MAINE, Maine — The Maine Preservation and National Lighthouse Foundation has nominated 66 Maine light stations for the 2025 World Monuments Fund watchlist in an attempt to safeguard the historic structures.
Tens of thousands of people worldwide come to Maine each year to visit the iconic lighthouses in Maine. But the thing that makes them so striking to look at is the very reason why they're in need of protection.
Several light stations along the coast were damaged this past winter because of sea levels and unruly storms, which scientists say are worsening because of climate change.
Tara Kelly, executive director of Maine Preservation, said those storms highlighted the need to give these structures extra attention and potential funding to restore them.
“Our lighthouses were intentionally built in harm’s way, and so they really took a beating,” Kelly said. “The American Lighthouse Foundation did do a survey and found, following those storms, about roughly $5.5 million worth of damage on the sites they visited.”
Bob Trapani, executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation, echoed Kelly's sentiments but also made note of a few challenges many who work to save the structures have encountered.
The first major challenge is their physical location.
"Many of these places are on ledges or islands that are not that far above sea level," Trapani said. "As we’re dealing with these intense storms, the rising sea levels, what you’re seeing is an encroachment upon the properties or the islands and ledges that we have not seen in the past like this."
There's also a big logistical challenge.
Until roughly two decades ago, lighthouse stations nationwide were managed and maintained by a single agency: the U.S. Coast Guard. Now, the maintenance and historic preservation efforts, as well as their funding sources, are scattered to private owners.
In 2000, with the passage of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, the Coast Guard worked with other federal agencies to sell or transfer more than 150 light stations nationwide to private owners, including single citizens, nonprofits, and municipalities. The Coast Guard still maintains the lights, but the new owners are charged with maintaining the buildings to historic standards.
Maintaining building upkeep to historical standards is costly as it is. Building infrastructure — either out in the water to repel raging seas or at the structures themselves — likely adds many more commas to the equation, further straining financial resources that are often already limited.
The World Monuments Watch Fund is expected to announce its newest additions in January 2025. If the lighthouses are added, the organization adds its own outreach and funding to the effort.
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