Kayaks and Cruise Ships:

Lessons in building community consensus from Mount Desert Island, Maine
For presentation at Working Together:  Tourism in Southeast Alaska
Centennial Hall, Juneau, Alaska     January 29-31, 2002
by   Ron Beard, Extension Educator,   University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant

   A quick history of place: 

            While Mount Desert Island figures into the early history of the continent, with artifacts the Red Paint people going back 4000 years, and in European exploration and settlement (The tallest mountain, at 1500 feet, a wormhill by Alaskan standards is named for Cadillac, a fellow adventurer with the Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, and who later made it  to Detroit and had an automobile named after him), our story begins with the settlers of the mid to late 1700s, who came when Maine was still part of Massachusetts, to farm and fish and harvest timber. 

A century later, after Maine became its own state in 1820, artists and naturalists made their way from New York, Philadelphia and Boston; the results of their excursions brought “rusticators” eager to board with farmers and escape the stifling summer heat of the cities.  Farmers became entrepreneurs, with boarding houses growing into hotels, and the village of Bar Harbor soon eclipsed the original town of Eden, and became a resort to rival Newport in Rhode Island.   Some who came had money to invest, and built summer homes.  John D. Rockefeller settled in Seal Harbor and built carriage roads which are now a key asset of Acadia National Park.  There were a hundred others of the wealthy class, and more.  A few saw development threatening to overtake the island, and established Hancock County Trustees for Public Reservations to acquire scenic land, mountains and shorefront, which they later donated as a National Monument, which grew up into Acadia National Park in 1919. 

The summer resorts and summer colony coexisted with new national park between World Wars I and II, while more middle class folks began to explore the continental US by car, shunning the hotels for simpler fare in park campgrounds, including those in Acadia. Following the end of the second world war, a disastrous forest fire claimed park land, hotels and summer homes.  The traditional economy of fishing and farming eroded somewhat by the rise of motels and commercial campgrounds over the next 20 years, but boat builders could build pleasure craft as well as lobster boats and most thrived and lobster fishing proved more profitable and less risky than ground fishing. 

Recent growth of a mixed economy

            Mount Desert Island, connected by bridge to the mainland since the 1920s, is home to Acadia National Park and four towns (Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Tremont and the Town of Mount Desert) with three other island communities, Cranberry Isles, Swans Island and Frenchboro connected via state ferry service.  Population in the winter months is around 11,000 people, but in the summer doubles as seasonal residents return, and on any given night there are probably another 10,000 people in hotels, rental units and campgrounds, for a summer time population of 30-35,000 people. 

Year round employment includes fishing, boatbuilding, construction trades, finance, healthcare (a 40 bed hospital and outpatient services, two nursing homes and a retirement community under construction) and scientific research (with over 1000 workers at the Jackson Laboratory, a highly regarded center for mammalian genetics research, breeding mice for research throughout the world and the MDI Biological Laboratory that uses dogfish shark and other marine organisms in its research into human health).  Seasonal tourism boosts the economy from June to late October including hotels, bed and breakfasts, campgrounds, restaurants, gift shops, bike and kayak touring, whale watching, sightseeing cruises and other amenities. (Our favorite Mexican restaurant opens February 4 and the Thai restaurant opened January 31, so the shoulders, though thin in many areas, are spreading. Lobster is served year round.)

 A profile today reveals a world-class Abbe Museum of native arts and culture, bustling libraries in each island town, four grade schools and two alternative schools, a well-supported island-wide high school with winning athletic teams (mostly), prized music and drama and arts accomplishments, and over 80 vibrant non-profit organizations, from food pantries and a daycare center, to yacht clubs, a community YMCA and other recreational facilities, historical societies and summer arts programs.

