SMCC’s Fort Preble project addresses immediate needs, but sea level rise analyses and other climate resilience planning is not on the table

Storm-Battered Sentinel

Balancing on rockweed-draped boulders, I scan Casco Bay’s dimpled surface before turning to face the wall of granite blocks stacked with precision. I’m about 12 or 14 feet below Fort Preble’s window-like artillery embrasures, which stand watch over the bay as they have for over 160 years. At this elevation, it’s hard to envision torrents of icy, gray seawater rushing through yet that’s exactly what happened here. Not two weeks ago as Hurricane Lee’s winds landed a glancing blow on Maine’s coast, but last December when the Grinch Storm hit Maine with all its fury. Local photographer Benjamin Williamson had the foresight to visit that day and captured the moment that a wall of water breached the northeastern section of the forts’ defenses. In his remarkable image posted on Instagram, the wave-tossed interior grounds of Fort Preble appear indistinguishable from the open ocean.

Age, erosion, battering from storms, and accelerated sea level rise due to climate change have each taken a toll on the fort’s condition. In the Forecaster, SMCC President Tiffanie Bentley said, “The [December 2022] storm really sort of pushed it over the edge. That’s when we really started to see a whole lot more incursion from water underneath the fort undermining it.” The storm also interrupted power to 300,000 homes and caused damage to infrastructure along much of Maine’s coast. The Portland Press Herald reported that “in Cape Elizabeth, the iconic Portland Head Light was pummeled with 20 to 30-foot waves that were strong enough to lift a granite slab under a 1,000-pound bell”.

A Little History

The Fort was named after Portland native, Edward Preble. A little research on Preble quickly reveals him to be a dedicated and decisive naval leader with a knack for winning the advantage against his opponents despite poor odds. As Lieutenant Preble, his Revolutionary War exploits included leadership of an undermanned assault party that nevertheless seized a British warship in Castine. Years later, despite poor health and being put on indefinite sick leave, the Navy persuaded Preble to take command of the Mediterranean Fleet during the First Barbary War. In this role the 42 year-old took command of the U.S.S. Constitution. One moonless night in heavy seas off Cadiz, Spain, he came upon an unidentified ship obscured by the murky conditions. In a legendary exchange shouted across the gap between the potential combatants, the British captain falsely represented his vessel as the 84-gun ship of the line Donegal and ordered Preble to bring his launch aboard, an act that would have been tantamount to an American surrender. Despite believing he was severely outgunned, the no-nonsense Preble was having none of it. His defiant reply was, “This is United States Ship Constitution, 44 guns, Edward Preble, an American commodore, who will be damned before he sends his boat on board of any vessel”, closely followed by “Blow your matches, boys,”, the signal to his crew for imminent action. Happily, the encounter was resolved without a shot, a convenient outcome because we weren’t at war with Great Britain again (yet), but Preble once again demonstrated his mettle.

Authorized in 1808, Fort Preble was built as a response to ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Great Britain. Military activity continued through the early 1940s when it was used during WWII for the defense of Portland, a depot for ships engaged in laying antisubmarine and anti- torpedo nets, among other activities.

Deactivation of the fort began in 1950 and the State of Maine took ownership in 1952. Under the state’s stewardship, the fort became the home of the Maine Vocational Technical Institute, SMCC’s predecessor. It was the Institute’s responsibility, and is now SMCC’s, to manage the safety and condition of the fort.

SMCC Takes Action

In a recent press release, President Bentley said, “As a community, SMCC takes our stewardship of this treasured landmark very seriously. We will do everything within our means to keep it from further degradation so that it remains a source of inspiration and education for students and visitors for years to come.”

The college hired Tec Associates, an architectural and design firm out of South Portland, to plan the fort stabilization project. Great Falls Construction of Gorham is managing implementation of the plan. The work includes fencing-off dangerous areas, establishing erosion control measures, and installing underground piping to redirect subsurface flow. The project will document the location of unstable granite blocks and move them to a staging area onsite, should a more extensive repair and reconstruction project be considered in the future.

Bentley told me the contractors were hired under an expedited process to address the project’s urgency. Total cost of the project is expected to be $200,000, of which $29,000 was directed to Tec Associates for executing the design phase. She expects project completion by mid-November 2023, barring weather delays or other intervening factors.

