly knowledgeable about town
affairs, took some time to fully understand the terms of this potential deal,
along with its implications, it is likely that town voters would also have
questions about the arrangement and possible misconceptions.
The Friends of Acadia Board has voted to commit funds to assist the
conservation buyers. Bill noted that the Schoodic Committee of Friends of
Acadia can and should provide important "on the ground" assistance in
this effort by helping ensure that Winter Harbor voters have a full and accurate
understanding of the issues, terms of the agreement, and advantages to the Water
Company and the town before the town meeting on the issue.
Bill also notes that local volunteers Pauline Angione and Ruth Sargent we
honored at the Friends of Acadia annual meeting for their work over the past
year in organizing and cataloging the collection of architectural and landscape
drawings associated with the Navy facilities at Schoodic and Corea. The
drawings are now NPS property, and have historical value as well as day-to-day,
functional value to the people maintaining the facilities at SERC.
Gatehouse
Tom reported that we lost two volunteers to sickness and one has left the
area. Tom also expressed concern about commercial promotion at the Gatehouse by
a small company offering eco-tours. The problem had already been addressed.
Picnic
Invitations are going out by mail and email.
Concern Regarding Ranger Workload
Jeanie expressed concern that the rangers are overworked. She noted
that Ed volunteered to get the hamburgers and make other arrangements for the
Schoodic Committee picnic and said that he seemed tired. A discussion followed
during which other people raised concerns related to the scale of activities at
SERC. Garry said that it would be helpful if Jeanie and others could write
their concerns down, being as specific and giving examples illustrating the
concern, so that they could be referred to Ed, Denny O'Brien, and others who
might be able to provide useful insight and background.
Garry also asked people to begin identifying concerns and topics that
they wished to discuss in advance of future meetings, so that he could be
prepared to lead useful discussions during those meetings.
The meeting adjourned at 8:40.
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