 Factors and issues that gave rise to MDI Tomorrow        

With exception of a short tourism season in July and August, the island was slow to grow in the 1960s and 70s.  However, the 1980s saw growth of a mixed economy. In addition to a foundation in the traditional sectors of fishing and boatbuilding, other factors included expansion of the Jackson Laboratory, begun in the 1920s and establishment of College of the Atlantic in 1972, in part to stimulate the economy, offering a degree in human ecology to a student population of 250.  The Coast Guard and National Park service brought federal dollars and a rise in retirees moving to the area brought pension dollars, all of which circulate in the local economy.  New investments began to show up in the hotel and restaurant sector, and a slowly growing population supported a variety of cultural organizations year round. In the mid 1970s, the four towns and Acadia National Park formed the MDI League of Towns, to work on island-wide issues and joint projects like solid waste and joint purchasing.  The park service, the University of Maine and College of the Atlantic began to contribute scientific research to natural resource management decisions. 

 A housing and hotel construction boom began in the mid 1980s, with marketing efforts bringing growing number of summer visitors. Some of these copied the trends from a century before—they liked what they experienced on vacation and began to build second homes, and eventually for use after retirement.  Newspaper coverage of these trends in 1987 led to a public forum and to the original MDI Tomorrow process.  The overarching issue of that era was the rapid pace and cumulative impacts of development.  Town planning boards reviewed individual projects, but there was no ability to manage growth across the four main towns.  People worried about summertime “carrying capacity” and impacts on quality of life for residents and the experience for visitors.  Other issues included:

• Sewage and solid waste disposal
• Quality and supply of drinking water
• Protection of agriculture and open space
• Traditional access to shore and uplands
• Housing, land costs and property tax structure
• Traffic and transportation

 What did we Learn from the first MDI Tomorrow process (1987-91)

 The process of MDI Tomorrow is detailed in a background paper presented to a community development conference in 1991 and appears in the resource notebook for Working Together: Tourism in Southeast Alaska 2002.  The key elements of the project included  a multi-sector planning group, interviews with key informants and use of matrix to assure participation by natives and newcomers, young and old, men and women, and distribution of informants by town. We held facilitated neighborhood meetings to deepen our understanding of people’s views, commissioned an economic study and participated with the local newspaper in a             Harris Poll.  We created a sourcebook / workbook, and took it through several drafts with community input, resulting in a published “preferred future” for Mount Desert Island, distributed as a supplement to Bar Harbor Times.

 Observations about that three-year project might bear repeating here:

• Community attitudes and values are the basis for the work of the community
• There is a resident capacity to identify and solve problems and meet the needs of community members.
• The organizational structure of the community encourages participation of all its members.
• The community has the means to build, maintain and renew leadership
• Community members have the means to build consensus and articulate a shared vision about a preferred future.

 Island Network Conferences (1992-1997) Provided Follow Up   

Shortly after publication of the “preferred future” of Mount Desert Island, a number of issues continued to bubble at the community level.  Problems with town sewer outfalls, affordable housing and concerns about teenagers prompted Jill Goldthwait, the chair of the Bar Harbor Town Council and an emergency room nurse to approach key participants in MDI Tomorrow to suggest an island-wide conference. 

 As the group considered the suggestion, it answered a nagging problem with the original effort.  There wasn’t any means of implementation or follow-through for the good ideas contained in the newspaper supplement.    A planning group developed an invitation list and a format, whereby issues were profiled for discussion in key arenas: local government, education, health/social services, business and environment.  Authors for the issue profiles were tapped to write a one to two page overview and presentation during the first section of the day-long conference, held in November, after the busy tourism season.  Following presentation of issues, representatives of each of the key arenas were encouraged to group and discuss the issues and propose alternative solutions.  A second full conference session served as a marketplace for working groups.  Participants voted by going to caucus in working groups where they wanted to contribute time and resources.  The only charge during the caucus was for each working group to name one or two conveners, and to name a time and place for an initial meeting.  This information was then made available to all attendees as the conference ended, and to a mailing list of those who expressed interest but could not attend. 

 As in the economic marketplace, some of the working groups were successful and others faded.  Following the first conference, a non-profit was established to provide temporary housing for high school students who had broken with their families.  Another effort established a high school internship program with island employers.  Others tackled less bounded issues such as affordable housing and expanding the shoulder-seasons for tourism related trade.  Over the next decade, five such “Island Network Conferences” were held, framing issues and proposing alternative action that led to positive change.

