To the Editor:
The proposed merger of the Pemaquid Watershed Association involves risk. A risk is taken anticipating hoped for positive outcomes.
However, what the risk taker often fails to take into consideration are the unanticipated, unintended consequences. In his recent study of the history of risk, Peter Bernstein underscores the significance of this point and stresses further that ironically these unanticipated consequences often prove to be far more significant than the hoped for, anticipated outcomes.
As the PWA approaches the momentous decision to merge, it is imperative that serious thought be dedicated to this issue of unintended consequences.
First of all, in all likelihood, the coastal communities of the Pemaquid Peninsula could likely become divided and polarized by the dissolution of PWA. The potential rancor triggered by this could also prove to have lasting effects.
Second, the merger, if realized, could also profoundly affect the many individuals who have worked side-by-side often as dedicated volunteers. The friendships generated by these shared activities, seemingly inviolate, will be subject to strain, also with enduring consequences.
To my mind, an objective analysis of the proposed merger and the haste by which its promoters have imposed on the process indicates many potential dangers.
First, a merger is the most extreme “solution” precluding all other intermediate possibilities including collaboration. Second, the combination of land trusts involved in this merger proposal leaves PWA as a conspicuous outlier whereas, upon measured deliberation, PWA has more obvious partners to consider in the future, certain of whom we already collaborate with.
Taken together the concerns and factors expressed above constitute critical aspects of this merger proposal.
These warrant the utmost consideration before PWA embarks on a course of action that it may well come to rue.
