Southern Maine Opening and Welcome

Southern Maine Workshop, September 23
Opening and Welcome

Paul Dest, director of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve and moderator of today's workshop, welcomes us to the workshop, mentioning that this is one of three workshops planned for the next few weeks. Paul points out that the Reserve is not only a center for environmental education and research, but also a coastal public access site. As such, the Reserve preserves public access to a coastline that is quickly being privatized, in a way that both protects private property rights and meets the need of some coastal users (access is limited to those willing to walk the paths to the coast). Paul explains that the purpose of these workshops is to educate the public as to the rights and restrictions associated with public access and provide tools to stakeholders to address public access issue without litigation.

Before handing the floor over to Joey Donnelly for the official welcome, Paul thanks the workshop sponsors and supporters: National Sea Grant Law Center, located at the University of Mississippi School of Law; Maine Sea Grant; Island Institute; Maine Coastal Program and the Center for Law and Innovation at the University of Maine School of Law.

Next, Paul introduces Joey Donnelly, Vice Chair of the York Harbor Board. Joey welcomes everyone. He says that we are all here because we are concerned about public access to Maine's coast. Thanks to many groups working to preserve public access and its long history of protecting access to private beaches, natural resources, and working waterfront, Maine is "ahead of the pack." However, Joey reminds us that with public access to private land there comes a great deal of responsibility, specifically, the need to act as stewards of the land. Therefore, it is important for those of us interested in maintaining public access to be educating the public as to the rights and restrictions of access, emphasizing the need to be stewards.

In the room are community members, property owners, recreationists, land use planners, administrators, and lawyers. What each of these people have in common is ties to the Maine coast. People are excited, so let us begin with a question from the audience:

Q: In light of the fact that many of those using the public access site are not residents of Maine-either part-time or full time-and do not have a connection to the community how do you educate them as to the appropriate behavior on private land?

A: Signs are very important. Unfortunately, enforcement is expensive, so self-enforcement, through signage, is very important. Also we need to establish a culture of respect and stewardship regarding public access to private land.

Next: Progress made