Current vegetation and past land use on Long Island, Blue Hill Bay, Maine

Crew ABC (University of Maine); University of Maine Crew ABC

Following taken from introduction: 'During the period of May 19 through May 21, 2004 our crew of twelve undergraduate students, three graduate students and one professor, conducted research on Long Island in Blue Hill Bay, Maine. Long Island which is approximately two miles wide by five miles long. It was first inhabited in the mid 1700's. At one point in time the island had reached a maximum population of 100 residents (McLane, 1985). The island community was composed of loggers, fishermen, farmers, and quarrymen, and around 1890 there were a total of 150 people employed on the island. In the early 1900's the island's community slowly dissipated, and by the 1920 all of the full time residents of the island had left (McLane, 1985). Currently the island is privately owned, however Acadia National Park has acquired access to the island through a conservation easement.' 'Our goals for this research were to locate boundary lines as described by deeded transfers dating back to the 1800's, and to correlate land use history using the current vegetation. The crews were anticipating on locating three lots. One lot was deeded to Willard Dow, the second was deeded to David Cain, and the third was deeded to John Torrey. These lots were located on the southern end of the island in the former Samuel Carter lot. To identify the boundary lines of each lot, we were searching for natural and/or artificial monuments that included stakes and stones, stonewalls, barbwire fencing, and open grown trees. To accomplish these goals we used many tools and techniques such as GPS units, chains, core sampling, and map and compass work. It was important to be able to use modern techniques like GPS along with traditional techniques like a map, compass and chain to follow old deeds and locate points of importance. ' /STUDY LOCATIONS:/ /ISLANDS/Long Island/