HARPSWELL

T hough it’s been more than 50 years,

Judy Marsh still remembers when she and her friends rowed from the mainland to try to help fight a fire on East Gosling Island.

“I was a sophomore in high school at the time. We happened to notice a plume of smoke, and we said ‘that doesn’t look right,’” said Marsh, who now owns Paul’s Marina in Brunswick.

She also remembered the community’s response, as lobstermen and other boaters arrived on the island to fight the blaze likely started by a campfire set too high from the island’s shoreline.

“We weren’t much of a help, just a couple of girls,” said Marsh, but added she wanted to help protect an island of which she was very fond.

While that fire was extinguished, Marsh still wants to help save the Goslings Islands for others to enjoy. The Goslings are for sale, and Marsh said she wants to support efforts by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust to purchase the small islands and preserve them for community recreational use.

The trust is trying to raise $925,000 by Aug. 31, according to Richard Knox, director of communications for the statewide land conservation group. The islands alone are being offered at a discounted price to the trust for $700,000. The remainder would assure long-term management of the property, said Knox.

Fundraising is still in the beginning stages, what Knox described as “the first or second inning.”

The trust has applied for a grant through the Land for Maine’s Future Program for funds to help purchase the islands, but the trust is also “actively talking to people,” including boaters and conservationists, to raise money.

The current owner is Mary LeMaitre, who declined a request for comment from The Times Record made through the trust.

Her family has owned the islands for years, according to Knox.

“They need to sell them now — family reasons,” said Knox. “For all those years that they’ve owned them, they have allowed public access.”

The islands are undeveloped, with no permanent structures built upon them. Knox said he is worried that a private buyer would forbid public access.

“They could build houses and docks, and therefore people wouldn’t be welcome,” Knox said, citing a hypothetical situation.

The trust, he said, would “continue to uphold that tradition of public access.”

“If the islands come to us, that will be guaranteed permanently, forever,” Knox said.

Three islands

The Goslings are made up of three islands totaling 13.7 acres named West Gosling, East Gosling, and Irony.

Nearby Lower Goose Island is privately owned, however, the southern portion of that island is publicly accessible thanks to a conservation easement of about 30-40 acres.

The islands are only about a 15-minute boat ride from Mere Point Public Boat Launch in Brunswick.

On a recent Friday morning, the fog had just lifted, revealing the Goslings surrounded by calm waters and blue skies above. On West Gosling Island, pebbles and periwinkle shells shuffle and crunch as Knox and a small crew walk over the shore. Not far away lay the tree-spiked humps of East Gosling and, further in the distance, Whaleboat Island.

“It is really a beloved place for boaters and people who love Casco Bay,” said Knox. “It’s a classic shelland rock beach. It’s one of those things that these islands are known for. Just a place to hang out, and have a picnic.”

A short walk from the shore leads to a wooded area with a beaten trail. There’s a little evidence of use from previous weekends, including fairy houses of pine cones and seashells near the bases of fragrant pines.

“Any place where you see flat ground, you can be sure there’s been a tent on it over the years,” said Amanda Devine, a regional steward with the trust.

With a boat or kayak, they’re easily accessible, and make for tempting spots to picnic and camp.

Last Friday, the islands were mostly deserted, save for a racoon that appears to have swum over from the mainland, and an osprey over head, clutching a stick in its talons. As the weather warms, though, the islands will be heavily visited.

“Any given day, in the summer on the weekend, there will be about 50 to 100 boats right here, because they’re protected,” said Knox. “You’ll see how beautiful they are. The beaches are amazing, especially at low tide. You feel like you’re in the middle of a wilderness area when you’re in these woods.”

Boaters have called the northern mooring section of the area “cocktail cove,” said Devine.

Speaking from the marina, Marsh said boaters from Portland and further south, and from the north from Bar Harbor, travel and camp overnight at the Goslings.

Used by L.L. Bean

A section of West Gosling is used by the L.L. Bean Discovery School, leased by the retailer over the summer. Knox said the trust will allow the school to continue, but said that L.L. Bean won’t have the exclusivity to that section that it has had in the past. That section would be accessible by reservation, with L.L. Bean allowed first pick in order to host its school. The rest of the time would be open for other, larger groups to use.

“It’s a great site, and it would be nice to allow more people use of that side of the island,” said Devine.

The trust would likely help maintain the trails, said Devine. Whether campfires and dogs would be allowed on the island will be determined once the trust meets with stakeholders.

The trust has conserved about 300 coastal islands over its history, according to Knox, including Whaleboat in Harpswell and Lanes Island off the mouth of the Royal River in Yarmouth, gifted to the trust last year. Both islands are open to the public.

The exact number of visitors to the Goslings isn’t known, however, Devine said that nearby Whaleboat Island receives several hundred visitors a year.

“Every boater here” at Paul’s Marina has used the Goslings as a place to weigh anchor and unwind, said Marsh.

Paul’s Marina may be hosting fundraisers during the next couple of months to drum up money for — and awareness of — the campaign.

Marsh said support to save the islands will come from working people who will donate what they have.

“These are not thousand dollar donors,” Marsh said. “These are people that work hard, don’t have great big boats, but love the island. And they’ll give what they can give.”

Marsh said that she and other boaters are worried the islands will be sold to a private buyer, and then placed off limits to visitors.

“We don’t want that to happen,” said Marsh. “It’s just priceless.”

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com