Lindy Magness, the Outreach & Education Director for Harpswell Heritage Land Trust, came to Harpswell in the immediate aftermath of last winter’s destructive storms. The shock visited on the land by the force of wind and water had a profound impact on her. She determined to explore what we can do in the face of climate-related threats to protect the landscapes and resources we all depend on to one degree or another.

For those still unconvinced, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, currently Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin, lays it out in her book, What if We Get it Right: “It’s too late to ‘solve’ or ‘stop’ climate change,” she writes. “We have already changed the climate. We have already frayed the web of life…. We are at the stage of figuring out how to minimize the damage, mitigate the impacts, and adapt to this unknown new world—while ensuring that those who are already marginalized and struggling aren’t placed in yet more danger.” Dr. Johnson’s book then concentrates on what she calls solutions, which we might also call resilience.

The HHLT team discussed. Then Lindy began to develop a series of events focused on climate resilience, supported by a grant from Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. The series includes an informational speaker event and an arts-based event that took place earlier this year. Still to come are a community gathering event and what will be designed as family outdoor experience over the next few months. The events in the series are, of course, open to the public, not restricted to HHLT members. Lindy’s goal? To engage everyone in the community, “and I do mean everyone,” she says.

HHLT’s annual meeting on 9 July 2024 provided opportunity for the informational speaker event. Lindy lined up Maulian (Dana) Bryant, as HHLT’s guest speaker. Ambassador Bryant is Tribal Ambassador for the Penobscot Nation and also a member of the Maine Climate Council and co-chair of that council’s Equity Subcommittee. At the end of 2024, she will assume the office of Executive Director of the Wabanaki Alliance.

The nexus for her talk to HHLT was Wabanaki cultural wisdom in relation to community land management. Ambassador Bryant opened by sharing a tale she’d heard from her father, a tale she believes is told to kids throughout the Wabanaki tribal nations. It’s the story of the Frog Monster and it serves not only as a stirring tale and origin story, but also as a teaching tool.

During her remarks, the ambassador noted that “The fact that our people have survived all throughout all this time means that we’re good at it!” The survival skills they’ve developed have had to be used a lot, she said, “and we want to share.”

The Frog Monster story offers clues as to how this survival is so. In the story, the Frog Monster, a gargantuan creature, drinks up all the water in the river that serves the people. The tale teaches first how the community gathered together to find a consensus solution; it emphasizes that consuming more than is needed leads to destruction, and it further teaches that one who has the power to accrue resources shouldn’t do so just because they can, especially if in doing so, others are deprived of necessities. (The Frog Monster, it should be said, clearly didn’t abide by these principles and thus came to a most unpleasant end.)

Ultimately, the talk emphasized how Wabanaki cultural imperatives of recognizing the spiritual and physical connection of land and people leads to a sense of balance. We’re all affected by climate change, and achieving resiliency needs to be a shared effort.

Ambassador Bryant’s remarks can be found here.

The second event of the series was an outdoor water-color workshop in August led by artist Claire Loon Baldwin. Ms. Baldwin enjoys opportunities for introducing folks to engagement with the natural world through art.

The HHLT program for that day provided participants the materials needed to embark on a closer observation of the world around them than they might ordinarily employ. The group set off on a nature walk and sketchbook workshop at Skolfield Shores Preserve. No level of expertise was required; anyone from total beginner to experienced artist could join in. Though by its nature, workshop enrollment was limited, Lindy was delighted to find that it attracted folks new to HHLT. Three quarters of participants were newcomers, she reports.

Kim Van Zorge, who joined HHLT in 2023, described the experience as follows: “It was really nice to slow down and enjoy one of my favorite trails in a different light. Claire gave us an opportunity to express as a group, our feelings about climate change, and how to use a creative lens to evoke a sense of hope and renewed appreciation for our environment. She encouraged us to perceive nature through creativity, bringing into focus not only the colors, textures and lines of our surroundings but also a full sensory experience incorporating the sounds and smells of nature in the present moment, and how those ideas can artistically translate to paper. A favorite moment to mention[:] sketching under the gathering clouds while little raindrops splashed on the pages, reminding us we can enjoy being outside even when it’s not a perfectly sunny day!”