 Changes over the last decade: cruise ships, kayaks and busses 

The original MDI Tomorrow preferred future envisioned an expansion of the “shoulder seasons” into May and October.  So, when cruise ships began to visit Bar Harbor in the mid-1990s, the tourism sector welcomed the additional income.  Those visits, starting with 10-15 visits per year, including the Queen Elizabeth II, generally occurred in fall, tapping into the interest in fall foliage and crisp autumn days.  Boats began in Boston or New York, and worked down the coast of Maine to the maritime provinces, around Cape Breton and up the St Lawrence Seaway.  A stop in Bar Harbor included options for bus tours for shopping and for sightseeing in Acadia National Park, and for clam and lobster bakes catered by local companies.

 But the harbor and town pier had long been the province of the fishing community.  Lobstermen and draggers were used to dealing with yachts and pleasure boats of various description, but resisted use of publicly-owned resources to bring in more visitors.  Early on , the town council recognized the importance of developing policy regarding cruise ships, and the need to involve a broader list of stakeholders in the planning process.  Drawing on an earlier model, when the town and Chamber of Commerce sought to assure continued calls by a Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Bar Harbor car ferry, a cruise ship welcoming committee was convened.  By the late 1990’s that group had begun to plan for changes in the traffic flow around the town pier, and for upgrading of a town park to serve as the gateway to water-born visitors.  They commissioned a study to develop recommendations for cruise ships in 1999.

That report, by T. F.Valleau and Associates, of Portland, Maine, indicated that Bar Harbor’s infrastructure could handle two large cruise ships on a given day, but that three ships overburden the waterfront district and cause motor coach congestion. The report also said that Bar Harbor had substantial legal authority over cruise ship operation within its waters, including the ability to limit the numbers of ships anchored within its waters, to charge anchorage fees and to require use of the Town Pier.  The consultants recommended moving a fee structure to collect $1500 per vessel/visit, either for anchorage or use of the town pier so that the town could manage cruise ship use without taxpayer support.

These recommendations were endorsed by the cruise ship committee and adopted as policy by the town council.  The town manager delegated authority to the harbormaster to take reservations, limiting the number of vessels per day to two.  In addition, since the terrorist attack of September 11, Bar Harbor’s harbormaster has indicated that considerations of homeland security might also tend to limit the number of boats anchored off Bar Harbor at any one time.

The availability of pilots is another factor tending to limit cruise ship numbers at the present time.  Ships entering the approach to Penobscot Bay must contract with Penobscot Bay Pilots, with less than a half dozen qualified pilots. 

In 2001, there were 56 cruise ship visits to Bar Harbor, generating $40,000 in anchorage, docking and motor coach fees.  A chamber of commerce initiative in 2002, linked with other ports in Maine, to increase cruise ship visits.  The chamber has so far promoted shoulder-season visits because that is when existing tourism businesses have capacity.  

Acadia National Park officials have applauded efforts to limit the number of cruise ship passengers disembarking on any given day, due to the impacts on park facilities.  In one instance where three boats were allowed to anchor, there were an additional 33 motor coaches using park roads, crowding existing park visitors at key stops along Ocean Drive and atop Cadillac Mountain. 

The park is exploring use of carrying capacity concepts to manage visitor numbers in the future.  They recently conducted surveys with users of the no-motors allowed carriage roads, to see how numbers of people affected visitor experience.  A similar study is underway to gauge the impacts of differing numbers of hiking trail users.  Though cruise ships and motor coach tours do limit the number of automobiles using the park, park officials say that if overall use were to increase, they would need to take steps to manage numbers of vehicles and people using carriage roads and trails.  And Acadia National Park has been among the principle sponsors of the Island Explorer bus system that was envisioned in MDI Tomorrow’s 1991 vision statement. 

