Lake Access for Everybody!
Boats parked in driveways, fishing gear stowed in cars, kayaks on a vehicle roof, and floatees packed in picnic baskets — they’re all part of the life of Maine lake access users, residents who don’t own lakefront property but participate in the unique privilege that Maine’s waters are so accessible.
According to state studies:
Well over 200,000 Maine adults are access users on lakes annually. About 78% swim, 64% recreate near the shore, 49% fish from a boat and roughly 40% use power boats and canoes. Maine resident access users spend as much as $153 million annually on their recreation, 59% of which is spent in the communities nearest those lakes. This use supports as many as 3,000 jobs (lake use in general supports more than 8000 Maine jobs) and generates in excess of $30 million income for Maine residents.
There are no statistics for the remarkable value in lifestyle enjoyment and life enrichment of access users nor statistics about youth access users who follow in their adults’ footsteps but state studies have found that access users place substantial value, in excess of the cost to them, on the lakes they use for swimming, boating, fishing, etc.
Studies aside, access use of the Belgrade lakes and surrounding watersheds appears significant and everyone who passes area parks with their inviting picnic tables, drives these roads with their priceless water views, stops at mini-markets crowded with day users refueling their vehicles, boats and themselves recognizes that the culture of the access user is a familiar part of lake life in Maine. Almost all the lakes and ponds have boat launches; most of the towns have lake access; and there an abundance of parks of all sizes where users are welcome.
Although access commonly brings to mind public boat landings, everyone who lives among the lakes can be aware of anglers casting off the side of the road, of cars parked near where almost obscure, word-of-mouth trails lead to great swimming holes, of kids jumping off bridges (not recommended but access it is), of elderly couples picnicking in the cooling breeze or of youngsters splashing excitedly at the water’s edge of a lakeside park.
Access is land access, too, and this region abounds with public trails. With their varying lengths and levels of difficulty they offer one of the easiest introductions to outdoor recreation and they encourage families of all ages and sizes to walk and hike together.
The challenge for access use is not how much it gets users outdoors, not how it is the key to a lifetime pursuit, not how much fun it is or how it can be a family or intergenerational outlet, but how to let nonusers know about all the wonderful waters and trails and communities that are so nearby.
Here’s to a summer that’s still starting up and the possibilities for welcoming access users to an awesome outdoors.
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