In The News

Midcoast Leadership Academy and the University of Maine Hutchinson Center have announced completion of the academy’s seventh program year and the July 2 graduation of 18 current and prospective community leaders. Graduates this year were Alyssa Ames, practice manager at Waldo County General Hospital; Penson Bartlett, North Region manager, Jobs for Maine Graduates; Maggi Blue, freelance artist and designer/marketer; and Megan Brackett, finance director, Town of Rockport.

The Island Institute recently awarded scholarships to 71 island students pursuing post-secondary education at colleges, universities and technical schools across the United States and Canada. The scholarships, made possible by the Island Education Fund, totaled $55,300. Students from 12 of the 15 year-round, unbridged islands received awards, which are renewable for up to four years of post-secondary education. Of these students, eight island students received special named awards:

The Island Institute will host a free lecture series this summer that will feature authors, artists, and experts sharing insights into life on the Maine coast, as well as their perspectives and reflections on the challenges of making it here. Lectures begin Wednesday, July 5, and will be held every Wednesday through August 9, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Events will take place in the fourth floor conference room at the Island Institute, 386 Main Street in Rockland, and are free and open to the public.

Bowdoin College’s Eileen Johnson will be collaborating with the Rockland-based Island Institute to help Maine’s 120 coastal and island communities cope with battering storm surges and rising sea levels. This effort to mitigate climate-induced disasters is being funded by a $240,000 grant from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This grant, awarded to the Island Institute, is part of a $3.2 million pot recently given to almost a dozen coastal organizations, from Alaska to Florida and Maine, to help seaside towns build resilience to coastal flooding and climate change.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree has reintroduced a bill that would require federal officials to work with coastal communities in Maine and around the country to address the impacts of ocean acidification. The bill, H.R. 2719, has bipartisan support in Congress. "Climate change and warming temperatures aren’t the only effects of carbon emissions that we have to worry about. Ocean acidification is already having an impact on valuable Maine fisheries,” Pingree said. “It's time we start paying more attention and getting the information we need to understand the potential impacts on our coastal communities.”

After a month of renovations, Archipelago, the Island Institute store, will officially unveil a newly redesigned space that features a modern, open concept, new artists and new products. The store, located at 386 Main St., will host a grand re-opening celebration during Rockland's First Friday Art Walk Friday, June 2, from 5 to 8 p.m. The public is invited to stop in to enjoy some light refreshments and see the new look.

Join KELT for its spring lecture on Wednesday, May 31 at 6:30 p.m. at the Patten Free Library, featuring presentations by Dr. Heather Leslie and Dr. Susie Arnold, sharing local research focused on coastal resilience. This lecture will identify characteristics and new projects that are strengthening our coastal environment and communities, so we can adapt to and overcome changes that threaten our coast. At our annual meeting, KELT shared what it takes to make a landscape resilient, and now we are shifting our focus to the coast.

The Island Institute is receiving $240,000 from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to fund a project about disaster preparedness in Maine related to sea level rise. The Institute says the money will help pay for a project that benefits Maine’s island and coastal communities by addressing threats from natural disasters and environmental change stemming from rising sea levels.

A Maine nonprofit group is receiving $240,000 from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to fund a project about disaster preparedness in the state in the era of sea level rise. The Island Institute says the money will help pay for a project that benefits Maine’s island and coastal communities by addressing threats from natural disasters and environmental change stemming from sea level rise.

The Rockland-based nonprofit Island Institute received a $240,000 grant through the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to fund a collaborative project that focuses on disaster preparedness in Maine's island and coastal communities and addresses threats faced from environmental change and natural disasters related to sea level rise.