Marshall Island's Moment
A gorgeous island off Mount Desert that almost became an exclusive gated community at sea has just been preserved in all its wildness.
By Jeff Clark
For the past two years, Terry Towne has been taking Marshall Island apart piece by piece - the manmade pieces of it, that is. Old fishermen's shacks rotting into the duff of the forest floor, an ancient engine rusting quietly just above the shore, lengths of galvanized pipe and piles of tin cans. Towne, a land steward with Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the 981-acre island's new owner, burns what he can and packs the rest out to his boat in plastic totes.Located on the edge of the Gulf of Maine between Isle au Haut and Swans Island, "Marshall is an amazing place," Towne says as he leads the way along a narrow game trail winding through the spruce and fir that cover most of the island.
