Accessing Maine #259

Friday, September 2, 2016

How do we help people live, work, and play in Maine? By providing improved access to the outdoors and virtual connectivity to the greater world. Today’s guests are helping create this access: Lucas St. Clair’s family’s foundation has just donated 87,500 acres for the creation of a national monument, and Susan Corbett, president and CEO of Axiom Technologies, is bringing broadband to the most rural parts of our state.

Editor’s note: St. Clair’s interview was recorded before the foundation’s donation and President Obama’s August 24 designation of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

Photography by Fred Field

Guests

Lucas St. Clair

Lucas was born and raised into a subsistence living family in the North Woods of Maine, with no running water or electricity for most of his childhood. He left that lifestyle to attend a boarding school in the Western Mountains of Maine and went on to study abroad, pursuing a Culinary Arts degree at Le Cordon Bleu in London, Lucas worked in the beginning of his career in the restaurant and wine industry in New York City, Maine and Seattle.

In 2011 Lucas took over his family’s operating foundation, Elliotsville Plantation, Inc (EPI). EPI owns 125,00 acres of timberland in Northern and central Maine that they have been purchasing since 1998. They have been managing the land and adding infrastructure for recreation over the last several years. EPI’s goal is to crete a National Park and Recreation Area with the land by donation it to the National Parl Service and passing legislation to authorize it.

Beyond the restaurant industry and land conservation, Lucas has a strong interest in outdoor pursuits. He has the Appalachian Trail, paddled the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, taken A NOLS semester in Patagonia and had climbed peaks in Alaska, Washington, Peru, Chile and Argentina. He has also worked as a fly fishing guide and helped Eddie Bauer with designing fishing apparel. He has had the great fortune to fish in some of the most beautiful waters in the world.

Lucas lives in Portland, Maine with his wife and two children

Susan Corbett

Susan Corbett is the owner and CEO of Axiom Technologies, a telecommunications and information technology company headquartered in Machias, Maine that has been creating and developing solutions for rural broadband deployment since 2005. Axiom has brought high-speed Internet service to Washington County with over 90 Access Points, creating an umbrella of coverage over 2,500 square miles. Susan has been a public speaker throughout Maine and the United States advocating for rural broadband and is dedicated to the mission of bringing broadband to every resident and business. For more information go to: http://connectwithaxiom.com