MDOT may use stimulus money to destroy Searsport's Long Cove Ledge and Sears Island fish nursery to help container ships,

The date was fitting. On Friday the 13th of March, the Legislature's Transportation Committee was given a plan by MDOT Commissioner Cole to use 10.5 million dollars of federal stimulus money to (1) destroy a third of the Wasumkeag Fish Nursery's juvenile cod habitat with dredging, and (2) use explosives to destroy a nearby ledge used by salmon and other fish during their brackish transitions between river and bay.

Here's a 7 minute excerpt Cole and Damon are going back and forth about using a chunk of MDOT $timulus money for dredging near Sears island (mp3 file) And about giving money to Montreal Maine Atlantic railroad, and about blowing up the Long Cove Ledge for easier shipping.

The attack on the estuary would come in two waves: dredging out the the northern most sheltered third of the Nursery shoal, and using explosives to destroy Long Cove Ledge - a shoaling ledge only 1 foot deep near its southern end, used by wild salmon during their Switchover from salt to fresh and vice versa.

Click here for the complete 20 minute recording of Cole and staff talking to the transportation committee about stimulus money for many projects, on March 13, 2009.

Sears Island plaintiffs may subpoena Maine JUPC members

Members of the Joint Use Planning Committee may soon find themselves ordered to appear in Maine Superior Court, after preliminary motions for the cases opposing the partition of Sears Island brought by Harlan Mclaughlin of Searsport, Ron Huber of Rockland, and Doug Watts of Augusta, are resolved.

Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee members that may be subpoenaed include Coastal Mountain's Land Trust official Scott Dickerson, Maine Sierra Club leader Joan Saxe, Islesboro Island Trust head Stephen Miller, Friends of Sears Island president Jimmy Freeman and Penobscot Bay Alliance chief Becky Bartovics.

It is believed that information will be elicited as to how these environmentalists arrived at a deal with state officials to dismember New England's biggest unprotected wild island into port zone and conservation easement zone without following state laws that require planning for the inevitable environmental damagesuch a project would cause.

"It will be a messy case," Huber said, "but like sausagemaking, what comes out at the end will be worth it."

Ocean Energy. Maine Fishermens Forum Panel Audio online.

At the 2009 Maine Fishermen's Forum, ocean wind and water energy proponent John Ferland of Ocean Energy Renewable Power Co of Maine held forth on the positives of ocean energy development, followed by a more cautious talk by Maine Marine Resources Commissioner George Lapointe. Both speakers generated many questions.
Listen to the talks and discussions (MP3s ) **** Media Coverage of the session

Shipping Pollution - can upper Penobscot bay handle all the carbon?

Commercial ships spew half as much particulate pollution as world's cars . Upper Penobscot Bay could become an asthma cluster area if Sears Island is turned into a containerport. The diesel fumes from ships, tugboats, trucks railroad enginees and derricks will create a stinking choking cloud over the upper Bay.

Here's a recent study of the issue of shipping air pollution:

Daniel Lack, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Earth System Research Laboratory has just published results of a government study finding that that globally, commercial ships emit almost half as much particulate pollution into the air as the total amount released by cars, according to a new study. Ship pollutants affect both the Earth's climate and the health of people living along coastlines.

"Since more than 70 percent of shipping traffic takes place within 250 miles of the coastline, this is a significant health concern for coastal communities," says lead author Daniel Lack. He and his colleagues reported their findings on 25 February 2009 in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Read article here

Eelgrass researchers, regulators of NW Atlantic meeting.

The workshop Status, Trends, and Conservation of Eelgrass in Atlantic Canada and the Northeastern United States,was a two day event, February 24-25, at the Regency Hotel in Portland, Maine. Valet parking simplified the Portland parking challenge
Listen here to recordings of the day speakers

* Hilary Neckles of the Augusta, Maine office of Patuxent Wildlife Research Center started the workshop, going over the agenda and setting the issues facing eelgrass out in brief.

* Dr. Fred Short of the University of New Hampshire, held forth on "Eelgrass: the Big Picture", Lots of interesting facts emerged as Fred took us on a visit to eelgrass around our globe - it is there in the northern temperate zone - and declining around the world, too.

* Seth Barker, Maine DMR's GIS and habitat mapping expert, described Maine's eelgrass situation

Clink on the link for recordings of all of the day's speakers

From the discussions:

*Eelgrass is a flowering plant that aeons ago migrated from fresh to saltwater. In the Gulf of Maine it grows down to eleven meters deep.

*It can grow well in anoxic sediments, bringing oxygen down into its roots and discharging it into the mud, creating an oxygen-rich biological zone around the roots, called a "rhizosphere". Mats of roots can form, creating large rhizospheres.

* We have overused our coastal zone. Back in the good old days, nearshore eelgrass hosted flounder, lobster and cod in plenty. Sadly, very few cod nowadays are found in eelgrass. I.e. in shallow waters

Eelgrass wasting disease, the scourge of this plant in the early twentieth century, is now known to be attacks by the colonial slime amoeba Labyrinthula zosterae

The more nutrients in the shallow water, the more epiphytes or fouling organisms clutter the eelgrass' fronds, blocking sunlight from photosynthetic cells But at the same time the epiphytes provide food and shelter for myriads of other tiny organisms.

*Snowshoes are good for walking on eelgrass flats and mudflats without crushing the rhizospheres and without sinking deeply into them..

The Eelgrass Workshop Steering Committee - which has done a splendid job- consists of, Al Hanson of Environment Canada's Canadian Wildilfe Service, Phil Colarusso of U.S. EPA, and Robert Buchsbaum of Mass Audubon. Good work, people!

Sears Island: Second Lawsuit filed against MaineDOT easement

For Immediate Release Feb 23, 2009

Sears Island Conservation Easement seen increasingly in doubt .

AUGUSTA – An Augusta man has filed a petition in Maine Superior Court asking for MaineDOT's Sears Island Conservation Easement to be set aside. The move follows Thursday's filing of a similar petition (pdf) in Knox County Courthouse by a Rockland, Maine man.