The Island Explorer—A success story 

The Island Explorer was developed through a multi-stakeholder planning process which included the park, Friends of Acadia, a non-profit dedicated to increasing public and private resources supporting the park mission, Downeast Transportation, a non-profit public bus system, the Maine Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, the MDI League of Towns, and others.  In 2001, 18 clean burning propane Explorer busses shuttled some 240,000 visitors between the islands four towns and sites within Acadia, eliminating the need for up to 50,000 automobile trips.  Local taxpayers support operation of the bus system because residents are using the busses, reducing congestion, and towns do no have to build new parking spaces—visitors already have a parking space at their hotel, bed and breakfast or campground.   Architects of the system said were able to move quickly to implementation due in large part to the clear community consensus for use of public funds for busses.  “It made it easy to apply for planning and implementation grants because MDI Tomorrow had so clearly demonstrated the need and a vision,” said a local transportation planner.  (Website for Island Explorer Bus system http://www.exploreacadia.com/index.html) 

Kayak guides and resource protection 

Cruise ship visits and the Island Explorer are two related trends in tourism on Mount Desert Island.  Another is part of a global trend in nature-based tourism and the rise of sea kayaking along Maine’s cold-water shores.   Growing numbers of guides, outfitters and kayaks purchased by local residents or brought to the area atop vehicles are difficult to quantify.  But they gave rise to the Maine Association of Sea Kayak Guides and Instructors (MASKGI).  The association claims membership of 60 individual and 20 outfitters, who in turn employ up to 150 others.  LL Bean, Hurricane Island Outward Bound School and the Chewonki Foundation are supporting members. 

MASKGI has adopted a professional code of ethics and safety standards.  The group has advocated in favor of licensing guides, and helped write guidelines and standards for  a process overseen by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in a similar fashion to testing and issuing licenses for hunting guides.  MASKGI has also adopted a member policy in support of “leave no trace” principles, applied to individual and group sea kayak trips.  The group has worked closely with the Maine Island Trail Association and the Maine Bureau of Parks and Recreation to monitor and manage human impacts on public and private islands that make up the trail.  MASKGI has set voluntary group sizes for individual island camping sites, in an attempt to match use with carrying capacity.  

In the fall of 2001, they held a joint conference with the Maine Island Trail Association and the US Coast Guard to promote safety and protection of shared natural resources.  MASKGI is also involved in dialogue around visitor experience and carrying capacity.  They invited area fishermen to participate in a panel on fishing-kayaking interactions, with resulting agreements to work towards more education and interaction within each group who are sharing common public resources. (Website for MASKGI (http://www.maineseakayakguides.com/)           

Current conditions, overview of issues & opportunities for MDI Tomorrow 2002 

During the summer of 2001, despite the positive impact of the Island Explorer bus system, several of the participants of the original MDI Tomorrow process observed that issues like congestion and affordable housing were back in the radar scope of many.  They urged that we consider bringing people back together to see if it was time to take another look ahead.  Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Cooperative Extension took the lead, and invited a cross-section of the island community to meet in mid October.  About twenty-five attended and reflected on positive changes on MDI, many of which had ties to either the “preferred future” outlined in the MDI Tomorrow process, or Island Network Conferences: 

·        Island Connections, a multi-purpose program involving and serving elders on MDI.

·        Island Voices, a coalition of some 70 non-profits on MDI, organized as a network, providing services to its members and articulating the scope and contributions of the not-for-profit sector.

·        Acadia Homes for Students, providing support and linkages for teens needing housing in order to stay in high school.

·        MDI Community Health Plan, a collaborative effort between health care providers (MDI Hospital and ancillary services) and employers (large and small) in order to promote health and provide alternatives to private health insurance.

·        MDI High School Internships, providing placement for students in a variety of businesses and non-profits

·        Kids Corner, a child care center started and continuing with support from local businesses, non-profits, parents and the town of Bar Harbor

·        Island Explorer Bus Service, which used the public dialogue of MDI Tomorrow to help build the case for start-up support for the system. 

Other positive changes were “envisioned” in the MDI Tomorrow description of a preferred future, even if there is no direct “linkage”: 

• Expansion, renovation and rejuvenation of three island community recreational facilities: Harbor House, Neighborhood House and the MDI YMCA.
• Expansion of life-long learning through Acadia Senior College
• Rebuilding the Jackson Laboratory after a 1989 fire, and major expansions since, with state funding for research and development at both the Jackson Lab and the MDI Bio Lab, which has also expanded.
• School construction programs at the High school, Tremont and Southwest Harbor, Bar Harbor and Mount Desert
• Comprehensive planning activities in MDI towns, attempting to balance growth with community and environmental quality
• Expansion of cultural opportunities and resources: the Abbe Museum, the MDI Historical Museum, the George B. Dorr Natural History Museum, etc
• Federal and local investments expanded the capacity of sewage treatment plants in Bar Harbor, with ongoing work in other towns

The group went on to suggest other changes and issues that have emerged over the last decade (numbers for purposes of keeping track, not to suggest priority) 

1.      We live in an electronic, information-driven, technology supported “world”, but it remains important to recognize the bedrock values of a healthy eco-system and vibrant community life. 

