Kate Dempsey

Maine Conservation Learning to Shift from “Protecting” to Connecting

This commentary first appeared in the Portland Press Herald on October 20, 2024.

For decades, conservation organizations around Maine have worked tirelessly to conserve and steward Maine’s natural places. The phrase “land conservation” has traditionally meant “protection from” – from development, from impacts, from people. In so many ways, this understanding has shaped how we have approached this work.

For thousands of years, the Wabanaki – the Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot people indigenous to the place we now call Maine – have lived on and with these lands and waters. Their traditions and ways of living are informed by generations of direct experience with and knowledge of nature. Rather than considering people as separate from the natural world, Indigenous cultural practices have prioritized living in relationship with it. Despite the atrocities and injustices of colonialism, the Wabanaki continue these practices today.

In recent years, a movement has gained strength among Maine conservation organizations to learn the true, complicated history of colonialism in this region, to grapple with conservation’s role in it, and to incorporate those lessons into our work. This has meant learning to listen to Wabanaki voices on the power of Indigenous-led conservation. It has included learning from and with groups like Wabanaki REACH and First Light, which provide an invaluable bridge between Wabanaki and non-native communities. It has included working to build trusting relationships with Wabanaki people. It has included more than a few mistakes and stumbles, as well as some heartening progress. And it is only just beginning.

One thing our organizations have learned through this process is that this work is central to our collective missions. From preserving biodiversity to addressing climate change, the best, most durable conservation outcomes are only possible when we have strong relationships with people and communities. Indigenous communities have the longest connection to the lands and waters where we live and work. Partnering on projects, restoring access, and supporting Indigenous-led conservation is an essential path to a healthy, sustainable future.

Increasingly, land and people throughout Maine are benefitting from this understanding. Collaborative projects among sovereign Wabanaki governments, Wabanaki non-profits, private landowners, and Maine conservation groups are on the rise. In just the past few years, our organizations have had the honor of supporting land rematriation in downeast Maine, where an island known as Kuwesuwi Monihq was returned to the Passamaquoddy Tribe; partnering to develop signage that incorporates Indigenous knowledge and language into storytelling at Long Point in Machiasport and Erickson Fields in Rockport; and collaborating to return more than 30,000 acres of ancestral land known as Wáhsehtəkʷ, near Katahdin, to the Penobscot Nation. Projects like these are leading to increased access to land and water for Wabanaki people.

Maine is fortunate to have the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship to help guide this work. It includes representatives of the Penobscot Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township (Motahkomikuk), the Passamaquoddy Tribe-Pleasant Point (Sipayik), the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and the Mi'kmaq Nation. Working together, these leaders seek to improve the health and wellbeing of Wabanaki people by expanding their access, management, and ownership of lands. Their guidance has led to the return of land to Wabanaki people, and to partnerships with the conservation community on specific projects that are returning lands and waters to all of the Wabanaki Nations in Maine.

As leaders of three statewide conservation organizations, we are committed to this work, and we are excited about how it is strengthening conservation in Maine and beyond. Real progress will take ongoing dedication from groups like ours, as well as from private organizations and public agencies. It will also require greater investment from public and private funders for efforts like the Wolankeyutomone kisi apaciyewik (“Let us take good care of what has returned”) Fund, which supports direct, unrestricted grants to Wabanaki projects created by Wabanaki people, their organizations, and their governments.

Nature needs us to be in relationship with it and with each other. If we can strengthen our relationships with the lands, waters, and communities, we can build a brighter, more sustainable future for all our children, for all generations.

Betsy Cook is Maine State Director of Trust for Public Land. Kate Dempsey is State Director of The Nature Conservancy in Maine. Kate Stookey is President and CEO of Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

2023 brings new opportunities to invest in Maine’s climate resilience

By focusing on vulnerable communities, local government and small business, the Legislature can ensure our state makes the clean energy transition equitable.

This commentary first appeared in the Portland Press Herald on December 29, 2022.

Energy prices are front of mind for Mainers, and with good reason.

Winter weather is becoming increasingly unpredictable, and our reliance on fossil fuels to heat our homes and power the grid means we regularly feel the effects of global events in our wallets. The Legislature now appears poised to pass a bill to provide direct emergency relief to Mainers, which will alleviate some of the current pressure. If we want to avoid finding ourselves in the same situation again, we need to turn our attention to finding long-term solutions.

To achieve this, we should build on the clean energy and energy efficiency accomplishments of the past four years. In that time, Governor Mills and the Legislature have made tremendous strides toward helping Maine address our energy and climate crises, investing in home and business weatherization, heat pump incentives, electric transportation and clean electricity to reduce our reliance on costly fossil fuels. Now our lawmakers have an important opportunity to take that progress to the next level—making key investments to speed Maine’s clean energy transition. They should seize it.

