Photo / Courtesy, Downeast Institute
Dianne Tilton
Updated: November 12, 2024
Downeast marine lab launches $4M capital campaign for housing, operations
Rendering / Courtesy, James Fahy Design Associates
The Downeast Institute's proposed housing campus would include new structures like this one as well as renovated cabins.
The Downeast Institute, a marine research laboratory on Great Wass Island in the Washington County town of Beals, has launched the public phase of a campaign to raise $4 million in support of the institute's housing, operations and other capital priorities.
There's a pressing need for living quarters — for staff, visiting researchers and interns — in the immediate and surrounding area, the institute's executive director, Dianne Tilton, told Mainebiz.
Over the last two years, the institute has lost two promising new researchers because they were unable to find affordable places to live.
One scientist stayed with the institute for a couple of years but had to move because he couldn’t find a permanent home that was affordable, Tilton said. For the same reason, another researcher declined a position the lab had offered.
“We’re trying to make our location as attractive as possible,” said Tilton. “It’s attractive science-wise, but there are practical considerations.”
Clam babies
The institute began as a collaboration in 1987, when clam harvesters and town officials in six Washington County communities were concerned about declines in soft-shell clam harvests.
Teaming up with Brian Beal, a professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine in Machias, the harvesters and officials created a hatchery to spawn wild clams and rear clam larvae and juveniles.
Photo / Courtesy, Downeast Institute
The main campus of the Downeast Institute is shown at the top of this photo and the 10-acre housing site is at the bottom.
Over the next 16 years, the hatchery produced hundreds of millions of baby clams to plant on depleted municipal flats in more than 40 Maine coastal towns and a few in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Production and accompanying research were conducted by UMM students and staff under Beal’s direction.
In 2000, after organizing as a nonprofit, the hatchery was renamed the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education. It acquired a larger facility on nearby Great Wass Island, created a new shellfish hatchery and formally became the marine science field station for the University of Maine at Machias.
Expansion
Construction of an expanded $6.6 million marine research laboratory and education center was completed in 2018.
It includes a state-of-the-art shellfish hatchery; eight specialty laboratories including a quarantine lab, a climate-controlled lab and a large ecology/physiology lab with running seawater; and a new residence hall for up to 20 students, interns and visiting scholars.
The center has provided programming to thousands of K-12 students, college students, educators and other learners.
Today the institute has 14 staffers; three are research scientists, including Beal.
Housing
But as the organization continues to grow and add staff, affordable housing has been tough to find.
The institute acquired 10 acres of land close to the campus, equipped with five abandoned cabins, for $950,000. A main goal of the capital campaign is to pay for rebuilding or renovating the cabins for staff and visiting researchers.
Photo / Courtesy, Downeast Institute
The Downeast Institute acquired 10 acres of land and five cabins, and now aims to develop a campus for housing.
The acreage came to the institute’s attention when the owner was getting ready to put it on the market, said Tilton.
The institute raised enough money for a down payment and closed on the purchase in January 2023.
The goal now is to raise $2.27 million for renovations, $572,000 for operating investments and $1.15 million for other capital priorities. In addition to more housing, goals include hiring two full-time scientists.
Photo / Courtesy, Downeast Institute
Brian Beal, founder of the Downeast Institute, is seen several years ago working on a clam recruitment monitoring system on a Sipayik Tribal clam flat.
The campaign has two phases. The Phase I goal is to raise $900,000 and complete the acquisition of the 10-acre parcel by Dec. 31.
Phase II seeks to raise an additional $3.1 million to develop the parcel into a housing campus, recruit new permanent staff, and expand community outreach by Dec. 31, 2027.
The existing residence hall works for short-term stays, said Tilton.
“For long-term, it’s not ideal,” she said. “Plus it’s not set up for families.”
The plan is to tear down and rebuild at least two of the cabins on the same footprints and to renovate the others as well as a guesthouse on the property. James Fahy Design Associates in Rochester, N.Y., has been engaged for the project.
Photo / Courtesy, Downeast Institute
Shown here are the Downeast Institute’s current laboratories, hatchery and education center.
Most visiting researchers come from scientific facilities along the East Coast. But the institute also attracts researchers from across the U.S. and around the world.
“Last year, we had scientists from Israel who were doing research on soft-shell clams,” said Tilton.
The goal is to complete the campaign in the coming two years. In the meantime, the institute received a $500,000 grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission to start the renovations, probably in the spring.
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