Remaining Vigilant with the Approach of the 2024-25 Storm Season

The American Lighthouse Foundation and its partners (Maine Preservation and The Presumpscot Foundation) have recently undertaken various initiatives to help safeguard historic light stations from the effects of severe weather. This team effort encompasses both implementable resiliency measures for lighthouses and the ongoing need to sound the alarm in our communities and beyond.

Here is a brief recap of this past month’s activities…

November 12, 2024

With the 2024-25 storm season upon us, it is vitally important that the preservation community continues to raise public awareness for the dangers posed by our changing climate to lighthouses.

The American Lighthouse Foundation, Maine Preservation and The Presumpscot Foundation are working hard to do just that!

The partners met at Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth to press forward with their collective efforts to raise public awareness for lighthouses and climate change as the New Year approaches. The educational journey continues!

November 8, 2024

The American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF) has created a new video entitled, “No Place to Hide: Lighthouses on the Front Lines of Climate Change.”

The eleven minute video, which appears on the organization’s YouTube channel and website, calls attention to the increasing threat that climate change is posing to sustainable preservation efforts at historic light stations nationwide.

The video ties-in directly to the recent activities of the ALF Storm & Mitigation Response Team. The committee has been working to develop effective mitigation measures and best practices that will help lighthouses become more resilient in the future.

According the ALF Storm & Mitigation Committee, “Maine’s lighthouses, deliberately constructed in harm’s way, are now on the front lines of our changing climate. There is no place for them to hide – and time is not on their side. Without prompt and meaningful action to mitigate the dangers posed by climate change – along with efforts to make Maine’s historic lighthouses and their supporting light station structures more resilient, these treasures will continue to suffer from the scourge of rising sea levels and stronger, more frequent storms. Many of our lighthouses are threatened and will not survive unless resources and innovative solutions are brought to bear very soon.”

October 19, 2024

Maine Preservation – through their 2024 Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Places list, is also helping raising much-needed awareness for the threat that severe storms and a changing climate are having on Maine’s 66 historic lighthouses.

ENDANGERED: Maine Light Stations…This year’s list sounds the alarm on a matter of a different scale – how a pair of January 2024 winter storms wreaked havoc along the coast, which now calls into question the fate of Maine’s 66 beloved light stations.

From a Maine Preservation Social Media Post…“Maine boasts 3,478 miles of coastline and sets the stage for light stations constructed atop ledges and precipices along the state’s rocky shores. Historically, the U.S. government—specifically the United States Coast Guard—owned and operated all Maine light stations until the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Since then, local and state governmental agencies have all taken on stewardship of these important cultural resources, as have non-profit organizations including American Lighthouse Foundation, Lighthouse Preservation Society, Beacon Preservation, Maine Lighthouse Trust, and The Island Institute. These entities do not have access to the financial resources needed for adequate maintenance of these cultural icons and navigational aids, let alone the significant costs of repairing and preparing these sites for ever-worsening weather events. Without intervention, it is not a question of if, but when the long-standing sentinels along Maine’s coast will fall to the sea.

“TAKE ACTION: Now is the time to raise awareness, develop strategies, and adapt Maine’s iconic light stations to be more resilient in the face of climate change. They can be repaired, prepared, and adapted! Contact your elected officials to express your concern.”