To start, we should continue to diversity our electricity generation. Renewable energy has advanced substantially in recent years, becoming a cost-competitive source of electricity that can save all Mainers money. The Legislature should direct the Public Utilities Commission to procure additional solar and wind energy to lock in low electricity prices for ratepayers through long-term power purchase agreements.

With transportation contributing over half of Maine’s greenhouse gas emissions, lawmakers should also take steps to increase the supply of electric vehicles in the state. Adopting clean car and clean truck standards like those recently adopted by Vermont will ensure that Mainers have access to the latest models at auto dealerships in the coming years. We also need to provide robust funding for a range of clean transportation and heating measures, from Efficiency Maine’s rebate and financing programs to MaineDOT’s public and active transportation projects.

Through my participation in Maine’s Climate Council, I heard from Mainers from across the state who are urging us to take action now. By focusing on ensuring that modest-income Mainers, vulnerable communities, local governments and small businesses benefit first and most, the Legislature can help ensure Maine makes this transition equitably. By siting new clean energy infrastructure thoughtfully and strategically—prioritizing solar projects on brownfields and other degraded or developed lands, for example, we can move forward rapidly but also responsibly.

Measures like these can dramatically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Even then, Maine communities will continue facing the effects of climate change in the years ahead, whether in the form of sea level rise on the coast, unpredictable weather and seasonal shifts, or increased flooding of our roads and bridges.

It’s equally important that lawmakers continue investing in community resilience initiatives so our towns can rise to face these challenges. Programs like the Community Resilience Partnership and state support for municipal planning can make an enormous and critical difference throughout Maine.

A key opportunity in this regard is the Department of Environmental Protection’s municipal stream crossing grant program. Without additional funding for towns to upsize their culverts, the increasing frequency and intensity of storms in Maine will lead to more road washouts like we saw in Jackman this past summer. This under-the-radar program has funded close to 200 culvert upgrades from York to Fort Kent over the past eight years—but funding will soon run out without legislative action. It’s essential that we build on this and other successful programs, while taking full advantage of new federal funding opportunities.

The 131st Maine Legislature is taking important action to address high energy costs. Now, they should build on the progress of the past four years and make real headway toward addressing the root causes of our climate and energy crises. The new year and the new legislative session present a unique opportunity to do exactly this.

Thank You, Maine Delegation!

August 4, 2020

Today, President Donald Trump officially signed the Great American Outdoors Act, which will fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and make critical investments in our national park system and other public lands. This historic conservation victory will result in significant federal investment in nature and access to public lands. The bill demonstrated broad bipartisan support in Congress and passed with wide margins in both the House and the Senate.

Maine’s Congressional delegation each played important roles in passing the Great American Outdoors Act. Senator Susan Collins has championed the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) throughout her entire career in the Senate and her consistent support played a big role in passing this effort into law. Senator Angus King was a key co-sponsor of the Great American Outdoors Act and spent many hours drafting the language and advocating for it with Administration officials and his colleagues in the Senate. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree serves on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees annual funding for LWCF and has worked tirelessly to boost and maintain funding for conservation. Congressman Jared Golden served as an original co-sponsor on the House bill and voted for permanent reauthorization back in 2019 as one of his first votes in Congress.

Over the last 50 years, Maine has received approximately $191.6 million in funding from LWCF. This support has permanently protected iconic Maine places like Acadia National Park, Grafton Notch, and Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park along with community boat launches, fishing access points, and parks. LWCF also encompasses the Forest Legacy Program, which focuses on protecting privately owned forest lands for public benefit. In Maine, the Forest Legacy Program has been a key aspect of our LWCF success by conserving more than 741,000 acres with $76 million.

The bill combines two conservation proposals that each have strong bipartisan support. The first provides full and permanent funding of $900 million each year for LWCF, an amount derived from offshore oil and gas revenues—not tax dollars. A recent economic analysis shows that every $1 million invested in LWCF could support between 16 and 30 jobs. Additionally, research on the impact of the LWCF shows that $1 spent generates $4 in economic value from natural resource goods and services alone.

The second part of the bill invests $1.9 billion annually for the next five years toward maintenance in national parks, other public lands and at the Bureau of Indian Education. Over $20 billion in direct visitor spending is disseminated each year to local communities adjacent to national park sites. A recent National Park Service study of maintenance investments in this legislation found that it will support an average of 40,300 direct jobs and a total of 100,100 direct and indirect jobs over the next five years.

Maine’s identity is rooted in our natural places—and so is our economy. Passage of this bill is an enormous victory for our state and represents many years of dedication to the benefits of conservation. Fully and permanently funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund will spark job creation and critical investment in Maine’s communities, economy, and future. Our organization thanks Maine’s Congressional delegation for their leadership in passing this bill.