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David Yarborough is emeritus wild blueberry specialist and professor of horticulture at the University of Maine. He retired in 2019 and resides in Stillwater.
I would like to comment on recent articles on the Northport vote on a moratorium in response to the glamping/RV park development in a wild blueberry field and to add my perspective as a blueberry specialist with the University of Maine working for over 40 years with growers in Maine and Canada.
I have seen many changes over those years with the number of farms decreasing but with Maine wild blueberry production increasing from 20 million to 100 million pounds per year with improved management. Recent years have been very difficult for growers because of increasing costs coupled with declining revenue for wild blueberries.
In the past 25 years, cultivated blueberries have increased to nearly 800 million pounds per year, directly competing in world markets with Maine wild blueberry fruit. Land that was previously profitable is now not and new creative solutions are needed to keep these fields in production.
Typically, most wild blueberry production is harvested and frozen in freezers in Maine and Canada. Smaller growers have diversified to sell fresh and frozen fruit directly to the public with agrotourism opportunities and by providing added value products from jams to gin. Wild blueberry weekend has been successful in providing the public with an opportunity to meet growers and see for themselves how wild blueberries are grown.
Recently, at a Nova Scotia wild blueberry growers meeting on maintaining sustainability, solutions such as an RV parks were promoted as necessary creative solutions are needed to keep fields in production. The new land owners indicated that they wished to continue to produce organic wild blueberries on most of the field and this combined with the income from the glamping/RV park could allow this field to stay in production. Wild blueberry fields are not like corn fields but are unique natural environments that can take over 50 years to develop and so deserve to be preserved.
Maine has a very liberal tradition in allowing public use of the land, but we need to remember that this is a privilege not a right. I think the posting of the land is a logical response to those trying to block this creative solution of making the field profitable. I expect the campers and RV guests will also enjoy the fields as well as the locals have; the only difference is that they will be paying for the privilege and thereby allow the field to remain in production.
Land trusts in Maine have purchased many wild blueberry fields but are finding them expensive to maintain as they require pruning to keep them from growing back to forests.
Unless creative solutions are allowed, I fear we will see more wild blueberry fields revert to forest or house lots.
