In The News

By Staff / Village Soup The Island Institute will hold its annual energy conference at Congregation Bet Ha'am, 81 Westbrook St., South Portland April 27 and 28. The event will bring together 150 island leaders and energy experts from three countries – the United States, Japan and Denmark – and six states – Maine, Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island – to discuss common energy challenges and the resources available to address them.

The deeper cuts proposed by the Trump administration would slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund cleanup activities and eliminate its support for monitoring and cleanup efforts in Casco Bay and for beach water testing across Maine. When taken in conjunction with previously reported proposals to eliminate federal funding for the University of Maine’s Sea Grant program and the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, critics say the president’s budget proposals are a serious threat to Maine’s coastal economy, which is dependent on maintaining a clean environment.

On Earth Day — Saturday, April 22 — Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition and Rockland’s Island Institute will host a screening of four short films that show how accelerating climate change dramatically changes the ocean’s environment. The free program will begin 6:30 p.m. in the Abbott Room of Belfast Free Library, 106 High St.

The fourth  annual Artists & Makers Conference will be held Friday, April 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the University of Maine's Hutchinson Center, 80 Belmont Ave./Route 3. Hosted by Archipelago and the Island Institute, the one-day event will offer practical tips and strategies to help arts businesses grow. It is open to all artists and makers who live and produce work in Maine.

Residents at the annual Cranberry Isles town meeting on March 11 voted overwhelmingly to borrow up to $1.2 million to build a fiber optic network for broadband internet service. The network would provide broadband internet service to the town’s three inhabited islands: Great Cranberry, Little Cranberry (Islesford) and Sutton. The vote was 52-4.

The Island Institute, based in Rockland, just released the first edition of “Waypoints: Community Indicators for Maine’s Coast and Islands.” The publication presents economic, community and environmental indicators for Maine’s coastal and island communities as they compare to the rest of the state and the nation. Detailed data on each of the 120 island and coastal communities is available online in the supplementary data tables. “Waypoints” is available online at www.islandinstitute.org/waypoints.

Reaction in Maine to President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.15 trillion budget has been swift - and critical. Democrat Chellie Pingree, Maine’s 1st District representative who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, says the plan to slash many domestic programs to finance a significant increase in the military and make a down payment on construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall is “foolish, shortsighted…and will make America less healthy, safe, and economically secure. “

The Island Institute has published its first deep-dive comparison of the economic, community and environmental indicators for Maine's coastal and island communities with the rest of the state and nation. The first edition of "Waypoints: Community Indicators for Maine's Coast and Islands" is intended to be a resource for local community members, state and federal representatives, agency staff and research partners whose work relates to and impacts coastal communities.

The John T. Gorman Foundation is helping to back a new program from the Island Institute to fund coastal and island businesses. The Island and Coast Business Launchpad program, which was announced in the Working Waterfront publication on March 8, aims to help entrepreneurs in "geographically isolated communities." The program will include an "innovation fund," to provide flexible and community-focused loans, as well as business support, microgrants, digital and financial literacy classes and an aquaculture business-development program.

A Trump administration proposal to slash funding for the federal government’s principal marine agency and eliminate the national Sea Grant program is prompting alarm in Maine’s marine sector. President Trump wants to slash the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – the agency responsible for fisheries management, weather forecasting, nautical surveys and assisting marine industries – by 17 percent, The Washington Post reported Friday, April 4th.