Why plan for growth and change, when it seems so much easier to simply react? When there is a distinct and shared vision for your community - when residents, businesses and local government anticipate a sustainable town with cohesive and thriving neighborhoods - you have the power to conserve your beautiful natural spaces, enhance your existing downtown or Main Street, enable rural areas to be productive and prosperous, and save money through efficient use of existing infrastructure. This is the dollars and sense of smart growth. Success is clearly visible in Maine, from the creation of a community-built senior housing complex and health center in Fort Fairfield to conservation easements creating Forever Farms to Rockland's revitalized downtown. Communities have options. We have the power to manage our own responses to growth and change. After all, “Planning is a process of choosing among those many options. If we do not choose to plan, then we choose to have others plan for us.” - Richard I. Winwood And in the end, this means that our children and their children will choose to make Maine home and our economy will provide the opportunities to do so. The Summit offers you a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the transformative change in Maine that we’ve seen these gatherings produce. We encourage you to consider the value of being actively involved in growing Maine’s economy and protecting the reasons we choose to live here.

1. More Time in Shorts?
Cameron Wake, UNH

2. Longer Growing Season?

3. Tomatoes till November?

4. Less Time for Ice Fishing?
Smoothed lines of ice-out dates over time for the eight lakes in New England with the longest periods of
record. The top four lines represent lakes in northern and western Maine and the bottom four lines
represent lakes in southern Maine. USGS Fact Sheet FS 2005-3002

5. Wilder, Wetter Weather

6. Maine Climate News