Locals saving themselves

A great many of us wish there were a way to save Maine’s land, sea and culture from the forces that are dismantling it, to revitalize our hometowns without completely replacing their inhabitants, to grow without destroying every last landscape and collective memory. But what can a small community do to protect its past and shape its future, if the invisible hand of the market would prefer it be replaced with strip malls and second homes?

A great deal, if you go about it right, argues veteran land conservationist Alix Hopkins of Pownal, the founding director of Portland Trails. Hopkins traveled the country to assemble a timely and instructive portfolio of successful, locally-driven projects to protect the land and enhance the lives of the people who work it.

The range of projects is exemplary: establishing a community-supported farm outside Minneapolis and a community forest in Washington state, coordinating federal and local resources to draw nature-lovers to a beautiful, impoverished backwater of North Carolina, organizing the grassroots effort to restore the Bronx River, and administering the effort between ranchers and a large national land trust in Montana to save ranches – and the landscapes they occupy – from the march of the second home subdivisions. All were bottom-up initiatives that bolstered local communities, rather than displacing them.

Hopkins has created a how-to manual for would-be land conservationists. The stories themselves – there’s one about Hopkins’ work at Portland Trails – may inspire more than a few readers with ideas of their own; those who wish to take things further will find detailed, point-by-point advice in the back of the book, followed by an appendix of contacts, funding sources, and useful publications.

These are important stories, but they’re not always artfully told. At times I found myself casting about for a red pen, but then I suffer from an obsessive editing disorder brought on by too many years in the newspaper business. If you find yourself similarly afflicted, take deep breaths and swim through the rough bits: you’ll be amply rewarded.

Colin Woodard is author of two books, Ocean’s End and The Lobster Coast and is a regular columnist in Working Waterfront.