UNH Unveils Top Concerns of Maine Residents

Loss of fishing jobs and income is the top environment-related concern among residents of Maine's Hancock and Washington Counties, a new brief from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire finds. Washington County residents also rate forestry decline as an environmental issue that has had a major effect on their lives and community. In Hancock County, water pollution ranks high as an environmental concern. Across a range of environmental issues, political party affiliation is associated with level of concern about environmental problems.

"Rapid increases in tourism, declining fisheries, and growing threats from pollution are bringing both social and environmental change to Downeast towns and villages," says UNH professor of sociology and Carsey Institute senior fellow Lawrence C. Hamilton, who co-authored the report with Carsey Institute faculty fellow and UNH assistant professor of sociology Thomas G. Safford.

The report notes that Maine has the highest percentage of housing units classified as second homes (15.6 percent) in the United States, and Hancock County-home to vacation destinations Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor-is among the three fastest-growing counties in Maine, driven partly by second-home development.

Rural Downeast communities are considered to be the most fishery-dependent in all of New England, and the high levels of concern about loss of fishing jobs and pollution effects on water resources reflect this.