Douglas Watts filed his Petition for Review of Final Agency Action on Friday afternoon in the Kennebec County Superior Court. Read Douglas Watts' Petition Here (pdf).

Watts describes himself in his petition as "an avid user of the Penobscot River and its tributaries near Sears Island since
1982." and wrote to the court that the conservation easement signed by MDOt and Maine Coast Heritage Trust "will irrevocably harm his ability to continue using and enjoying the Penobscot River and these tributaries as he has done since 1982."

He is asking the Court to "rescind the Jan. 22, 2009 conservation easement until the MDOT has fully complied with the requirements of the Maine Sensible Transportation Policy Act and the Maine Site Location of Development Law."

Watts played an important role in development and passage of the Maine Sensible Transportation Policy Act In the late 80s and early 90's.

For more information contact Doug Watts at (207) 622-1003 or by email at info@dougwatts.com

###

Sears Island activist takes MDOT & State Legislature to court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Contact Ron Huber 207-691-7485 or coastwatch@gmail.com

Legal action filed in Maine Superior Court against state's
Sears Island Partition Plan.

On Thursday February 19, 2009, Ron Huber, an opponent of the Maine Department of Transportation's January 22nd partitioning of Sears Island into port zone and conservation easement zone, filed a "Petition for Review of Final Agency Action by the Maine Department of Transportation" with Maine Superior Court in Rockland, Maine.

The petition (pdf file) charges that the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Maine Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation violated state law and the Maine Constitution when planning and approving the partitioning of Sears Island in upper Penobscot Bay into industrial and conservation zones.

The petition calls for the Superior Court to protect the irreplaceable Wasumkeag Estuarine Complex made up of Stockton Harbor, Long Cove and Searsport Harbor, (see illustration) from irresponsible MDOT port development.

Huber has asked the Court to order the the state's 600 acre conservation easement to Maine Coast Heritage Trust to be rescinded until a careful look is taken at the environmental implications that a container port on the other 340 acres of Sears Island could have for upper Penobscot Bay/lower Penobscot River water quality and the River's and Bay's fish and shellfish

It also calls for the Superior Court to declare a 2005 law unconstitutional that gives the Legislature's Transportation Committee approval power over activities on Sears Island,by violating the Maine Constitution's separation of powers.

Plaintiff Ronald Huber of Rockland, Maine, has asked the court to:

1. Find that Public Law Chapter 277 "An Act Regarding the Management and Use of Sears Island" violates the Maine Constitution's Article III Distribution of Powers. The 2005 law improperly grants Executive Branch decision-making power to the Maine Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation.

"Get the Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation out of the Executive Branch's turf." Huber said. "Sears Island decisionmaking needs to be free of backroom politics of the sort demonstrated by the Senator Dennis Damon in his co-chairmanship of the Transportation Committee over the past year."

2. Find that MDOT and its Joint Use Planning Committee failed to comply with the planning requirements of the Maine Sensible Transportation Policy Act and the Maine Site Location of Development Law.

"Those two state laws have hugely important environmental impact review standards that the Baldacci administration with, incredibly, the active collaboration of the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club and other "conservation' members of the Joint Use Planning Committee like Friends of Sears Island and Penobscot Bay Alliance, have tried to work their way around." Huber said. "Maine uses them to protect her places of natural biological productivity, her irreplaceable scenery, her historic and archaeological sites, from the long term effects of poorly-planned large scale developments like a container port."

Huber also criticized Senator Dennis Damon for unconstitutionally using Public Law 277 to lead the Transportation Committee into on November 18, 2008 , imposing binding conditions on MDOT's before the agency could execute the conservation easement, and then then, on January 13, 2009, pressuring his Committee into completely reversing its earlier unanimous vote, and vote to waive the restriction they'd earlier imposed.

"What was the quid pro quo?" Huber said."What did Senator Damon ask for and receive during those private meetings with the governor he admits to having after the November 18th vote?"

"What was enough to make him switch not only his vote, but also to press the members of the Legislature's latest transportation committee into switching theirs?"

"I am asking the Court to relieve the Transportation Committee of the burden of implementing PL 277" Huber said. "I trust the judge will declare it in violation of the Maine Constitution's Article III Distribution of Powers.

"I am proud as well to have a religious and spiritual relationship with Sears Island and its surrounding estuarine complex, protected under Article 1 Section 3 of the Maine Constitution." Huber said.

"This is a place that Almighty God has created to nourish, shelter and transition the salmon that morph there - freshwater to saltwater, salt to fresh, back and forth between Penobscot River and Penobscot Bay, have done so for at least 8,000 years, and will continue to do so, if I can help it. Not to mention the river herring, the sturgeon and the other fishes and water-dependent wildlife that use these sheltered fertile waters."

For more information contact Ron Huber at (207) 691-7485 or by email at coastwatch@gmail.com

Gulf of Maine funding sponges threaten to uselessly absorb Obama Bucks

Is it a case of : "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."?
Or is it:
"The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."?

In the case of the Gulf of Maine Restoration Collaborative, one hopes the former, but fears the latter.

For decades, Maine has had a small community of on-the-government-payroll coastal marine advocates, who revolve themselves through the doors of the Maine Coastal Program, the Department of Marine Resources, Maine SeaGrant and the Maine Cooperative Extension marine team . Shifting, as the years and decades pass, from organization to agency and back again as the funding shifts. Attending fishing industry regulatory meetings, taking part in research panels and keeping a harem of private consultants on call upon whom to shower grant monies that pass through their disbursing hands.

With the combined talents and energies of this merry band, and the greater Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, one would think that every ill that afflicts the Maine coast and its coastal waters: pollution, habitat loss, coastal sprawl, inappropriate fishing tech, mal-regulated aquaculture - every one of these challenges would have been met long ago.

Guess again.

These folks have met and spent much time (decades) and treasure on "task forces" designed to take on "bay management, aquaculture reform and more.
Those task forces have steamed furiously about the Gulf of Maine, holding meetings, dispensing coffee, catered lunches, grants and goodwill. But these task forces - run by the very same people who (see below) now want $500,000 dollars of stimulus money to outfit another intellectual armada - have always returned empty-handed.