2.      Our maritime connections have been affected by global and local trends:

• Boat building has expanded off-island, in Trenton; Also Hinckley Yachts and others have international markets.
• Permitting for private piers has proven contentious
• Tremont and other towns are trying to expand public access to shores and harbors
• The ground fishing industry has declined because of increased efficiency and dwindling stocks; fisheries management has not resulted in a sustainable fishery.
• Salmon aquaculture firms have attracted significant resistance from riparian property owners and others concerned about environmental quality.
• Southwest Harbor, Tremont and Bar Harbor continue to see trends of the gentrification; there is a reduction of working waterfronts.
• Lobster management is becoming more local, with strong conservation measures supported by fishermen.  Clam flats are being reopened as a result of citizen monitoring and water quality management at the town level.  There are several examples of collaborative work, between the fishing community, non-profits, scientists and managers.
• The CAT is providing high-speed ferry service, with some conflicts with traditional fishing; cruise ships also have an impact on fisheries, but are introducing “car free” day-use visitors to the local economy.
• Recreational boating, especially kayaking is growing rapidly

3.      Families and children are facing increased pressures:

• Families are coming apart due to expectations for parents to work harder (two parents working, working long hours)
• Hard and soft drugs are readily available; 25-30% of kids are considered “at risk” due to a variety of factors, but strongly influenced by whether or not parents play a positive role in their lives.  Other risks include use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, and socialization and self-esteem (of girls concerned with body image, and of boys caught up in violence), and of sedentary life styles
• Hancock County has worrisome high school dropout rates
• Teens have fewer options and healthy activity choices in the winter
• Currently only 50% of MDI high school students go on to some form of education or into the military—we need to have a standard that all could succeed at a publicly funded university and all will take forward the necessary skills for life-long learning.

4.   Island Carrying Capacity

• We continue, as we did in 1990, to worry about the social and biological “carrying capacities” for Mount Desert Island, and Acadia National Park has initiated conversations about the latter.  In a democracy, carrying capacity is hard to agree on and manage.  We lack consensus about what carrying capacity might look like and how we might achieve sustainable levels of residents and visitors (sustainable meaning that we don’t use up or damage resources that the next generation will need to maintain good quality of individual and community life). We recognize that there may be different carrying capacities depending on whether people bring cars with them.  Increasing visitor numbers are placing greater pressures on the infrastructure of island towns. There are few ways for local communities to tap into the pockets of visitors to pay their “fair share” of infrastructure costs.
• Shoulder seasons have been expanded, so more visitors are adding to the economy in the spring and autumn; but there has not been any reduction of visitation in the summer, and indeed, a recent round of growth has added to overall visitor capacity.  Wastewater treatment and drinking water supplies have been upgraded, but will they handle peak visitation now possible by the expanding transient accommodation sector?

5.      Environmental Issues

• Wildlife habitat has faced increasing fragmentation, by many new housing projects, roads and sprawl of commercial facilities.  Some fear that new housing, private wells and septic systems will tax the water quantity of bedrock aquifers, as well as the quality of aquifers and watersheds. 
• Sprawl is occurring, with subdivisions in the more rural areas of each town, the cost of services will increase, adding to property tax burdens.  (50% of the population of the town of Mount Desert is reported to be living on the western side of Somes Sound; most subdivision growth in Bar Harbor has been outside of areas served by town sewer and water.)
• At the same time, there has been significant progress in protecting significant habitat and scenic resource through voluntary conservation efforts.
• Air quality has generally declined over the last ten years, due to both pollutants produced by autos of residents and visitors and by industrial and auto emissions up wind from MDI.
• Bar Harbor has made strides in local recycling, but other towns are not doing as well.

