The Long View

The year in review: best of times; worst of times

In looking back over the troubles and accomplishments of island communities this year, we can truly say it's been the best of times; the worst of times.

The year started out disastrously for most Maine lobstermen after last fall's October nightmare when the bottom fell out of the lobster market almost overnight, and only modestly improved as the year wore relentlessly on for fishermen. It was as if the collapse of Wall Street firms was somehow mysteriously connected through a major ganglion to the central cortex of the Maine lobster market-not the case at all, but a bitter lesson in the perils of globalization-a subject we'll return to below.

The year improved a little after the Maine Islands Coalition made common cause with a cross section of housing groups across the state, successfully advocating for passage of a bond issue allocating $30 million for affordable housing and energy efficiency. This bond includes a first time ever set-aside of $10 million for coastal and island communities that have traditionally and inaccurately been considered as all part of the "gold coast," beyond the need of any housing help.

In May, the Island Institute published the 25^th anniversary issue of Island Journal, where we said farewell to Maine's most beloved artist, Andrew Wyeth, whose wife Betsy allowed us to publish his final haunting painting, "Goodbye My Love." Also in May, the Island Institute awarded over $130,000 in college scholarships to 97 year round island students, a large increase over previous years. This big increase in college attendance among islanders was due, in part, to the mentoring of island high school juniors and seniors and their parents from one of the Island Institute fellows to help educate them about the college application process and how to finance it, as well as to the generosity of donors to the Institute's scholarship fund.

In June, the Nature Conservancy and the Island Institute bought our first New England groundfish permit to get hands-on experience on whether it makes economic and conservation sense to launch a Maine permit bank campaign to preserve Maine fishermen's access to stocks when (not if) they are rebuilt.

This summer many Mount Desert Islanders helped the Swan's Island library rebuilding campaign after its disastrous fire raise over $23,000 through an art auction using the burned pages of the destroyed library as the artistic motif. It was a brilliant stroke of recycling. This summer the Island Institute awarded our first dozen grants totaling $10,000 through the Sustainable Island Agriculture Fund to support farming and gardening projects that contribute toward the production of more local foods.

Meanwhile this summer on Monhegan, the Island Institute's Community Wind program provided technical support that led to a 75 percent vote of island rate payers and tax payers to proceed with planning and permitting of a wind turbine on Lighthouse Hill.

In September, five new island fellows joined five returning second-year island fellows in offshore communities. The veterans are currently working on housing issues on Peaks, Cliff and the other Casco Bay islands; working to integrate the North Haven historical society archives into the community school curriculum; supporting the one-room school on Matinicus; working on Islesford's sustainability initiatives, including a community garden; and coordinating economic development initiatives between the town of Stonington and the Stonington Opera House. A new fellow went to work on Vinalhaven between Partners in Island Education supporting the school and Island Village Childcare with professional development. Fellows on Frenchboro and Isle au Haut are both working to implement the islands' comprehensive planning initiatives. The new fellow on Chebeague is working with the town office and the historical society while the new fellow on Swan's Island is compiling oral histories and other archives lost in the library fire.

This fall, at the Island Teachers Conference attended by over 100 island educators, students and community members, Ruth Kermish Allen, the Institute's Education Director, announced that the $500,000 equipment grant she submitted on behalf of Maine island schools to create a teleconferencing network to expand circular offerings had been successful. Checks for the new equipment have been sent to all the island schools, which will be experimenting with maximizing the potential of this important new technology.

At a two and a half day Sustainable Island Living Conference in November, over 200 people, a large majority of them islanders, listened to great keynote presentations, including an opening address from Tom Chappell of Tom's of Maine describing his entrepreneurial approaches to marketing and branding socially conscious businesses. Matt Simmons, of the Ocean Energy Institute (and the Island Institute board) presented a second keynote address on the future of oil and water supplies in the world and what role ocean wind from the Gulf of Maine can play as a crucible for a new energy industry. Roger Doiron from Kitchen Gardens International delivered a third keynote, describing the "viral" internet campaign that convinced the new administration to plant a garden on the White House lawn "On Day One."

Meanwhile islanders presented concurrent sessions on their own local food systems, local energy independence and conservation techniques, local housing strategies, and marketing and branding of local fish and garden crops. The following day additional sessions featured field trips and hands-on experience for seeing-is-believing and learning-by-doing workshops including a cooking class, a visit to Port Clyde's new fish and shrimp plant and a trip to the Fox Island Wind project.

(See www.islandinstitute.org/silconference for additional information).

In the week following the Sustainable Island Living Conference, the Fox Islands Wind project hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by over 450 islanders from Vinalhaven and North Haven, along with Governor Baldacci, First District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree and other visitors and dignitaries. Governor Baldacci brought three representatives from StatOilHydro, Norway's largest energy company, which is interested in investing in alternative energy, now that its North Sea Oil operations have peaked. They have signed an agreement with the University of Maine to help design an offshore wind turbine platform for the Gulf of Maine test sites that will be located in deep waters within Maine's state waters. But the highlights of the event were presentations from North Haven and Vinalhaven's school students. The North Haven students performed a song (high school students) and dance (grade school students) routine that was featured on the evening news, while Vinalhaven students read comments submitted by classmates that had the crowd in stitches.

And as the end of the year approaches, we are trying to gauge the economic health of the islands' leading economic indicator-the lobster fishery. The Island Institute made a capacity-building grant to the Maine Lobstermen's Association to provide technical assistance to increase the distribution of their newsletter and to increase their membership base. We also made another grant to help the start-up of Calendar Islands Lobster Company, a fishermen owned coop developing new marketing and branding strategies to increase profit margins.

Any informal survey of the lobster fishery, of course, may be highly skewed by whom you talk to. The bottom line for lobster fishermen this year seems to be: good harvest, lousy business. There has been a steady harvest of lobsters since the spring and some record hauls of a ton or more lobsters from the most successful fishermen, but the price is still more than a dollar off its recent levels - although marginally better than at the depths of the market a year ago. No one is buying new pick-ups, in other words, but most fishermen are not losing their boats either.

The best of times; the worst of times, but the good news is that island communities are relentlessly working to improve their future.

Philip Conkling is the president of the Island Institute.