The Maine Bay Management Study and the Maine Aquaculture Task Force (pdf) illuminate this nicely. Both well funded initiatives, they brought together the above usual suspects and a few chosen hangers-on, held copious meetings with 'stakeholders' over the course of a year or more, teleconferenced mightily, and then at their close brought out lavishly illustrated reports that were completely barren of innovation.

Neither task force, however, proposed any changes to state law or state regulation to better manage Maine's bays, or to improve aquaculture operations. Nada. The reports do conclude, with a smirk, that more cash is desperately needed to finance further adventures of the task force voyageurs.

In fact, in a sort of mea culpa, David Keeley, former head of the Maine Coastal Program and now employed somewhere within the bi-national bureaucracy of the GOMCME, confesses the failure of he and his fellow taskforcers to protect natural Maine:

"The Gulf of Maine watershed—its streams, lakes, bays, and beaches—are damaged by untreated sewage, toxic pollution, invasive species, loss of wildlife habitat, abandoned fishing gear and other human-caused impacts," Keely writes, warning that "The problems are serious and many of them, have reached or are reaching crisis proportions."

So Mr Keeley, under whose guidance and direction that crisis has taken shape, now wants $500,000 to develop "a comprehensive ecosystem restoration strategy for the Gulf of Maine".

Notice that this money would not be used to plant eelgrass, or to remove ghost traps from the water, or to in any way restore any habitat or fish stock or anything tangible.

No, it would be used to develop a "strategy". In other words, it would be spent for the creation of -what else- a task force, in which he and his revolving door friends once more tootle about the Gulf of Maine region, lamenting the lack of research, genuflecting to the wisdom of the fishing industry that has nearly destroyed the Gulf of Maine's fishes, noshing on catered luncheons and producing a report heavy on graphics but once again light on ideas.

Beyond -burp- demanding more money for more catered conferences.

Sears island Mitigation Bank Meeting 2/23/09 - TIME CHANGE - day to evening

Army Corps's Ruth Ladd wrote Bay Blog announcing that the February 23rd mitigation meeting at Union Hall in Searsport is going to delayed from day until evening, i.e. from 2pm to 7 pm. This change is in response to several requests that the meeting be done at night to allow more of the public to attend

Ladd will still be at Union Hall at 2 pm (as will Deane Van Dusen with MaineDOT) to chat with anyone who shows up at the original 2 pm time. FMI: Ruth M. Ladd (978) 318-8818
Chief, Policy Analysis and Technical Support Branch, Regulatory Division
New England District Corps of Engineers ,696 Virginia Road Concord, MA 01742-2751

End your optimism, you Climate Change Pollyannas!

In his below review of Global Warming For Dummies by Canadian Green Party leaders Elizabeth May and Zoë Caron, Green Web organizer David Orton of Nova Scotia takes issue with the espousal of what is false optimism by May and other leaders in the mainstream and green conservation communities, who fail to grasp the thistle; they won't promote and lead the actual drastic  global actions necessary to survive the coming ecological crash in some semblance of civilization, focusing instead on what is essentially Titanic deckchair rearranging. Read Mr. Orton's thoughtful essay, below:

Climate Change Pollyannas by David Orton GreenWeb, Nova Scotia, Canada

The Pollyanna title for this review -- meaning a false optimism or attitude of looking for the good side of any situation -- is misleading, given the situation we face. The basic working position permeating this book is not that we are facing a civilizational and ecocide crisis of hard to grasp proportions -- which require seismic cultural and institutional changes and lifestyle change which are difficult to comprehend -- with the outcome very much in doubt. But it is the promotion of the view that good things are being done around climate change and global warming, that we are moving in the right direction, and only need to accelerate our efforts. I believe this to be a false, harmful, and very misleading Pollyanna-type message.

Full article Here

Sierra Club calls Sears Island sell-out a historic........what?

Was it historic, this Sears Island legislative self-abuse, its attendant gubernatorial executive ordering, those hymns to holy compromise rising from the Bangor Daily News and other outlets, all primed by the Governor's public affairs crew and his tame enviros, that just went down over the last 90 days?

The Sierra Club Maine Chapter would say so. That is, its tiny politburo, in its omniscience, would say so. They can speak - or they claim to - for thousand upon thousands of Maine Sierra Clubbers - without ever contacting them. Such outreach is unnecessary, expensive, time consuming, intrusive - a litany of negative adjectives flows freely from the all-knowing Ex Comm's keyboards when inquiry is made. !

For they are the EX-COM and as such know what is best for you and I, for Sears Island, the bay, for Maine, for the Universe!

"It has long been the Sierra Club’s position" the Cabal intones, "that the island should be limited to compatibly managed marine transportation, education, recreation, and conservation."

How long is "long", one is compelled to ask.

To those who persist in raising a pother about Club democracy, the gauntlet is thrown: fight your way into our Cabal, and rule the Four Thousand along with us! Or to perdition with ye.

Mitigation Bankers to meet soon in Searsport - last step before divvying up Sears Island

Ah yes. That poignant little phrase of the Sierra Clubbers: 'Don't worry, they'll never build on Sears Island,' is about to enter the history books alongside the "Dewey defeats Truman " headlines of yore.

Why, Because MDOT has now resubmitted its umbrella mitigation bank prospectus to the Army Corps of Engineers for approval. (link is to the notice from June 2008 that was cancelled in November (pdf)) The Corps' mitigation bank officer Ruth Ladd wrote in response to a recent inquiry:

"Yes, there will be a new Public Notice on the resubmitted prospectus and there will be a public meeting in Searsport. I anticipate sending out the Public Notice on February 3."

THAT'S RIGHT. This direct result of the signing of the final order on Sears island, makes it now possible for MDOT to 'bank' the value of the "conserved" portion of Sears island for its first 'deposit' in its spanking new mitigation bank.

Why? So MDOT can then 'spend' that value compensating for the savagery it is about to inflict upon the salmon, sturgeon and baby cod who rely on the shallow brackish shoals that must be dredged to make Sears Island safe for container ships.

