The Department of Energy filed its application this past Tuesday (June 3rd) with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the licensing of a high level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Work began to scope the Yucca site more than 30 years ago, and 20 years ago the DOE was scheduled by law to begin accepting waste from commercial nuclear power plants like Maine Yankee in January 1998. The deadline passed. Maine, along with dozens of other states and the nuclear power producers, sued the DOE for the failure to meet the deadline, thus costing ratepayers the expense of storing “used fuel” on site. Maine’s lawsuit was near the head of the line. It is small consolation that we won the argument, for there is still no place to send Maine Yankee’s high level radioactive waste.

When Clarence Allen – “the Boss” – brought his three year-old summer camp from the New York shores of Lake Champlain to Chewonki Neck in Wiscasset in 1917 he had to cross the Kennebec River in Bath on a ferry. The old abandoned farm on Chewonki Neck was a rough and rustic place to find a new home.

Over 90 years later, Camp Chewonki for Girls is about to open its doors in a similarly rustic and by far more remote corner of the state. The old Pleasant Point Wilderness Camps on Fourth Debsconeag Lake – between the state’s Nahmakanta Ecological Reserve and The Nature Conservancy’s Debsconeag Preserve – will be the site of this new venture. We’ve heard more than once that “it’s about time!” Wilderness travel and nature study have been staple activities at Chewonki since the beginning. No girls younger than thirteen have been able to participate until this year, and then only on extended wilderness expeditions since 1974. It comes as no surprise to me that the women who have created this new camp for Chewonki have chosen the wilderness path so deliberately.

The Appalachian Trail is just a mile or so to the west of camp, and Baxter State Park is no more than 15 miles north as the crow flies. You can get close by navigating woods roads from a couple of directions, but the last stretch to camp is either across the lake in a boat or through the forest on foot. The girls who come to camp on Fourth Debsconeag will learn skills that will help them travel with their new friends through the great North Woods. At a time when the federal government is crying “no child left inside” and the Department of Conservation is urging us all to “take it outside,” we are very excited to be launching this new summer camp.

Two cabins were already occupied by visitors a couple of weekends ago when a group of us headed north to help open the place up. The leaves were just flushing. Black-throated Green and Blackburnian Warblers were singing in the hemlock and spruce. A Least Flycatcher was back at the edge of a big vernal pool behind the cabins, and the frogs were singing. A Black-backed Woodpecker was drumming at dusk, followed after dark by a raucous group of Barred Owls. The night sky was dark and shimmering – like it is across the northern tier of the state.

We have our work cut out to be ready for camp in just under four weeks. When the girls camp is not in session, Debsconeag Lake Wilderness Camps will be available for visitors on a regular basis by mid-August, and will remain open until mid-October. Take it outside!