From research to chainsawing, PILP endures

By John Whitman for the Peaks Island Land Preserve

‍

In 1994, a small group of islanders formed the Battery Steele Association in the hope of preventing the gigantic World War II shore battery from being sold by its then owner, S.T.A.R. Foundation, into private hands and becoming inaccessible to the public. With telethons and back sales, we raised the asking price of $70,000 in July 1995.

We owned the Battery and it would forever be open to islanders and visitors. This was not as a military monument - the 16-inch guns never fired a shot in anger. (As a teenager later observed when he painted Sam McCain's motto on the Battery walls in 6-foot-tall letters: WAR IS FAILURE.)

We decided to keep going, and set up a nonprofit corporation, Peaks Island Land Preserve, whose mission is to acquire, preserve, and serve as stewards of open space on the island. Over the next 28 years, PILP has preserved more than a dozen open-space properties comprising a total of 150 acres.

Some, like the Battery, have been acquired outright by purchase or donation and protected by deed restrictions.

Others have been preserved as open space by obtaining conservation easements form the owner, which forbids and development on the property. These deed restrictions "run with the land," meaning the owner can sell the property but restrictions will remain in place forever.

The largest single property preserved by PILP is the Hundred Acre Wood, a crab-shaped tract of woods that stretches from the center of the island to the Back Shore, including a mile-long stretch of ocean frontage. The City of Portland owns this property.

After a lengthy lobbying effort and negotiations in 2001, the City Council voted unanimously to donate to PILP a conservation easement.

The Hundred Acre Wood surrounds Battery Steele's 14 acres and adjoins the 20-acre Parker Preserve, which was donated by an island family to the state, and then, in turn, donated it to PILP.

Many of PILP's 12 miles of trails run through these properties, which otherwise would have been heavily developed. Instead, it it still possible - even for adults - to get lost in the woods on Peaks Island.

Another key acquisition, barely two acres in size, was consummated in 2016: the Ice Pond. Over 100 years ago, a small stream that flows down from Tolman Heights to the ocean was dammed to create an impoundment. Huge blocks of ice were harvested there every winter and stored, insulated by sawdust, in a tall wooden ice house.

In the summer the ice was sold to the grocery store and the dozen hotels that once prospered Down Front. By 2016, the dam was falling apart, and PILP made a fundraising appeal to buy the property and repair the dam. The work was expertly carried out by Lionel Plante Associates, on time and at a gentle price.

The Ice Pond is a premier venue for skating, because it is very near the shore and skaters can see Long and Jewell Islands while playing pickup hockey. Inexorably, however, the dam is silting up; the pond will one day become a marsh.

We calculated that to restore the pond's original depth would require the dredging and removal of 7,000 cubic yards of silt, at vast cost. The decision was made to let it be. The marsh will remain a wetland prized by many bird species.

That decision reflects one of PILP's basic principles. We act as stewards of the properties, to the extent of cutting down dead "leaner" trees that are a potential fire hazard, maintaining trails, and working to reduce the spread of invasive plants.

It is not our purpose, however, to "improve" the land by landscaping or turning it into a park. Our policy is to leave it alone and let nature take its course.

Twenty years ago, beavers suddenly appeared on Peaks Island, and they have transformed the landscape in and around the Battery.

Unlike the previous unnatural glut of deer that ate the understory where birds thrived, however, the beavers created a wetland environment for birds. Peaks Island can never truly be wild again, but when in doubt, PILP sides with Thoreau: "In wilderness is the preservation of the world."

It's been three decades, with many memories. We have come a long way from 1995. Battery Steele remains open to islanders and visitors, young and old, for exploration, for pig roasts, Naked Shakespeare, weddings, filming horror movies, paintball wars, the annual Sacred & Profane art show.

Over the years, PILP has been blessed to attract innumerable dedicated volunteer board members and land stewards. Our work runs the gamut, from legal research to chainsawing.

We have had wonderful community support, including one benefactor who bequeathed her house to PILP.

The generosity of others made possible the 2022-23 study and analysis of all PILP properties by Forrest Bell Environmental, providing us with a keen look at what challenges and changes lie ahead for the next generation.

‍

John Whitman is president of the Peaks Island Land Preserve board.