This time, thanks to the credulous JUPCians - Sierra Club in particular, Sears Island has been transformed into a 600 acre wad of mitigation cash - called by some a 'conservation easement', a 300 acre transportation parcel, upon which that wad will be dropped, and the great unspoken 500 acres of nursery shoal that will be wrecked. ('Not our issue,' intones JUPC, 'we're upland-focused. The Bay be d__ed')

So things should go just splendidly for MDOT and the island depredator it has waiting in the wings. The Army Corps of Engineers and Maine DOT will come to Searsport this spring, bearing mitigation bankers on their shoulders. Becky and Steve of Penobscot Bay Alliance and Islesboro Islands Trust respectively will proclaim their discomfort with the bank using their 600 acre playground as credit to despoil the rest of the island and its fish nurseries. Then they will exude sternly worded letters in a futile attempt at CYA.

Sierra Club too may register its displeasure, though not too likely; its headline story on Sears Island in the new edition of the Maine Sierran neglects to mention the umbrella mitigation plan even once.

If they do show, Sierra Club's Ken Cline - Joan'll be busy - will frown severely at the MDOT and Corps officials lined up at the front table and deliver a lengthy but meaningless lecture, aimed mostly at garnishing a few mea culpa soundbites. Commissioner Kenneth Cole will cough to hide his grin.

Crocodile tears shall flow in such quantities from the JUPC-ites as to threaten the very brackishness of the upper bay estuary, which is lapping quietly at the shore across Route One from the meeting.

But that's okay. Maine Coast Heritage Trust will again attempt to reassure the other sellouts that the environmental quality of Sears Island ain't so great anyway, so why give a ****?   "We do not have a wild island"  Scott intones. "We have an island that owned by the state of Maine that's been occupied for two hundred years by different levels of intensive use."

(Earth to Dickerson - It's had intensive use for over eight thousand years, Scotty.  Just not the 20th century, which non-exploitation being  why it IS a wild island.  But we forget: the immense archaeological and prehistoric assets of the island that would be paved over are not your Baldaccian charge, so they don't matter.) 

Finally the Army Corps andf Maine DOT will put an end to the farce, thank the assembled for their input, and then go on their merry way to the office of the port applicant, where a toast will be drunk to the Sierra Club and its little hangers-on in FOSI and PBA, for making mitigation to build a port possible.

Baldacci, Cole okay dismembering Sears Island; activists vow to contest final rule.

Opponents of a Maine DOT-devised plan to partition Penobscot Bay's Sears Island into a port zone and a protected zone said that they will contest today's approval of a controversial conservation easement by the Baldacci Administration.

Because the easement is a Final Agency Rule, those seeking to overturn the rule have thirty days to bring suit before state or federal court.

"Sears Island will not be dismembered," said Ron Huber, executive director of Penobscot Bay Watch. "The final rule is based on false and misleading information, purposely fed to both MDOT's Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee, and to the members of the Legislature's Transportation Committee*. Garbage in/garbage out. It won't hold up to judicial scrutiny."

* Under Public Law 277 the Maine Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation has authority to review all Sears Island development proposals. After the committee reviewed the Joint Use Plan on November 18, 2008 and in December, Transportation Committee co-chair Dennis Damon who had promised on June 26, '08 to bring the Sears Island issue before the legislature's Marine Resources Committee, declined to do so.
Instead, brushing aside concerns from new legislators on the Transportation Committee, and refusing to allow Sears Island fishery concerns to be brought up before the Marine Resources Committee on January 14th (the Senator co-chairs that committee, too) , Damon shoved approval of the Joint Use Plan (15 minute mp3) through on January 15, 2009: in the process dealing a tremendous slap in the face to Midcoast groundfishermen struggling to keep their industry alive in the current ecomoic climate.
Huber said his group and others have worked with many others to restore Penobscot Bay's finfisheries and shellfisheries.

"The chronic pollution and permanent destruction of groundfish nursery habitat and salmon habitat in the upper bay that a container port on Sears Island would make it far less likely that the bay's cod, haddock and flounder will make a comback in our lifetime.

In addition, 'smolts', young Atlantic salmon transitioning from freshwater to saltwater life, gather in the shallow brackish protected waters near Sears Island while they morph from being fresh to saltwater breathing. These too will find their essential nearshore habitat destroyed or fouled with ballast water, bilge and other tainted runoff from a functioning container port. The same holds true for Penobscot River's sturgeon

The groups will ask that the MDOT's Final Order partitioning the island into conservation zone and port zone be set aside, and that Maine DOT be made to carry out and pass an environmental review as required under federal and state law before moving ahead with any partition plan

Penobscot Bay Watch is part of a larger regional coalition, Fair Play for Sears Island, which will take part in the expected litigation. "This is not the first time we've fought off a Sears Island proposal, said Harlan McLaughlan, director of Fair Play for Sears Island, "but we hope it will be the last."

At issue is whether Maine DOT and its Joint Use Planning Committee (JUPC) erred when they declined during their two years of deliberations to consider the environmental damage a container port might have on the island's and bay's natural marine resources. The agency claimed its JUPC group, which operated as a state rulemaking consensus process could voluntarily exempt itself from having to consider the potential environmental impacts of their evolving plan.

Critics say this contravenes the Sensible Transportation Policy Act (STPA), Maine's key transportation law. STPA warns that MDOT's decisions on transportation plans (like Sears Island) can: "have profound, long-lasting and sometimes detrimental impacts on the natural resources of the State, including its air quality, land and water."

Becuase of that concern, in its rules, STPA "requires that MaineDOT identify and develop strategies that are context sensitive and minimize adverse affects to environmental quality."

"Evidently Commissioner Cole forgot to look at his rulebook," Huber said. "Now we'll have to have a judge 'throw the book at him'.

Baldacci/Cole plan goes against Legal Precedent. The January 22 2009 decisions also run MDOT afoul of established federal Sears Island legal precedent. Consider the 1989 federal court case Sierra Club v. Marsh (pdf), 1989 US App (1st) 75 - a critical Sears island precedent case.

