Atlantic Time lest darkness falls

As dusk creeps back into the Down East afternoon one ponders the “why” of Eastern Standard Time. Draw a meridian between the Atlantic-Eastern Time zones starting on Baffin Island and ending in Tierra Del Fuego and the dividing line runs down the Kennebec River, placing eastern and northern Maine on Atlantic Time. Our clocks should have been left alone. In fact, if we begin to ponder, there are multiple reasons we should not be in the Eastern Time zone and they might explain our special way of life.

East of the Kennebec we are the land of the People of the Dawn, the Native Americans and Acadians. Our forests are uniquely sub-boreal, our coastline distinctively rocky, our highways un-tolled, our back yards clear-cut, not mowed, our Route 9 no Route 128, our Down East and County bird no pigeon.

Like Ireland and unlike the Eastern Time zone, we are underpopulated, stick out into the North Atlantic from a prosperous continent, have no east-west highway and speak English with an accent. As in Quebec and the Maritimes our investments in recent years have come from Canada and Europe rather than the Lower 48. Our differences bring the good and the bad. On one hand we have a larger contiguous commercial forest than in any state east of the Mississippi, on the other, our Labor Day is fast becoming Tax Day. And, we also have a unique window of opportunity.

True, we could opt to be the “end of the line” in the Eastern Time zone where our welcoming sign as I-95 crosses the Kennebec reads, “Welcome to Eastern and Northern Maine – Soaked in Formaldehyde – Look but Don’t Touch – A Future Home for Those with Discretionary Income and Leisure Time.” But, consider a different vision, a different sense of time and place.

In the Atlantic Time zone we find our forest acreage, volumes and fiber growth rates the highest they have been in 160 years. With the stronger Canadian dollar and European euro, our forest industry’s competitive advantage is on the rise. The shift from advocacy of “public takeover and government park” to “private ownership, development easements and the tradition of public access” is bringing nature lover and the forest industry together through a shared multiple-use management philosophy.

The University of Maine School of Forestry is at last, once more, our guide. Notwithstanding spot problems, forest jobs and bottom lines are no longer endangered species and investments are once again a sign of rational behavior in the industry. Our tax base could well expand as the economic and employment multipliers of rising productivity work their magic. This positive economic alignment will not last forever but it could provide an opportunity for citizens to get their regulatory and tax house in order and to open the door to the invisible hand of free enterprise of the 21st century.

If the economic buzz from the Eastern Time zone is severed, we can focus more clearly on what we have, not on what we once were missing. We have, for example, the 1,000-square-mile industrialized Penobscot Valley.

While only 5 percent of Maine’s land mass, this valley contains forest industry mills and General Electric, rail, gas, transmission, interstate and oil corridors, hydro, biomass and natural gas power generation, an international airport, quality cultural and people services, a world class, state owned sea port opportunity at Mack Point/Sears Island, tertiary hospitals, land grant and professional universities such as the University of Maine and Husson, a nationally valued small city in Bangor noted for safety and quality of life.

We have world-class biological and environmental research, renowned seafood and unparalleled sailing and prized vacation destinations along our rugged coastline, pastoral beauty coupled with niche manufacturing and entrepreneurship in what is becoming known as the Maine Highlands, and a unique composite of Great Maine Woods, agriculture, County and Down East culture and such gems as the biathlon center, Baxter, Loring and Grand Lake Stream to the north and east.

Telecommunications and the Internet have unbundled career opportunities and led them away from urban areas in this new knowledge and information based economy, neutralizing what was once our economic isolation barrier while raising up our traditional qualities of life. When one calls Putnam Investments, for example, to shift from one mutual fund to another today, one could be talking to a service rep in Andover or Franklin, Maine rather than Andover or Franklin, Mass., working through Putnam’s Maine Work-at-Home program. Such footloose jobs of the future are spreading across our regional landscape. What an interesting choice for a new college graduate looking for a first job, quality of life, and a place to call home.

On Atlantic Time we can refocus our sights on the virtual village green rather than on a neo-wilderness at the end of the line. Address our oppressive regulatory and taxation environment and the future can be of our making. Yet, to make this aspiration a reality, we must visualize and personify an Atlantic Time zone and way-of-life lest darkness falls. To make this aspiration a reality, perhaps we should not have turned back our clocks.

William Beardsley is president of Husson College and chairman of the Finance Authority of Maine.