The Davises threw a gala event. Dining tables were set up on the wharf, each covered with navy blue tablecloths and set with a bouquet of flowers. A buffet was served under a white tent, with serving platters loaded up with lobster rolls, barbecued chicken, whoopie pies, and lobster-shaped cookies. Tied up at the dock was the Davis boat, the Edwin Marshall, and an Island Institute boat. The family ordered up a perfect day of sunshine with just a hint of breeze, and the venue, of course, was a classic Maine view overlooking Goose Cove. Representatives from the Department of Marine Resources, state legislature, Island Institute and Coastal Enterprises, which enacted and implement the program, came from as far as Augusta, Wiscasset, and Rockland to join the crowd. A champagne toast capped the event. “This program has been a positive, positive thing in our family,” said Wayne Davis, who owns the property with his brother Robert Davis. The Davises expressed gratitude to all those who supported and facilitated their application with the program. “The most important person to thank here today is our father,” Wayne Davis said. A year ago, the family was awarded a Working Waterfront Access Program grant of $265,000 by the Department of Marine Resources and the State Planning Office’s Land for Maine’s Future program, to place a permanent covenant on their property, a family-owned, full-service fishing wharf, with just over a half-acre of land, 420 feet of rocky shoreline, a 3,200-square-foot wharf and storage and maintenance buildings. The property has allowed four generations of family fishermen to supply lobsters, scallops and other seafood to local buyers. Robert and Wayne Davis are third-generation fishermen. The brothers’ grandfather, Fred Davis, bought the Goose Cove property in 1946 from Wilder Robbins, and their father, Edwin, took over the property and became a fisherman as well.
The Davis property is the first family-owned commercial wharf preserved by the program. Family fishing businesses were once commonplace along the coast. “It’s a family heritage they’re trying to preserve,” said Coastal Enterprises, Inc., program administrator Dick Clime. An initial survey of working waterfront conducted about 10 years ago by Island Institute and CEI showed that, of Maine’s 5,000 miles of coastlines, only about 20 miles remained available for working waterfront access. The study showed that working waterfront is “in danger of disappearing completely and of being transformed piecemeal to other uses,” Clime said. The study identified more than 60 access properties that are essential for fishermen along the coast. That appears to be an underestimation. Clime and Cowperthwaite recently updated the survey, going town by town. “We came up with at least 100 properties that we feel it’s important to preserve,” Clime said. “It takes local vision and leadership to translate legislative goals to something real on the water,” said Island Institute president Philip Conkling. “The Davises are true visionaries. They have seen the future and this will be here forever.” In terms of the size of the properties preserved, the program is small. But it is huge for Maine’s economy and heritage, said Conkling. “We’re not talking about a hundred acres or 20 acres or five acres,” he said. “We’re talking about half an acre of critical infrastructure. The task is not overwhelming.” At one time, Conkling said, people had the impression that working waterfronts “were messy places – they smelled like bait, they might be disreputable. They simply didn’t understand that those places were the glue that held the coastal economy of Maine together. And they are the very places most subject to changing use, from commercial use into seasonal use.” DMR Commissioner George Lapointe affirmed that the impetus that makes the program work must come from local residents. “Without their getting this started, we wouldn’t be here today,” Lapointe said of the Davis brothers. The importance of the program is self-evident, he added. “If you don’t bring the lobsters to shore, you don’t have an industry." Ted Hoskins spoke to the importance of local support for the program. “You have a family who said, 'This ought to stay with us,'” Hoskins said of the Davises. “And you’ve got people who said, 'Yes, it should.' This is the opportunity we have – to recognize what can happen when we work together.” |