In his decision, then-1st Circuit Chief Judge Breyer wrote thusly about the folly of MDOT's planning process playing down the likely harm a port on Sears Island could have:
"..... the harm consists of the added risk to the environment that takes place when governmental decisionmakers make up their minds without having before them an analysis (with prior public comment) of the likely effects of their decision upon the environment."
Breyer held that decisions about Sears Island need to be made in
"...a process whereby administrators make important decisions with an informed awareness of how the decision might significantly affect the environment."

But Maine DOT and its Joint Use Planning Committee have done just the opposite. Wouldn't Judge Breyer - now a US Supreme Court justice - be disappointed to learn of Maine DOT's repeat of its 1980s blunder?

Huber said he is not surprised by the Baldacci Administration's machinations. "When it comes to Sears Island, Maine's government has a sad history of ignoring economic and ecological reality, and of skirting or outright ignoring the law." he said.

In 1995, facing certain denial of his cargo port plan for environmental reasons, Governor Angus King and members of the Maine congressional delegation infamously pressured EPA's regional administrator into agreeing to transfer the EPA's staff reviewing Sears Island off the Sears Island port plan review.

When he learned of King's plot, Huber notified legal advocacy organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which filed a lawsuit that forced the EPA administrator to reverse his decision and keep the staff on the job. Once the EPA official backed down, PEER withdrew its suit, the staffer returned to work and, based on her recommendations, the US Army Corp of Engineers set stiff requirements for mitigating the damage the port would cause to island and bay. Unable to foot the bill, Angus King withdrew his Sears Island port plan in early 1996. (short mp3)

Huber said he was not surprised that Maine DOT didn't seek a review of their plan by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. "DMR kowtowed completely to the port proponents under King" he said.

In October 1995, then-DMR Commissioner Robin Alden submitted a controversial letter to the Army Corps of Engineers and FHWA that pooh-poohed the value of Sears Island's shoals and eelgrass meadows as fish habitat, earning her a rebuke from federal officials as well as New England's marine science community - including one of the scientists she quoted in her letter.

Steve Miller of the Islesboro Islands Trust wrote in a letter to Commissioner Alden that his "initial reaction ranged from disbelief to horror.. .your letter seemed more like a defense of the cargo port than a discussion of natural resources and their preservation."

Ironically, Miller is now himself committed to port development on Sears Island, as a consensing member of the Joint Use Planning Committee, a decision that has put him at odds with many former allies.

""We likewise reacted with disbelief and horror, when we learned that Steve Miller had joined the dark side", McLaughlan said. "Go figure."

Perhaps mindful of Alden's debacle, present day Marine Resources Commissioner George Lapointe has kept mum.

"Hopefully something will finally penetrate MDOT's leaders' thick skulls", said Mclaughlan. "Their brains always turn to mush when Sears Island gets put on their to-do list."


Below: Governor Baldacci's January 2 press release (includes full text of governor's executive order)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

January 22, 2009

An Order Implementing the Recommendations of the Sears Island Planning Initiative's Joint Use Planning Committee

WHEREAS, the State of Maine is dedicated to preserving its historic coastline while providing economic opportunities to its citizens that its proximity to navigable waters offer; and

WHEREAS, the State of Maine owns Sears Island in the Town of Searsport, County of Waldo, where both of these goals can be compatibly and responsibly pursued; and

WHEREAS, Sears Island lies centrally on Maine's largest bay, Penobscot Bay, which has seaports, manufacturing centers, farms, rocky headlands and well over 100 islands on its waters and shores. The Bay, which serves as the economic domain of a thousand or more working fishing and lobster boats, includes a major shipping channel, and is a recreational and ecological location of world class standing; and

WHEREAS, Sears Island located in the harbor of Searsport is uniquely suited, through its deep water ship access and its rail connection allowing double stacked rail cars to travel unabated from Searsport to Chicago, to be the location of a future freight container port; and

WHEREAS, Maine's future economy will be strengthened by the inclusion of Sears Island in the global freight transportation routes; and

WHEREAS, the parties to the Consensus Agreement, that created the Joint Use Planning Committee, shared a good faith belief that opportunities to pursue a port and conservation uses were compatible and should be given equal weight and attention and should all be vigorously pursued ; and

WHEREAS, the Sears Island Planning Initiative Consensus Agreement established that the appropriate uses for Sears Island are compatibly managed marine transportation, recreation, education, and conservation, therefore, the joint use planning process defined two significant land use parcels on the Island, a 601-acre conservation parcel known as the "Protected Property" and a 330-acre "Transportation Parcel", for the benefit of the Town of Searsport, County of Waldo and the State of Maine; and

WHEREAS, Sears Island Planning Initiative Consensus Agreement established that the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) will actively market, solicit proposals and create partnerships for a cargo/container port on Mack Point and/or Sears Island on the Transportation Parcel; and

WHEREAS, Sears Island Planning Initiative Consensus Agreement established that the MaineDOT, with the Town of Searsport and appropriate others will provide for light recreation, education and conservation facilities on the Protected Property by conveyance of an easement covering that area; and

WHEREAS, the Final Report and Recommendations for Implementation of the Sears Island Planning Initiative Joint Use Planning Committee, prepared pursuant to the Sears Island Planning Initiative Steering Committee Consensus Agreement has been presented to and approved by the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation of the Maine Legislature in accordance with Maine Public Law 2005, Chapter 277;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, John E. Baldacci, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby order and direct as follows:

The Maine Department of Transportation will in all respects implement the recommendations of the Sears Island Planning Initiative's Joint Use Planning Committee.

o MaineDOT, as Grantor, will grant a Conservation Easement on a 601-acre conservation parcel known as the Protected Property on Sears Island to the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the Holder, with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection as the Third Party Enforcer.

o MaineDOT will fix the boundaries of the Transportation Parcel and the Protected Property as determined by the Joint Use Planning Committee and defined in the Conservation Easement.

o The Transportation Parcel is reserved by MaineDOT for future transportation use, allowing for joint or concurrent development of a marine transportation facility, compliant with 23 CFR 774.

o MaineDOT will create a "Sears Island Conservation Area Advisory Group" to provide public input on future land use and guidance to MaineDOT with respect to the management of the Protected Property.

o MaineDOT, upon execution of the Conservation Easement, will actively and aggressively work with the Maine Port Authority and other interested parties to initiate the process of marketing and development of a cargo/container port on Mack Point and Sears Island in accordance with the Agreement including initiating a request for proposals for a cargo/container port facility which will utilize environmentally-responsible technologies to minimize impact to natural resources, cultural values and existing marine activities while creating significant economic opportunity for the citizens of the State of Maine.