6.  Village Centers

• Village centers are threatened, due to trends in how people shop (the continuing trend for Ellsworth to serve as a retail hub, especially for those who favor “big box store” prices).
• Year-round businesses face escalating costs to purchase commercial space and provide parking.  Zoning sometimes gets in the way of creating village centers where people live and work and have access to green space.  Parking requirements have served as a temporary limit to growth in visitor related commercial activity, but it may be harming opportunities to expand year-round businesses.  Cadillac Mountain Sports and a few others have shown that it is possible to be a “year round” commercial “citizen”, harkening back to a time just 20-25 years ago when there were year-round commercial centers in Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Bar Harbor. A civic group called the Northeast Harbor Improvement Project is attempting to look at this situation for that village. 
• Non-local corporations own several mainstay businesses (including some banks, newspapers and radio stations) with stockholders who don’t need to balance profits with community good.
• Employers are having a difficult time finding qualified personnel for the full range of jobs (lack of work ethic, both for unskilled labor to highly trained or experienced workers).

7. Housing and demographics

• Housing continues to get less “affordable” to local residents, with some great small projects that show it is possible for private and public partnerships to respond to the need.  Many employees have moved off island, and as businesses and local government needs employees, they are having to recruit folks who live on the mainland, where housing and land is moderately more affordable.  Longer commuting times mean less time for families, and adds to air pollution. 
• While the high school, which attracts students from these surrounding mainland towns, projects stable enrollment, the changing demographics mean shrinking class sizes for community schools in each of the four MDI towns
• Other changing demographics—more retirees who live here most of the year, along with conversion of year-round to seasonal homes (which will likely bring future retirees in ten to twenty years).  Overall MDI population has not increased dramatically, but there maybe “shifts” in the demographics.

 8. Transportation

• While the Island Explorer has been a remarkable success, the system is already swamped at peak periods of days in the peak season.  To truly respond to the overall transportation needs, it will have to expand into the shoulder seasons, and to provide some form of inter-town transportation in the winter.  Youth would be especially served by these expansions, increasing their abilities to get places of their choosing safely.  Other transportation system opportunities include getting visitors and employees to and from the Schoodic peninsula, and making it more possible to attract car-free visitors to MDI
• There is an overall challenge of managing increased numbers of visitors to Acadia National Park, and there is an immediate need to develop a visitor center to help with that challenge.
• We see a lot more people on bicycles, but there are significant “risk zones” for safe biking… more bike lanes are needed.

9, September 11^th   -- these events will continue to affect our lives. 

The challenge in community process: Representing The Community as a Whole 

Participants in the initial MDI Tomorrow meeting in 2001 discussed who was missing from the discussion, and how issues of class and education divide people, especially in community processes.  Notably absent from the meeting were those that may feel disenfranchised, those who have little choice in their lives.  Some of those divisions were addressed in the original MDI Tomorrow process by seeking diversity among those who were interviewed to define issues and weigh in on “preferred futures”.   The group reminded itself to take care to deal with these “divides” if we are to arrive at goals and outcomes that truly improve the quality of life for all MDI residents.  The Island Explorer was cited as an example of an improvement that benefited all, across the divisions. 

MDI Tomorrow for 2002-03 

The group agreed to meet again to undertake the groundwork for a revitalized MDI Tomorrow.  One group is looking at the development of a website that would encourage public participation (and noted with interest the website of the city of Juneau, and its interactive tourism management planning process).  Another began to chart a process for the next year and to investigate sources of funding, holding an initial meeting with staff of the Maine Community Foundation. http://www.mainecf.org/index.html   Another took a look at the original “preferred future” to identify key indicators and base line data.  Another began to consider how to involve island residents and stakeholders, through surveys and focus groups.   A revised mission statement, along with number of outcomes and actions have been drafted: 

The group will consider the following mission statement at a meeting in early February:  To help citizens and communities of Mount Desert Island identify and build consensus about the future of the island and to work cooperatively to protect and improve the health of its families, communities, economy and environment.  

