Google has given Gouldsboro a Geo for Good Impact Award for the work it did using Google Earth to preserve and expand shore access for clam harvesters. Pauline Angione and Vicki Rea, with help from Shellfish Warden Mike Pinkham and the Shellfish committee, created an inventory of access points that were critically important to harvesters. Shellfish Committee members Mike Cronin and Allan Church led Pauline and Vicki on tours of access points to help them understand why harvesters needed different places to get to the shore as weather conditions and seasons changed.
Pauline and Vicki then used Google Earth to document what they had learned on a map. Google Earth enabled them to see the access points together with maps of town property, conserved lands, private property ownership, and shellfish area boundaries and closures. Seeing all that information in one place, layered together, was essential to tracking changes to shore access and identifying opportunities to increase access.
Gouldsboro’s work to protect and expand shore access for harvesters is ongoing. Understanding how desirable shore access areas intersect with private, public, and conserved property ownership continues to be essential. One outcome from the work we’ve done, beyond continued access, is an article that the Gouldsboro team wrote with others about why the “on foot” working waterfront is different from the “in place” working waterfront and needs special attention and different protections. We are pleased to get national attention for the work that Gouldsboro is doing.