Effective Date:

The effective date of this Executive Order is January 22, 2009.

------------------------------------------

END

------------------------------------

Sears Island : Transportation Committee reverses 11/18/08 decision

Listen to the Maine Legislature's Transportation Committee get lied into voting to dismember Sears Island, privatizing 2/3 of it to a private land trust, and privatizing 1/3 of it to an industrial port operator. Click Here to hear the final debate and vote. (15 minute mp3)

Sears Island: Danger ahead! Appeasement never works.

Giving away 2/3 of Sears Island is not going to satisfy the hunger of Sierra Club and the land trusts to control the public island. If the  Legislature gives in to Baldacci and lets itself be reversed: NO PORT.

Sears Island dodges Baldacci's and Damon's sneak attack

Great sighs of relief around the bay as wiser and more skeptical heads prevailed in the Maine legislature's Transportation Committee January 13, 2009.
An attempt by Senator Dennis Damon to ramrod a deal he'd secretly hammered out with Governor Baldacci through the committee, to reverse the Committee's November vote on Sears Island, has been derailed.  At least until Thursday, when it comes up again....
Listen to complete  audio clips of the meeting.


At the hearing, a clearly nervous Senator Damon admitted that his request to both introduce and vote on a brand new proposal was irregular, but attempted to assure committee members that he'd considered their points of view while dealcutting with Baldacci.

This displeased a majority of committee members who felt jsut the opposite, that their views were being ignored. Veteran committee members were mystified as to why they should reverse their earlier vote, as nothing proposed in the new deal decreased the likelihood that environmentalists, even those like Sierra Club that signed onto partitioning the island, would fight any incoming port developer wannabes. Not to mention the myriad other groups large and small that successfully fought off earlier Sears Island port attempts under McKernan, King, and present governor Baldacci's unsuccessful LNG port effort in his first term.

For new transportation committee members, this was their first encounter with Sears Island, and opinion ran among them that this was too much too sudden, too soon. As if Damon had become a frantic snake oil peddler, trying to hurry them into an uninformed vote.

A sufficient number of legislators objected to the Baldacci/Damon Plan, that Damon was compelled to agree to table it for future conderation - specifically this coming Thursday.

Between now and then, opponents of the Baldacci and Damon Plan, the"BaD Plan" will educate new Transportation Committee members as to the downside of the Governor's plan, reassure veteran committee memberrs that their november vote was right and just, and need not be brushed aside.

Island huggers will also put Senator Dennis Damon in the doghouse for falling in line with Baldacci's secret effort to thwart democratic process in the Maine legislature, going so far as to exclude Transportation Committee co-chair Ed Mazurek from their repeated behind the scenes dealmaking get togethers. Monday evening, Mazurek was unaware that Sears Island would even be on the Tuesday agenda, let alone a vote taken.

In a further sign of contempt for opposition, critics of the plan to split Sears Island were kept inthe dark about Sears Island decision being on the meeting. In November Damon said he would be sure all interested parties would be kept informed of upcoming committee action on Sears Island. Then January rolls around and Damon sets transportation committee final action for Sears Island, but DOESN'T tell anyone. Not the committee members, nor port oppos. Just port partisans and pale green groups.

Shame on you, Senator Damon, Governor Baldacci!

Legislating Sears Island's fate begins anew.

Our Maine legislature begins the biennial rite of submitting, considering and voting on bills, and setting agency budgets - legislation on many if not all facets of life in Maine, including the lives of wildlife on and around Sears Island.

The Transportation Committee is where the Sears Island action is focused. The Committee has before it SP 21 "Joint Order, Authorizing the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation To Report out a Bill Concerning the Sears Island Planning Initiative." (1 page pdf) Submitted by Committee Chair Sen Dennis Damon, it appears to ask for the Transportation Committee to formally "report out a bill" to the greater legislature, and for the Committee to be prepared to have it returned by the legislature for amendment. (Text of SP 21 below)

124th Maine State Legislature

SP 21 Joint Order, Authorizing the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation To Report out a Bill Concerning the Sears Island Planning Initiative

"the House concurring, that the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation, having received the "Final Report and Recommendations for Implementation of the Sears Island Planning Initiative" of the Joint Use Planning Committee, is authorized to report out a bill to the First Regular Session of the 124th Legislature relating to Sears Island. The bill reported out by the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation must be referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation for processing in the normal course in accordance with the Joint Rules of the 124th Legislature."
[End of SP 21.]

So what does it mean? Who is going to blink? Damon? Baldacci? Mazurek? Sierra Club? CLF?  A clash of titans looms on the horizon.

Keep Sears Island free from Joint Privatizing Plan

Thanks to the canniness and courage of our Legislature's transportation committee, Maine has a breathing space to reexamine her relationship with Sears Island.

If we are going to be respectful to Sears Island - to the memory and remnants of its 10 millenia of human occupation; to those treading her old paths and beaches today; to the quiet brackish nurseries edging its western shores, whence fish & shellfish larvae and juveniles grow, then ride the Penobscot River's ghost current down bay to the ecological engines of outer Penobscot Bay, where naural wild Maine Herself has been at pains to recolonize Sears Island for over a century now; if we are to treat teh island with the dignity and respect it deserves....

Then MDOT's grip on Sears Island needs to be loosened, and this public island's management put into the abler hands of Maine's public land and park managers in the Department of Conservation.

