Accessing the Maine Coast

Why is access important to local governments?

Coastal access is important for a variety of users. Ensuring recreational access to the coast offers visitors and locals the opportunity to connect with marine ecosystems. Commercial access to the coast and to working waterfront infrastructure supports the local economy by ensuring access to marine livelihoods. Tribes need access to ancestral lands for cultural, spiritual, and sustenance purposes. Researchers require access to monitor and understand coastal ecosystems that shape resource management.

How can state and local governments plan for coastal access?

Comprehensive planning and harbor planning ordinances and processes can reduce the types of development that might restrict and limit access. These tools can also be used to provide incentives for developers to provide access to the public in both new development and redevelopment.

How can we ensure access for tribal members?

Tribal Nations

As sovereign nations, Tribal nations that have intertidal land and access have the right to regulate intertidal fisheries and the access to coastal spaces. Settler-colonial policies historically sought to separate Wabanaki people from their fisheries, a legacy carried forward through state decisions about where Wabanaki people were allowed to live; the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission’s Sea Run report details these histories and outlines pathways for restoring connections to clamming and other cultural lifeways.

Long before the place now known as Maine was discovered by European colonists, legal principles and rules of engagement were established in Europe that continue to impact the ways in which we think about access and private property ownership to this day. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued a missal, now known as the Doctrine of Discovery which developed the legal and religious precedent for the seizure of Indigenous land by European colonists. The precedent set forth in this document has been cited by the Supreme Court of the U.S. in cases related to the seizure of lands from Indigenous people. In addition it sets precedent for the exclusion of particular groups of people (in this case Indigenous peoples) from spaces that are discovered, claimed, and made private. This is one of the earliest precedents for private property. The Mayflower Compact, Body of Liberties, and Charter of Massachusetts Bay set similar precedents while also echoing ideas from the Doctrine of Discovery. 

Jumping forward, we can see these colonial legal and religious precedents in action in multiple ways. Wabanaki peoples consistently excluded from coastal spaces and fisheries, despite living in, navigating, and gathering food on the coast for time immemorial. Unlike other coastal states, Maine does not offer any protections for Wabanaki people to be able to access their “usual and accustomed places” regardless of the federal legal precedent for these kinds of protections. In addition, colonial ideas of private property ownership prevent both Wabanaki and non-Wabanaki people from accessing the coast. In fact, ancient colonial precedents and principles that predate the state of Maine continue to be cited in modern case law such as in the Moody Beach case that is ongoing.

In many ways the State of Maine relates with the sovereign Wabanaki tribal nations in a similar way to municipalities. As of spring of 2023, The Passamaquoddy at Sipayik are working to create an ordinance specifically for wild intertidal shellfishing (primarily clams). This governing document would allow Passamaquoddy people greater access to wild intertidal shellfish. While Sipayik is the only Wabanaki Nation in Maine with coastal landholdings – and therefore the only Nation positioned to create an ordinance of this type – their approach may still offer useful insights or procedural examples for other Tribal Nations seeking to strengthen governance over their own fisheries, harvesting rights, or access systems within their respective geographies.

Non-Wabanaki government 

Unlike many other coastal states, Maine does not ensure coastal and fisheries access for Indigenous people in Maine. Multiple U.S. Supreme Court cases create the precedent for non-tribal governments ensuring access for indigenous people. The U.S. vs. Winans, a U.S. Supreme Court case from 1905, states that “Tribes retain their aboriginal rights unless abrogated by treaty, abandoned or extinguished by statute” and that “Indians have an easement over lands to gain access to their usual and accustomed places.” Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this finding in 1942 in Tulee v. Washington. In Tulee v. Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court established that states may regulate the manner in which fishing can take place for conservation purposes, however it upholds indigenous peoples’ right to fish in “usual and accustomed places” without a state fishing license. 

While members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Penobscot Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and the Aroostook Band of Mi’kmaq do not need to register for a license for recreational harvesting of wild intertidal shellfish, there are no protections for Wabanaki people when it comes to commercial harvesting or coastal access broadly. Because of this, Wabanaki people who are not residents of a coastal community in which they wish to commercially harvest are required to apply for non-resident licenses. Maine is a home-rule state, and thus, many of the protection measures to ensure Wabanaki access to coastal spaces are left to municipalities.

The Land Back movement is an initiative that could enhance Tribal access to the coast. The Indigenous-led initiative advocates for the return of land, stewardship, and political sovereignty to Indigenous nations. A major goal is restoring Indigenous access to ancestral lands for cultural, spiritual, and sustenance purposes. The restoration of coastal land to Wabanaki people who are not currently residents of a coastal community could grant access to a greater number of Indigenous people in Maine. Visit First Light https://dawnlandreturn.org/first-light for more information.

How can we use government mechanisms to help protect existing access points and create new access points?

How can we protect and preserve access through other means?

How can we secure or manage existing public access?

What is the role of land trusts as public interest entities in planning, enhancing, creating, securing, and managing access?

Land Trusts and conservation organizations can assist in the process of protecting and preserving access. If your goals align with the goals of a local land trust, they may be able to help municipalities and Tribes purchase land and secure access long term. For more information and to find a land trust near you, visit the following resources:

What state action is being taken to support working waterfront access?

What federal action is being taken to support working waterfront access?

Keep America’s Waterfronts Working Act (2021-2022): In 2021, Senator Pingree of Maine, introduced a bill to the House of Representatives that would charge State Coastal Management Zones to establish a Working Waterfront Task Force and grant program. This legislation was reintroduced to the House of Representatives in March 2025. While this legislation has been introduced, it has not yet passed to become law as of 2026.

where can I find more information?