Repurposed Navy Installation in Maine Looks for a More Firm Financial Footing

WINTER HARBOR, Maine — Here in Downeast Maine, an initiative by conservation leaders stands to offer an example of how public-private partnerships can serve to advance worthy social and scientific goals.

Still a work in progress, the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park hopes to bring more jobs and growth to this depressed region while also becoming the largest research station in the national park system and offering ecology education to hundreds of teachers and students.

The growth of the Schoodic campus, fueled by federal stimulus funding, also serves as an example of entrepreneurship in the public sector and demonstrates the risks of committing public capital to a project without the assurance of an ongoing stream of funding to cover long-term costs. At the moment, the Schoodic Institute covers less than a third of its annual budget with program fees, leaving the rest to be funded by government grants and and the generosity of private donors.

Students visit the Schoodic Institute this summer (Photo by Timothy B. Clark / GovExec.com)

The institute is centered around research and education on scientific topics including bird ecology, aquatic ecology, forest ecology and more, often in partnership with the University of Maine and other organizations. It is serving as national headquarters for the emerging practice of “citizen science,” for example by promoting a study of mercury in dragon fly larvae that has engaged students in national parks across the country. One of its key goals is to instill more enthusiasm in children about the great outdoors, as part of a nationwide movement to address “nature-deficit disorder” among tech-addicted youngsters.

By boat, the Schoodic Peninsula is less than 10 miles across Frenchman Bay from Bar Harbor, gateway to Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. Its proximity means that it is an important part of the viewshed seen by hikers up Cadillac Mountain and other peaks in the national park. Most of the beautiful views across the bay have been protected since the peninsula became part of Acadia National Park in 1929, and recently, a major conservation easement has protected land adjacent to the peninsula. By car, the peninsula is nearly an hour’s drive from Mount Desert, and it is not nearly as visited as the main parts of the park closer to Bar Harbor.

The opportunity to create the Schoodic Institute arose after the U.S. Navy in 2002 closed a radar and listening outpost known as Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor. The Navy facility’s location in the midst of the national park itself offered an interesting look at the role private conservationists have had in development of the park. The listening post was first opened in 1917 at Otter Cliffs on Mount Desert. A Navy historian wrote: “Because of the lack of man-made noise within many miles, and the unobstructed span of ocean water between there and Europe, Otter Cliffs was among the best radio sites along the East Coast and could receive signals from Europe when no other station in the United States could. It had been invaluable in World War I, when radio receivers were rather primitive.”

By the 1930s, the Otter Cliff installation was in poor repair and had become an eyesore in the developing national park. John D. Rockefeller Jr. who donated land and a lovely network of carriage roads to the park, suggested that the Navy move its facility. In the negotiations that ensued, the Navy agreed to relocate its listening post to the Schoodic Peninsula so long as Rockefeller would help build an equally capable listening post. The Navy’s account notes that “The architect's plan for the new station included a beautiful building similar to Mr. Rockefeller's residence at Seal Harbor. Artisans from all over the world contributed to the project. It has been estimated that to build the same structure today would cost $10 million.”  

The 100-acre site remained important for the Navy during the rest of the 20th century. Its radar array and satellite transmissions could triangulate the location of foreign warships and offer American ships’ cruise missiles a means of over-the-horizon targeting.  

But advancing satellite technologies made the site obsolete by the end of the century, and the Navy decommissioned it in 2002. The decision was a major blow to the Winter Harbor community, as several hundred uniformed and civilian personnel were reassigned to other locations. The town lost more than half of its population, dropping from 988 to 450, according to former Town Manager Tony Barto. Census counts showed it as having declined more steeply than any other community in Maine between 2000 and 2010.

VIDEO: The Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park

Like many communities afflicted by base closings, Winter Harbor set about to see if the abandoned facility could be repurposed. In anticipation of the base closure, a nonprofit called Schoodic Futures sprang up to work with National Park planners toward establishing a Schoodic Education and Research Consortium on the base. The U.S. Park Service could invest modestly toward that goal. But as with some of its activities, it hoped to attract other funding. So in 2004 the NPS created a nonprofit organization called the Schoodic Education and Research Center “to guide present and future generations to greater understanding and respect for nature by providing research and learning opportunities through its outstanding park setting, unique coastal Maine facilities and innovative partnership programs.”

Schoodic’s Stimulus-Fueled Funding Foundation

Little changed on the remote peninsula until advent of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009—the federal stimulus program—in the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown. All of a sudden, many federal agencies were looking to spend money in a hurry, and the National Park Service, with its huge unfunded maintenance backlog, was primed with “shovel-ready” projects. Plans were ready for refurbishing the Navy base, and the stimulus program contributed $9.3 million to help complete the work. Together with park user fees and other federal funds, the park contributed nearly $18 million to the project by the time of the renamed institute’s grand opening in August 2011. The Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park’s campus now includes classrooms, laboratories and a large auditorium as well as facilities capable of housing and feeding up to 200 people.