Sears Island, known as Wassumkeag or shining beach by the indigenous Wabanaki tribes of northern New England, is located off the coast of Searsport in Waldo County, Maine at the top of Penobscot Bay. The island is the largest undeveloped, uninhabited, causeway-accessible island on the eastern coast of the United States. It is in area. It is part of the Town of Searsport.
History and geography
It was named after David Sears of Boston after he agreed to grant a large sum of money towards founding of Searsport. Sears Island is state-owned land, but is part of the town of Searsport. It used to be known as Brigadier's Island. A causeway was built approximately 20 years ago upon what had been a tidal bar. At high tide Sears Island was a true island, and at low tide the exposed gravel bar allowed for easy access. Locals would drive over at low tide, always careful to return in time, lest they would have to wade or swim and leave the car stranded until the next tide. Several generations ago there were farms on the island. Only stone cellar holes and a few small fields remain today. Sears Island acts as a great element barrier for one of the most well-protected harbors in the state of Maine, Stockton Harbor, an attractive anchorage both for the protection it offers, and its convenience to upper Penobscot Bay towns Searsport, Belfast and Castine. Bar Harbor is about an hour car ride east, and both Camden and Bangor are about a half-hour south and north, respectively. Sears Island also has views of Cape Jellison. It is home to a number of species of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and plant life. The shallow shoal off the west side of the island supports meadows of eelgrass and other nursery habitats and features that play an important role in the fish and shellfish populations of greater Penobscot Bay.
Environmental controversies
The possible industrial development of the island has been a point of controversy for many years. Writer E. B. White, a resident of nearby Brooklin, Maine, noted in a 1975 essay for the New Yorker that he had attended an evening forum about a Central Maine Power Company proposal to construct a nuclear power plant on Sears Island. White reported to New Yorker readers that the Central Maine Power Company "feels very good about nuclear generating plants, is not worried about radiation or accidents." In response to a goat farmer, their spokesman acknowledged radioactive "iodine can contaminate milk... ut he was cheerful about the prospect. You would simply put the animals on a controlled diet, he said, and after about forty days the radioactivity would be gone." Facing local opposition, the plant was not built. Since the 1980s, successive Maine governors have promoted development of the island as a general cargo port, a wood-chip port, an LNG terminal, and an intermodal freight transport hub for global container ship traffic. In response, the Sierra Club of New England waged a seven-year struggle in federal courts in the mid-1980s and early 1990s to keep Sears Island free of development. Key cases included: , , and A three-year-long consensus-driven effort by Maine Department of Transportation and its Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee culminated on January 22, 2009 in the signing by Maine transportation commissioner David Cole of a perpetual conservation easement granting control of of the island, while leaving the remaining of the island open to port development. On February 19, 2009 however, a Rockland, Maineenvironmental activist and separately residents of Augusta and of Searport sued, asking the Maine Superior Court "to rescind the Jan. 22, 2009 conservation easement until the MDOT has fully complied with the requirements of the Maine Sensible Transportation Policy Act and the Maine Site Location of Development Law." On September 8, 2010, Maine Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hjelm dismissed all three cases as premature, concluding that the current lack of port development, and lack of any interest in port development by the Plaintifs made the injury theoretical and impossible to evaluate: the Plaintiffs as yet lacked demonstrable standing to sue. On May 3, 2011, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the judge's decision. Many Penobscot Bay area environmentalists and tourism-based businesses have expressed environmental and aesthetic concerns about further industrializing this portion of the coast.
Uses
Visitors can drive out to the end of the causeway, and despite the presence of a road traveling down the center of the island to the southern tip, they may not actually drive on the island itself, as it is blocked off by large concrete blocks and fencing. Visitors however, may walk, hike, bike, and explore the island, by the road — approximately long — which has views of Penobscot Bay, Cape Rosier/Castine, and Islesboro Island), and by the many walking trails that zig-zag their way around the island. Beaches surround the perimeter of the island.