We'll examine, below, the Dept of Conservation statutes that are relevant to transferring Sears Island from MDOT to Maine Department of Conservation

It appears that Sears Island will fit nicely into the Public Reserved Lands division of Maine Dept of Conservation. The laws governing such lands include a guarantee that the state be able to ensure transportation access rights to the land, SHOULD NEED ARISE. But not to let successive governors continue to try to peddle the island to passing investor speculators.

NOR (and this is important) nor should the Sierra Club and others try to build their own entertainment and education and entertainment complex on Sears Island. Their buildings, with the inevitable roads, parking lots and visiting fees, will further fragment the island's ecological reservoir and destroy more of the island's 10,000 year archaeological record

There, Sears Island will continue carrying out its roles as natural recreational area and coastal Maine ecological reservoir, yet be available as needed should calamity fall and Maine require a port there. Further, this state-owned public land island should not be encumbered with a perpetual conservation easement, and the state saddled with the related legal obligations and ramifications and responsibilities such a perpetual easement requires , perpetually.

So, let's consider how Sears Island might fit into the Public Reserved Lands division of Maine Dept of Conservation to take over Sears Island, using the Dept of Conservation statutes that are relevant to transferring Sears Island from MDOT to BPL jurisdiction. For every statute there's a rule or regulation, and we'll look at them in a future post.


MRSA 12 §1815. Transfer lands to another agency; receive lands from another agency.

"The bureau [of Parks and Lands] may accept the care, custody, control and responsibility for the management of lands to be classified as state parks or historic sites from other state agencies with the written consent of the transferor agency, the Governor and the commissioner. Nothing in this section or section 1814 may be construed to negate or affect obligations of the State undertaken in any existing lease, easement or other binding agreement or obligation of the State undertaken by the acceptance of any deed or other grant of an interest in real property."


MRSA 12 §1850. Acquisition of public reserved land

1. Authority to acquire lands. With the consent of the Governor and the commissioner, the bureau may acquire lands or interests in lands on behalf of the State to be managed as public reserved lands.

When acquiring land or interest in land, the bureau shall examine options for obtaining public vehicular access rights to the land. If an acquisition is made that does not include guaranteed public vehicular access, the bureau shall describe the acquisition in its annual report submitted pursuant to section 1853 and the justification for that acquisition.

MRSA 12 §1852. Transfer or lease of public reserved lands

1. Transfer of management responsibility to other state agencies. Whenever a particular portion of the public reserved lands is to be used, under the management plan under section 1847, subsection 2, for a dominant use that is within the particular expertise of another agency of the State, the commissioner, with the consent of the Governor and the state agency involved, may transfer to that other state agency the responsibility for the management of that particular portion of the public reserved lands.

"MRSA 12 §1847. Management of public reserved lands

"1. Purpose. The Legislature declares that it is in the public interest and for the general benefit of the people of this State that title, possession and the responsibility for the management of the public reserved lands be vested and established in the bureau acting on behalf of the people of the State, that the public reserved lands be managed under the principles of multiple use to produce a sustained yield of products and services by the use of prudent business practices and the principles of sound planning and that the public reserved lands be managed to demonstrate exemplary land management practices, including silvicultural, wildlife and recreation management practices, as a demonstration of state policies governing management of forested and related types of lands."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keeping Sears Island completely under public control must be non-negotiable - no crazy-quilt management of private land trusts, astroturf grassroots groups and whichever port developers try to run the green gauntlet.

Sears Island: Baldacci Biting Back.

Maine public radio news reported yesterday (mp3) that MDOT and the Governor are aggressively pressing members of the legislature's transportation committee members to abandon the Savage Plan for Sears Island, that the committee adopted late last month.

Senator Christine Savage's Plan, approved by the Transportation Committee on November 18th: "I move the compromise agreement, including the conservation easement reached by the Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee, be accepted in principle, but left unsigned by this committee until a port is permitted on Sears Island. The Transportation Committee will submit a bill to the 124th Legislature, directing the Maine Department of Transportation to move forward with all practical speed to see that a port is permitted on Sears Island. Once that permit is in hand, the agreement before this committee will be signed."

Governor's response to the unanimous vote approving the Savage Plan? Bite back!

"Negotiations over a final agreement on the future of Sears Island continue, " MTC's AJ Higgins said. "At issue is a proposed cargo port that would be built on the 930 acre island near Searsport, and at least one critic of the plan says that now would be a good time to re-evaluate the approval process."

Governor Baldacci is obviously worried that he'll become a two time loser on Sears Island - in 2004 and '05 his plan for an LNG terminal was exposed then withdrawn. This time, unless he can force the Legislature's Transportation Committee to recant their unanimous approval the Savage Plan, though, that's just what is going to happen.

In the midst of this, according to Maine Things Considered, Penobscot Bay Watch and other groups have announced intentions to submit a petitionl to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection asking that it assume jurisdiction and order MDOT to obtain a planning permit before obtaining legislative approval.

Reaction to the Baldacci onslaught is mixed so far, with Senator Diamond willing to kowtow to the Guv, and Senator Damon and Representative Hogan unmoved by Baldacci's and MDOT's pleas. The rest? Time will tell. Stay tuned.

Read about Sears Island's 1990's eco-battles over a cargoport

Sears Island - The Smoking Guns: how Sierra Club and MCHT stopped their own Joint Use Plan

THE SMOKING GUNS
Emails from officials of Maine Sierra Club and Maine Coast Heritage Trust suggest that both NGOs were prepared to renege on their promise not to interfere with state efforts to attract and license a container port and rail yard covering the western third of Sears Island. (that is, once the MCHT had secured a permanent easement over the other six hundred acres of the island, and the Sierra Clubbers were free to begin work on a Sears Island education center program.)

Imagine these two groups' surprise when,  after reading these,  the Maine Legislature's Transportation Committee proved as faithless to them as they themselves had been toward Maine wild Nature!