Time and Tides

When I visited the property last week, I entered on Lighthouse Circle road heading toward the Spring Point Light breakwater. As I walked, the impression was one of little elevation difference between the buildings lining the road and the scene of Benjamin Williamsons’ photo, where turbulent ocean water spilled into the fort’s grounds. The Grinch Storm on December 23, 2022 had the poor timing to hit Maine on a day when the Portland high tide was predicted to be extremely high: 11.3 feet. Combined with winds exceeding 60 miles per hour, tidal waters flooded much of Maine’s coast and surrounding lowlands, inflicting significant damage.

Before heading out to the fort, I consulted a few internet-based sea level rise viewers, including one that I worked on a few years ago. These allow you to display a coastal area of interest and then map the extent of projected sea level rise along the coast that corresponds to any of several greenhouse gas reduction scenarios. The sea level rise projections were developed by a joint task force of the National Ocean Council and the U.S. Global Change Research Program and are used widely by coastal climate resilience projects. The projections forecast that middle-of-the-road efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions are likely to result in sea level increases of 1.5 feet by 2050 and 3.9 feet by 2100. If little is done to reverse current emissions trends, the projections are more extreme: 3.0 feet of sea level rise by 2050 and 9.8 feet by 2100.

With the different viewers up on my screen, I focused on an area from the general location of Lighthouse Circle to the fort’s remaining walls. Selecting about 1.5 feet of sea level rise results in no obvious flooding. At 3.0 feet, the water comes close to the Art Studio. At 3.9 feet, both the Art Studio and Marine Education Buildings are in the path of water, as well as some of the grounds. At 6.0 feet the canteen is among buildings wetted on the screen as well as the brick structure to the east. At 8.8 feet, most of the buildings on either side of Lighthouse Circle road are flooded.

There are a few considerations to bear in mind when interpreting these data. First, the mapped sea level rise projections represent a given number of feet of sea level rise added to the tide height during the highest astronomical tide (HAT), which is the highest expected tide at a specific location over a 40 year period. While that’s a rare event, high tide elevations close to that of the HAT do occur with some regularity. In fact, a review of NOAAs tidal datums webpage showed me that the highest observed tide in Portland exceeded the HAT by more than two feet.

Another thing to keep in mind is that online sea level rise viewers are best used as early screening tools. The resolution of the plotted flooding extents can’t be expected to have a high degree of accuracy because the data are collected using tools suited for mapping large scales, not site-specific locations. They’re most useful to identify whether the patterns shown suggest that higher-resolution data and more sophisticated planning tools are needed.

Lastly, despite the rigorous, science-based process for developing sea level rise projections, there’s still uncertainty. However, the Maine Climate Council and others emphasize the importance of using the projections to develop resilience strategies so present and future investments on coastal lands are well-informed and the well-being of Maine’s citizens are afforded priority.

The Future’s Unwritten

When I asked President Bentley if Tec Associates integrated a site-specific sea level rise analysis into their design work for SMCC, she replied that they hadn’t. Were there any plans to do one? “Not at this time”, she said. She followed-up by saying that “there are millions of dollars’ worth of deferred maintenance projects in other parts of the campus that need to be prioritized ahead of taking this project to the next phase.” Her candid response wasn’t a surprise. The college is acting responsibly by facing the challenges immediately in front of them with the resources presently available. At the same time, it seemed that our exchange was emblematic of these types of discussions coastwide. Many Maine towns touched by the tides haven’t developed plans for coastal climate resilience despite mounting evidence that they’re already needed.

Writing this, I can’t help but wonder what the future has in store for this little corner of Casco Bay. Regardless of their interests, people recognize something of value in Fort Preble: the venerable monument to an intelligent, decisive, and bold naval leader; a landmark with 150 years of service and history protecting Portland and overseas assets; and a serene location allowing free access to fish, fly a kite, walk, or cultivate some quiet contemplation. Does all that, and the surrounding property’s potential vulnerability to sea level rise and storms warrant investment in a more informed, proactive management approach featuring climate resilience planning?

As my interview with President Bentley wound-down, it predictably landed on the topic of funding. She asserted that climate resilience planning would require funding from outside of the college. A risk analysis would likely be the first step in that planning and those come at a cost that most organizations haven’t budgeted for internally. Fortunately, we are in an extremely rare period of largesse when it comes to climate resilience planning funding. With multiple government organizations directed by law to direct financial support to worthy projects, it’s often just a matter of finding the funding program that’s the best fit.