SORRENTO, Maine — An island in Frenchman Bay, located midway between Hancock Point and the village of Sorrento, has a new owner that intends to protect it from development.
Bean Island, consisting of 27 wooded acres, was donated by local resident Lisa Heyward to the Frenchman Bay Conservancy on Jan. 7, according to a prepared statement released by the conservancy last week. Heyward is a board member with the organization.
“My great-grandmother purchased Bean Island from two families [and] then passed it along to her daughter, my grandmother, who passed it along to me,” Heyward said in the statement. “We have all loved this small island that sits centerpiece in our view and that of so many Sorrento and Hancock homes.”
In the early 1900s, Bean Island — like many along the Maine coast — had been cleared of trees taken for lumber and was used to graze sheep, who were protected from predators by the surrounding sea.
In 1975, Acadia National Park acquired a conservation easement on the island, which would have allowed for construction of one house and a nonpermanent dock, according to the release. Neither were ever built.
Frenchman Bay Conservancy intends to keep the island undeveloped but to make it accessible to the public. The conservancy is developing a management plan for Bean Island that it hopes to have completed by early August.
“The endowment of Bean Island to the Frenchman Bay Conservancy is a gift to every citizen of our communities and to the visitors of Down East Maine,” Randy Ewins, president of the conservancy, said in the statement. “The legacy of Lisa Heyward and her family will forever be preserved by this beautiful place. It is a responsibility that FBC will dutifully uphold through conservation and stewardship.”
The organization conserves 54 properties in the Frenchman Bay and Union River watersheds in Hancock County and maintains 25 miles of publicly accessible hiking trails year round. More information about Bean Island and the conservancy can be found online at www.frenchmanbay.org or at the conservancy’s Facebook page.
