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Sears Island Home| Preserve | Planning Initiative 2006 | Articles

 

Recent History of Sears Island

 

In 1978, Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) proposed a cargo terminal on the island. In 1984, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Cargo Port project for its Clean Water Act (CWA) permit review. The Corps refused.

 

The Sierra Club then requested a preliminary injunction of the project, filing court claim that the Corps violated the CWA and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by not requiring an EIS. The causeway to the island was begun in 1985 without proper permits.

 

After years of challenges by the Sierra Club, EPA, and others, the EPA, Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club signed a consent decree settling the Sears Island wetland enforcement case, requiring restoration. The state bought the island to be overseen by the MDOT. In 1997 Governor King called the cargo port project to a halt over concern for the cost to the state and in recognition of the negative environmental impacts.

 

Early History of Sears Island
What is now known as Sears Island was left behind when the last glacier retreated 12,000 years ago. Indians living in the Penobscot Bay region frequented the island. The island was first called Wassumkeag, “bright sand beach”. Many English and French explorers came to the bay in the sixteenth century

Captain John Smith wrote about the region praising its, “…rocky isles so furnished with good Woods, Springs, Fruits, Fish and Fowle.” The American Revolution brought squatters to Sears Island. The first, Job Pendleton arrived sometime before 1775. An American ship “Defense” was sunk in the harbor next to the island, and the squatters fled rather than face the enemy soldiers. Peace returned, and six families were settled on the island by 1790. In 1813, the island became a dairy farm owned by the Sears family. In 1905, The Bangor & Aroostook Railway bought the island for a tourist destination, which failed with the rising popularity of cars.
 

 

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Last Modified: 11/16/06