Category: In the news

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.”

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.

By Heather Goldstone / WCAI
We tend to think of spring as planting time, but kelp farmers in the Gulf of Maine are in the midst of their annual harvest right now.
Growers and ocean researchers say kelp could be a huge win-win-win – improving the local environment, boosting other fisheries, and all while providing a saleable food source.
Ten years ago, there were no kelp farms in the northeast. Now, there are more than a dozen. So, what gives?

Frustrated by a lack of high-speed internet access, dozens of Maine municipalities are working to build their own networks to attract business and spur economic development. But a bill under consideration in Augusta would make it difficult for them to do so.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Nate Wadsworth, a Hiram Republican, would impose stringent conditions that critics say would make it all but impossible for Maine towns and cities to build their own high-speed networks when cable and telephone companies decline to provide upgraded service.

Caroline Moore is a Bowdoin graduate and now works with Maine’s Island Institute in the Mentoring, Access and Persistence Program, which provides scholarships and support to high-school island students looking towards higher education. She discussed many benefits and details of the program in the Island Institute’s article “A new approach to post-secondary achievement,” so we decided to talk to Moore further. Below, she articulates her experience with Bowdoin Teacher Scholars and how this opportunity connected to her current job as an educator and coordinator.