Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in The Daily Yonder. For more rural reporting and small-town stories, visit dailyyonder.com. On a crisp afternoon in early April 2026, Richard Davis walked to the end of a boat launch on the Back River, a tidal channel that cuts through Midcoast Maine’s rocky coastline. As the tide swept in, Davis, cofounder of a local group called Protect Wiscasset and an area resident, fixed his attention on the opposite riverbank.