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Log inPatience, collaboration protect Vinalhaven cove
Patience, collaboration protect Vinalhaven cove
by Outspoken on Mon Oct 06, 2008 4:41 am
Patience, collaboration protect Vinalhaven cove
Land trusts stitch together protective envelope around tidal inlet
By Kevin Miller
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
VINALHAVEN, Maine — The area known as The Basin is a short drive or bike ride from the village shops, traditional island homes and working waterfront along Vinalhaven’s downtown strip.
But staring out over The Basin’s calm waters and surrounding dark green hillsides, it’s easy to forget that Maine’s largest year-round island town is just a few minutes away.
In fact, it is easy let the lapping waves, clear waters, circling eagles and other wildlife of this sheltered cove completely take over your thoughts for a spell.
“You see other places like this but they are not going to be like this forever, and this one is,” Betsy Ham with Maine Coast Heritage Trust said while standing inside The Basin one September afternoon.
Maine’s vast undeveloped, inland forests lend themselves to massive conservation deals involving hundreds of thousands of acres, often with just one or two landowners. Such large conservation deals rightfully garner plenty of attention from the press and the public.
Land preservation efforts along Maine’s coast are normally modest by comparison in terms of total acreage. But many Mainers would argue that preserving their state’s iconic coastline is no less important — and is oftentimes more difficult because of higher land values and more landowners.
The Basin on Vinalhaven’s southwestern coast is, in many ways, a model of these differences.
The first conservation deal in The Basin in 1986 protected about 70 acres. The second project, three years later, added 40 acres but also nearly a mile of shorefront. In both 1996 and 1997, land deals were negotiated each involving just 1 acre.
And so it has gone for the past 22 years for Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust: gradually stitching together a protective envelope around this tidal inlet of Penobscot Bay one property at a time.
Fifteen parcels later, nearly all of the roughly 7 miles of shorefront has been permanently protected through either conservation easements or outright land sales to the two groups.
“It’s been a long process but a very dedicated process,” Lucy McCarthy, Vinalhaven Land Trust’s executive director, said while standing in the organization’s modest building near downtown.
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/90497.html
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS
Land trusts stitch together protective envelope around tidal inlet
By Kevin Miller
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
VINALHAVEN, Maine — The area known as The Basin is a short drive or bike ride from the village shops, traditional island homes and working waterfront along Vinalhaven’s downtown strip.
But staring out over The Basin’s calm waters and surrounding dark green hillsides, it’s easy to forget that Maine’s largest year-round island town is just a few minutes away.
In fact, it is easy let the lapping waves, clear waters, circling eagles and other wildlife of this sheltered cove completely take over your thoughts for a spell.
“You see other places like this but they are not going to be like this forever, and this one is,” Betsy Ham with Maine Coast Heritage Trust said while standing inside The Basin one September afternoon.
Maine’s vast undeveloped, inland forests lend themselves to massive conservation deals involving hundreds of thousands of acres, often with just one or two landowners. Such large conservation deals rightfully garner plenty of attention from the press and the public.
Land preservation efforts along Maine’s coast are normally modest by comparison in terms of total acreage. But many Mainers would argue that preserving their state’s iconic coastline is no less important — and is oftentimes more difficult because of higher land values and more landowners.
The Basin on Vinalhaven’s southwestern coast is, in many ways, a model of these differences.
The first conservation deal in The Basin in 1986 protected about 70 acres. The second project, three years later, added 40 acres but also nearly a mile of shorefront. In both 1996 and 1997, land deals were negotiated each involving just 1 acre.
And so it has gone for the past 22 years for Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust: gradually stitching together a protective envelope around this tidal inlet of Penobscot Bay one property at a time.
Fifteen parcels later, nearly all of the roughly 7 miles of shorefront has been permanently protected through either conservation easements or outright land sales to the two groups.
“It’s been a long process but a very dedicated process,” Lucy McCarthy, Vinalhaven Land Trust’s executive director, said while standing in the organization’s modest building near downtown.
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/90497.html
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
