On May 19, 2006, over 120 heritage activists met in Farmington to review aspects of the Maine Mountain Heritage Network’s strategic plan and to talk about the future of the Maine Mountain Heritage Area.

As part of the Rally for the Maine Mountain Heritage Area, attendees participated in break-out sessions centered on the four program areas of the Maine Mountain Heritage Network. Each break-out session was comprised of an introduction to the program area, an update of current projects underway, a panel discussion, and brainstorming about next steps for the program action teams.

Breakout highlights were as follows:

1. Knowledge Power breakout participants affirmed the importance of creating an “integrated heritage information system” for the region but suggested that throughout our work we should seek opportunities to connect stories and ideas to real world experiences related to the region’s culture and heritage.  Suggestions included: hands-on workshops for kids and tourists, apprenticeships, and scavenger hunts. 
2. The Woods and Waters session felt that giving local residents a voice in land use management decisions was important (e.g., local area resource studies should continue) but determined that the first priority is helping to educate residents about “the big picture.” Changes that happen in the Maine Mountains are often influenced and driven by events happening at the state, national, and global levels.
3. Participants in the Village Works session examined several steps to take economic development of service centers to the next level. The group suggested that the Network redefine downtown revitalization and economic development to focus on strengthening cultural and historic institutions as a new economic driver for downtowns.
4. The Mountain Made group felt that it would be beneficial to tie “signature” product sales to tourism. For example, we should encourage tour operator itineraries to include farm visits, manufacturing tours, and places to buy local products would help increase visibility in a larger market.

The afternoon session of the May 19^th Rally featured a panel to consider the opportunity for designation of our region as a national heritage area. Bruce Hazard of Mountain Counties Heritage provided a brief overview, noting that the Heritage Network had adopted the heritage area model early on but had yet to make a decision as to whether to seek national designation.

Richard Barringer of the Muskie School for Public Service then framed the panel discussion which featured presentations by Annie Harris of the Essex National Heritage Area, Vaughn Stinson of the Maine Tourism Association, Joel Swanton of the Maine Forest Products Council.

Harris provided an overview of her project which focuses on historic and natural resource conservation, heritage education, tourism development, and partnership building. She noted that while the U.S. Park Service and the Office of Management and Budget do provide fiscal oversight of her project, they exercise no regulatory authority. It is “grassroots forever!”

Vaughn Stinson observed that tourism is Maine’s largest industry and that heritage tourism is a fast growing sector within the industry. He cautioned, however, that tourism development must be undertaken in partnership with landowners, appearing to anticipate Joel Swanton’s remarks. Joel, representing the forest products industry, was supportive of the Network programs generally but noted that landowners were opposed to national designation as it could be used by “narrow interests” to invoke legal challenges to landowner operations.

The Network coordinating team will move ahead on three fronts, evaluating the opportunity for a preliminary national designation study, determining if state level designation would work equally well or better, and finally identifying potential funding that could support Network programs without designation of any kind.