The first two draft outcomes parallel the earlier MDI Tomorrow effort, while the three that follow are based on lessons learned: 

1. A “user-friendly” report on the current “State of the Island” (based on 2000 Census and other data   either from existing sources or as the result of commissioned studies or analysis)
2. A vision of the preferred future of the island (based on citizen input, surveys, focus groups, neighborhood meetings, etc) stating what we want for the future and why we want it.
3. An implementation plan, outlining various strategies, project leadership and partners, with a commitment to follow through, make progress, with MDI Tomorrow perhaps serving in the role of catalyst over the next decade.
4. An evaluation process, allowing MDI Tomorrow and partners to periodically check on and report to the community on progress on indicators or benchmarks
5. An ongoing website, that might serve both as a location for useful information as well as a place for citizens, organizational and community leaders to exchange views and react to plans and proposals.

A timeline proposes work on gathering citizen views and involvement over the spring and summer, with the “state of the island report” and framing of alternative futures distributed in time for an “Island Network Conference” in November, and a new “preferred future” ready for publication by early 2003.   

Challenges and opportunities ahead

There is enthusiasm among the participants for this process, as daunting as it seems to take better than a year to seek shared visions about the future.  Those that were involved before seem to recall the satisfaction of a successful community-wide process.  Those who are new to the island and the process seem to be attracted because they are looking for ways to connect to the island as a whole community.  Both seem to be operate out of a sense that the future is important and that by acting together we can influence that future. 

But there are challenges.  As we look around the table we see familiar faces and we miss others in the business community, in local government and those who may have less economic status or formal education.   MDI is becoming slightly more diverse, with three primary groups to bring together:  natives, long-term residents who are nonethe-less still “from away” and a fresh crop of newcomers (generally well to do, well educated and with time and experience to invest).  The first two groups have shared appreciation for the way things get done on MDI, if not for each other; the third has less patience and is suspect by the first two.  And, as always, we will need to invent or discover ways to attend to the views of all members of the community. Class and its cousin education create barriers that are difficult to overcome.  

The issues are more complex, making it all the more important to work at the systems level for solution.  Issues like health care and affordable housing stem from our devotion to capitalism and voters uneasy with the notion that health and housing should be among basic human rights, subsidized in some way.  Other issues, like development sprawl require meeting over public and private rights.  If residents find consensus that the  carrying capacity (water supply, sewage capacity, roads and parking, to say nothing of the “experience” of living or visiting Maine’s classic resort and Acadia National Park)  is overtaxed by too many people in the height of summer, will they find tools to limit development of new hotel rooms and all the attendant services?  Will expansion of tourism into the shoulder seasons bring benefit (economic stimulus, cultural offerings expanded in scope), or add to stresses?  

We hope that the advent of email, interactive use of the World Wide Web and advanced Geographic Information Systems will allow us to be both more responsive and more proactive as we set about this next round of community building and futuring.  We count on success in the last round to clear away some of the naysayers and perhaps make it easier to attract partners and funding.  And we remain inspired by the connection to place that so easily translates into action on the part of hundreds of our fellow citizens, young and old, native and newcomer.  

Other Resources:

Friends of Acadia   http://www.friendsofacadia.org

Maine Coast Heritage Trust   http://www.mcht.org/home.html

Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce http://www.barharbor.org/

Including list of 2002 cruise shipvisits

Town of Bar Harbor http://www.ci.bar-harbor.me.us/ 

University of Maine Cooperative Extension http://www.umext.maine.edu/

University of Maine Sea Grant  http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/ 

About the author: 

Ron Beard is an extension educator with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant.  Based in Hancock County, he works with community groups and organizations of all types to improve their ability to work productively for the benefit of Maine people.  Ron recently returned from a sabbatical leave, where he spent seven months looking at community development strategies in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.  Prior to that, he assisted the Maine Community Foundation with a three-year initiative funded by the Ford Foundation, working with community action agencies to stimulate rural development.  As part of his work for the University, Ron produces and hosts two monthly public affairs programs on community radio station WERU.  Ron lives in Bar Harbor, where he volunteered sixteen years as a member of the planning board and six years as an elected member of the Town Council.  Ron served for many years on the board and as chair of the MDI Hospital Trustees. 

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