Preserve Sears Island

I know of an island – do you know it? A marvelous green gem right up the road. A place where my girls and I take special walks – Sears Island.

Have you seen it in the spring? Often a red fox darts across the road before the causeway-this is his island, too. We park our car and then choose east or west. Most often we go east along the shore, slowly. We make our way painstakingly with our heads down looking for green rhyolite or the shape of a hand-made tool. If we glance across the water toward Cape Jellison, we see loons or flocks of smaller birds happily sitting on the glistening surface. What other marine life is out there just beneath the waves?

Once my friend walked to the farthest point of the island and saw two pilot whales. We have not yet been so lucky, nor have we walked the entire circumference of the shoreline. Now we wonder – will we ever have the chance?

In the summer we see Sears Island from our boat, as well. It is as green as the brightest emerald. There is a large grassy field seen from sea if you’re heading out of Stockton Harbor. We imagine lying there in that meadow – a field of sweet, surrounded by primeval woods. In summer the rocks at the shore are warm and the water is warm. The seaweed is full of mysteries and we must spend the entire afternoon searching and soaking up sunshine. We must store it up for winter.

Have you walked the secret paths of Sears Island in the fall? It becomes like a holy place as the narrow footpath through the woods is littered with red and gold-green leaves, and the trees press upon the sides of the path. The place is some kind of natural cathedral – a place like that Thoreau speaks of. It is quiet and interesting, especially if we don’t speak but only listen. Surely there are deer watching us. Birds of all sorts, and squirrels and chipmunks are heard and seen. Somewhere there are moose – it is a big island.

Now what is to become of this place? Has Gov. Baldacci walked our island paths in the seasons? For even in the depth of winter – in the gray-time – we walk Sears Island in our minds and hearts, and look toward spring when we can go again. It is the last uninhabited island of its size on the Eastern Seaboard – and it’s in our town. Let the powers that be talk of jobs, commerce, money for our schools, the economic crisis, the need for a natural gas facility – why must the island be sacrificed?

We walk the west side of the island less often – true, there is a beautiful stream on that side, with a sandy bottom full of wonders – but you must look across to Mack Point and see what modern man has done to that place – what a contrast to Sears Island. Yet we have always felt the land beneath our special walks was safe from such contagion or as some say, progress – a preserve, a memory of what the coast of Maine once was like.

Searsport’s history is its main attraction. Why not preserve the natural history of this part of the coast as well? My girls and I have gained far more from our island walks than any school could ever hope to teach. It is a place of learning, memory, nature and miracles. Preserve it. Unblemished. For our children and grandchildren.

Sally C. Jones lives in Stockton Springs.