114 
sailing, and sightseeing, for which the 2,520 miles of ragged, rocky 
bluff shore provide an ideal setting. However, these activities are 
severely restricted in many places due to extensive private ownership 
of prime coastal property. 
Pollution has caused serious problems with the taking of shellfish. 
By 1962, 67,000 acres of tidal flats had been closed to shellfishing, 
which is both a source of income and enjoyment to residents and 
visitors alike. In the decade preceeding 1962, the total areas closed 
due to pollution increased by 12 percent. 
By far, the most serious question facing Maine with regard to its 
shoreline resources is the large percentage of private ownership. In 
1967, a land use symposium organized at Bowdoin College by land 
consultant John McKee pinpointed the issues relating to this question 
and outlined the successes and failures of Maine’s governmental bodies 
in dealing with it. McKee and his colleagues emphasized the public’s 
right of access to unique shoreline, not only to a “mudflat or a run- 
down beach, but to a cliff and forest and cove—precisely the pleces 
that are selling fastest today .... Unless Maine decides right now 
‘to control the promise of development, Maine’s greatest asset will 
have been squandered, irresponsibly, and definitely.” “* Such warn- 
ings have been given repeatedly over the last decade by professional 
planners, newspaper writers, conservationists, and others concerned 
with the rapid disappearance of Maine’s precious, coastal resources 
into private control. The most recent of these was a series of articles 
by Robert C. Cummings in the Portland Sunday Telegram,” which 
outlined the results of a survey of real estate agents, developers 
town and city officials, and county courthouse records: 
Maine has probably lost its chance for significant public control over its 3,000 
miles of coastline. Indeed, before the end of this decade, it appears certain that 
people will have to begin lining up before dawn on most good summer weekends if 
they want a spot at a public beach. 
This conclusion seems inescapable. Some waterfront State parks are already 
turning away visitors by noon or earlier, overall park usage is increasing at the 
rate of 20 percent a year and State Parks and Recreation Director Lawrence 
Stuart say flatly that desirable coastal property has practically disappeared. 
Campers frequently have to wait in line all night for a campsite to become 
available at Acadia National Park. Persons who just want to go to the beach for an 
afternoon will soon face ‘‘Sorry, we are filled up’’ problems. 
Dalton Kirk, supervisor of the park district that ranges from Hagle Island off 
Harpswell to Pemaquid, notes that admissions to Reid State Park at Georgetown 
are up 20 percent, despite the opening of a new park across the Kennebec River at 
Popham Beach. 
Kirk says that already in his region the State parks provide the only opportunity 
for most people to get to the beach. But Reid State Park twice this season has been 
roused turn away beachgoers when the nearly 900 parking spaces were filled to 
capacity. 
And at Popham, cars are turned away almost every good Sunday afternoon by 1 
o'clock * * * 
The State has purchased another 25 acres of mostly beach front this summer at 
Popham, and Kirk believes the facilities there can be doubled eventually. But this 
adds only 25 percent to the region’s park capacity and the number of visitors is 
srowing at twice this rate. Kirk sees no possibilities of further expanding Reid 
State Park without destroying the naturalness of the area. 
“We need to get any beach frontage that is left in Maine,” Kirk says. But if and 
when the State decides to buy, it may find little property for sale. 
“4A Robert C. Cummings, ‘‘The Late Great State of Maine,” Portland Sunday Telegram, Aug. 30, 1970. 
6 [bid., reference 14A; also, ‘“‘Where Went the Maine Coast,’’ Aug. 16, 1970, and ‘Maine for Sale: 
Everyhody’s Buying,” Aug. 23, 1970, Portland Sunday Telegram. 