Ms. Baldwin says she hopes to demonstrate tools for observing the natural world “with curiosity, rather than anxiety.” The objective, as Ms. Baldwin stated it, is to “open our eyes to the infinite beauty the natural world contains and cultivate a deep well of resilience.”

This raises an important element in climate resilience: just what constitutes “resilience”? Lindy says resilience is “an organism’s ability to bounce back, whether that’s from a particular challenge or from purposeful exertion, like an athlete,” and she points to an essay by Diandra Marizet Esparza, Executive Director at Intersectional Environmentalist, “Culture Keepers for Climate Resilience.” The essay, found in Wild Seed Project publication “Planting for Climate Resilience: Northeast Landscapes” sees resilience as “a system’s or community’s ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.”

Ambassador Bryant’s talk addressed several of these abilities; Ms. Baldwin’s workshop offered a means of both preparation for climate change by embracing and integrating the natural world, and recovery in relying on that connection to help adapt to what the future may hold. The upcoming events continue this process.

Next up is a celebration of kelp. This may sound strange, but kelp is an amazing organism. Research into kelp suggests that it can be a viable aquaculture product while at the same time serving as habitat for fish and other sea creatures, capturing CO₂ in greater amounts than trees, and even off-setting ocean acidification. In terms of resilience, kelp might provide an off-season resource for lobster and other fishers, expanding economic opportunity for our fishing community. Lindy affirms, “Of course, there will be food and drink that showcases kelp’s variety!”

This celebration is planned for November 20, from 5-7 p.m. The food will be offered at 5, and at the same time, there will be an opportunity to block print kelp art—canvas tote bags will be available, but Lindy suggests people might bring their own tee shirts to experiment with, as well. Artist Jordan Kendall Parks, who has family in Harpswell, will guide the prospective artists. Beginning at 5:30, there will be a panel discussion with kelp farmer Stuart Ryan, former famer and nutrition student Isaac Burtis, and Liz MacDonald of Atlantic Sea Farms, followed by a Q&A about the benefits of kelp. The panel will explore kelp possibilities and pragmatic issues like aquaculture leases and how they work. The samples of various food and drink made with kelp and the chance to print kelp art will be available after the panel as well as before.

Finally, Lindy is working on some outdoor family-oriented events in collaboration with the Cundy’s Harbor Library to engage kids in protecting and preserving Harpswell’s environment. These events will take place between November 2024 and June 2025, and are intended to be hands on, experiential activities. Which brings us back to Ambassador Bryant’s talk in July.

During the Q & A following her remarks, Ambassador Bryant was asked how she, or her people, engaged young people in reverence for and protection of the natural world. She responded, “I think we just live it.” She referred to sharing special places with her children as a natural part of their daily lives. Then she added that there was also a ceremonial component. Her primary example was the Katahdin 100, begun by her father, former Penobscot chief Barry Dana, in 1981, when he decided to run from Indian Island to Katahdin as a prayer. Dana’s uncle, Butch Phillips, described the ceremony to Wabanaki Reach in 2022, “Now an annual tradition, [the Katahdin 100] has greatly expanded and includes scores of tribal members and their non-Indian guests who walk, run, bike and canoe. Neither a sporting event or a race, this is a spiritual journey of ceremony and personal sacrifice, carrying the spirits of our ancestors with us.” (See Butch Phillips, Penobscot Nation, “A Spiritual Canoe Journey,” excerpted from Wilderness Within Wildness Without by Bridget Besaw here.)

Stay tuned for these events as they come into focus. We’ll post them on our web site as details firm up! We also have reflection questions from our first two events listed on our Climate Resilience Series page, for those who attended the events and those who didn’t but would still like to engage in a thoughtful way.