From Ken Cline, Sierra Club's Conservation Chairman for Maine:

>From: kenneth cline
>Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 9:09 PM
>To: rrgab746@msn.com
>Cc: jsaxe@suscom-maine.net
>Subject: Sears Island
>
>Dear Mr. Gabey:
>
>Joan Saxe passed your message on Sears Island on to me. I am
>intrigued by your comments. In what way do you believe that Sierra
>Club has "sold out" on Sears Island. As someone who spent the better
>part of 6 years battling to save the island when very few

>environmentalists in the state seemed to know it existed, I would
>hardly sit idly by and watch it be destroyed. I am curious where you
>get your information on the matter and if that source actually has
>done anything recently on behalf of the island. If you actually care
>about the fate of the island, then write the newspapers, governor, and
>DOT to make sure that they understand how priceless a treasure Sears
>Island really is. We have ensured that 2/3 of it will be protected
>for ever, but we need all the help we can get to protect the remaining
>part. So independent of Sierra Club, I encourage you to start a
>campaign to help protect the island -- it is a much better use of your
>time than criticizing people who perhaps have the same goals as you
>and are working hard to pursue them. Please contact me if you have
>any further concerns.
>
>Ken Cline
>Maine Chapter Conservation Chair

=================================================
From Maine Coast heritage Trust's Scott Dockerson
>----Original Message-----
From: Scott Dickerson [mailto:scottd@coastalmountains.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 8:31 AM
To: Astrig Tanguay; Tara Hollander; Jim Grossman; Nancy-Linn Nellis; Jan
Flint; Bob&Marietta Ramsdell; Lorin Hollander; Jay&McCormick Economy;
Jim Freeman; John Hyk; Buck Bulkley; Becky Bartovics; Larraine Brown;
Jane Sanford; Joan Saxe; Stephen Miller; Elizabeth Banwell; Joelle
Madiec

Subject: current position. Port and Preservation--

We should expect to get some negativity from those who have not been
part of this long, negotiated SIPI process and do not have a full
understanding of our strategy.
This is how I strategically analyze the current position of the
Preservation and Port Affinity Group.

IF:
We obtain a Consensus Agreement at this time to recommend that
700-800 acres of the island will be placed under a conservation
easement and that 141-241 acres of the island may continue to be
evaluated by transportation interests as a future port facility,
under the terms of what we are negotiating for in the Consensus
Agreement;

THEN:
The majority of the island will be permanently protected for public
access, educational uses, and conservation; AND

We will have positioned our affinity group as by far the most
rational and fair vision for the future of Sears Island, giving us
considerable political leverage for not only securing the majority of
the island for conservation now, but also to ultimately press for
conservation of the entire island; AND
Increasing utilization of the island for public access and education
will build an increasing constituency for full protection of the
island; AND

The port interests will still have to demonstrate 1) need for a
facility that cannot be served elsewhere, 2) compliance with
environmental laws, and 3) financial capacity to construct and
operate the port; AND

Many conservation and environmental interests will continue to have
the opportunity to intervene in the regulatory process to contest the
port, an intervention that has prevailed for almost 40 years.

IF:
We stand pat on our original Preservation and Port Affinity Group
vision statement;

THEN:
The SIPI process arrives at stalemate except on some token agreement
items; AND
The Preservation and Port Affinity Group will lose some of its
political leverage as the rational and fair position, making future
efforts with the legislature and governor less probable for success;
AND
All 941 acres of the island instead of only 141-241 acres remains
open for port proposals, as well as any other industrial, commercial,
or residential development proposals.

In essence, I think we gain a great deal from entering into an
effectively negotiated Consensus Agreement, and have actually
diminished the risk that the island will be developed.

Scott
___________________________
Scott Dickerson, Executive Director
Coastal Mountains Land Trust
101 Mt. Battie Street
>Camden ME 04843
207-236-7091
scottd@coastalmountains.org

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Dickerson [mailto:scottd@coastalmountains.org]
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 1:03 PM
To:LorinH@aol.com
Cc: jsaxe@suscom-maine.net; bartovi@earthlink.net; jouelle@prexar;
clarion@midmaine.com; camping@ime.net; tarahollander@gmail.com;
tiger7@midmaine.com; jflint@srhsnet.com; rramsdell1@verizon.net;
mcjaye@adelphia.net; packrats@mainisms.com;
commissioners@waldocountyme.gov; buckstop2000@yahoo.com;
jouelle@prexar.com; jcsanford@verizon.net; iitsmill@midcoast.com;
ebanwell@midcoast.com; joellemfrench@yahoo.com

Subject: Re: security issues

Lorin,
This is how I analyze the security issue.
Our agreement to a Consensus Agreement requires that a permanent
conservation easement be placed on 700-800 acres of the island. I
estimate that placement of the conservation easement will take no
more than 12 months after the Legislature and Governor sign a bill
approving that one be placed.

If a proposal for a port comes forth soon after the Legislature and
Governor act on the Consensus Agreement, I expect that it will take
more than two years to proceed through its data gathering, planning
process, negotiation with the State for use of the island land,
financing arrangements, and permit process. The issue of port
security will be addressed during the permit process, though the
proposer of the port will be considering it during it data gathering
and planning process.

The placement of the conservation easement and associated public
access will predate the receipt of a permit for a port. Given that,
I expect that any port proposal will need to present a plan for
coexistence with the conservation easement and public access,
including across the causeway. If the port proposer choses to
attempt to stop public access, I expect that there will be a very
strong response by the public (which will have increased its activity
on the island by then) to oppose the violation of the intent of the
conservation easement and Consensus Agreement.

Again, I am offering my best estimates about probabilities. My
estimate is that once the 700-800 acres of the island are conserved
and truly open to the public, the issue of port security is likely to
either be neutral in terms of affect on public use of the
conservation area of the island, or will create another issue that
will mobilize the public to oppose the granting of a permit for the
port.

If my analysis of the probabilities is correct, then I think we have
no reason to deal with the issue of port security impact at this
stage of the process.

Scott

Scott Dickerson, Executive Director
Coastal Mountains Land Trust
101 Mt. Battie Street
Camden ME 04843
207-236-7091
scottd@coastalmountains.org