Talk of the Towns 11/11/20: Creating a Geopark for Maine

Producer/Host: Ron Beard What makes the geology of present-day Maine especially compelling to you? What is a Geopark and how would it work? What have you been working on in the past year as you have drafted a vision for a Maine Geopark? Within a geopark, there are geosites (sites of geological importance– provide examples from Damariscotta, Fort Knox and Lubec. How would creation of a Geopark serve the interests of Local communities (pride of place, economic opportunity)? Visitors to the state and localities? Geologists and students of geology? If you and your colleagues are successful and we jumped in our time-machine and came back to explore the Maine Geopark in ten years time, what might we see? what might we experience? What new knowledge might have been uncovered? Guests: Sarah Hall, Professor of Geology, College of the Atlantic Sahra Gibson, 2020 graduate, College of the Atlantic Joe Kelly, Emeritus Professor of Geology, University of Maine Don Hudson, International Appalachian Trail, Emeritus Director, Chewonki About the host: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.