Philip Conkling Appointed to International Park Commission

(Campobello Island, New Brunswick, CA June 22, 2010) President Barack Obama has appointed Philip Conkling to serve as an alternate member on the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission. Since 1983, in his role as president and founder of the Island Institute, Conkling has provided strategic, creative, and developmental leadership for the organization, and has visited more than 1,000 Maine islands. He is also the author of several books on the region, including Islands in Time, Lobsters Great and Small, and Where the Mountains Meet the Sea: A History of the Camden Area, 1900-2000. He also founded The Working Waterfront, a Maine-coast newspaper with a readership of 40,000. In 2008, Mr. Conkling was appointed to the Governor's Lobster Task Force, which offers recommendations for the economic sustainability of the Maine lobster industry. On behalf of the Island Institute, he is the also the recipient of NOAA's 2008 "Non-Governmental Organization of the Year Award".

Christopher Roosevelt, the current Chairman of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission (which changes every two years between a Canadian and a U.S. Commissioner), welcomed Conkling, citing Conkling's extensive experience with enhancing the economic and social viability of a wide variety of communities in the region, and, in particular, his track record of supporting through the Island Institute the health of island communities.

The Roosevelt Campobello International Park is the world's only true "international park," having been established by a 1964 treaty between the United States and Canada with both countries citing the Park as a testament to the friendship and mutual respect between the two sovereign, neighboring nations as well as a memorial to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  The Park is open to visitors seven days a week from the Saturday prior to U.S. Memorial Day through U.S. Columbus Day (or, in Canada, the Saturday following Victoria Day through Canadian Thanksgiving).

For further information, please contact:
Roosevelt Campobello International Park                                Island Institute
Superintendent and Executive Secretary                                 Nancy McLeod Carter
Paul B. Cole                                                                              Vice President,
P.O. Box 129              459 Route 774                                       Knowledge Management
Lubec, Maine              Welshpool, New Brunswick                    386 Main Street
04652                         E5E 1A4                                                 Rockland, Maine 04841
Telephone:  (506)-752-2922                                                    (207) 594-9209, ext. 133
Fax: (506)-752-6000                                                                (207) 594-9314
www.fdr.net                                                                             www.islandinstitute.org