Year: 2022

Island Journal

The Working Waterfront Wars

Karen Sanford on the shore in South Portland, looking westerly at Portland’s waterfront. Sanford was a leader in the effort to preserve working waterfront access after condominiums were built on a pier. PHOTO: TOM GROENING   Karen Sanford had a quiet life planned when she arrived in Portland in the mid-1980s.… SEE MORE

Island Journal

The Long Journey from Boat to Plate

Photos by Jack Sullivan It’s 2:30 in the morning and the wharf staff at Fifield Lobster Company in Stonington is preparing for the arrival of about 40 commercial fishing boats in the next few hours, with the vessels landing just long enough to load up on bait and fuel. The… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Fifty Years of Cleaner Water

The site of the Continental Mill in Lewiston on the Androscoggin River as seen from Auburn, the western bank. Textile mills like the ones in Lewiston as well as paper mills upstream contributed significantly to the Androscoggin’s degradation in the 1950s and 60s. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN Fifty years ago, Maine… SEE MORE

Island Journal

The ‘Undeclared War’ on the Reviled Cormorant

One summer morning in about 1963, I was fooling around in my 14-foot flat-bottomed punt near the beach on Mackerel Cove. Probably I was wrestling as usual with the oversized 15-horse Johnson outboard that was attached with clamps, twine, and hope to the punt’s frail transom, I can’t remember exactly.… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Objectively Caring for Her Community

Photos by Barry Fitzsimmons A career in journalism means being an observer, not a player. It means not taking sides, even when it comes to an endeavor as worthy as eldercare for a small island community. Susan Stranahan says that when she left daily journalism and moved to Chebeague Island… SEE MORE

Island Journal

On the Runway and the Gangplank

On Lexie Elston’s first day at her new job, her radio alerted her about a motorcyclist being thrown from his bike. As of that morning, it was her duty to rush to the emergency. On the rural coast of Maine, it’s not unusual for a marine patrol officer to be… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Climate Activism’s Next Generation

Riley Stevenson has been busy. At the age of 19, she has accrued considerable experience working as a climate activist on the Maine coast. Her affiliations include: founder and executive director of the Coastal Youth Climate Coalition, fellow for Maine’s Environmental Education Association, outreach director for Maine Youth Climate Strikes,… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Monhegan’s Tara Hire: Be Creative, Work Hard

Tara Hire of Monhegan Island is one of those people for whom island life seems like an appropriate match. She’s not afraid to step into the important roles that keep an island functioning, such as serving on the town’s board of assessors (similar to a select board), and she’s figured… SEE MORE

Island Journal

On a Following Sea

Illustrations by Ted Walsh Sailors once thought sea gods ruled. Poseidon. Neptune. Aegir. Ran. Tangaroa. Now they know the sea has moods. Calm. Peaceful. Troubled. Angry. Mean. But the open ocean shows no sign of caring. It frolics and rages as it chooses, indifferent to fears and pleasures aboard, unconcerned… SEE MORE

Island Journal

The Illustrator’s Island

Photos by Claire Dibble Brigadoon. Twice during conversation on a February morning, illustrator Scott Nash compared the residency program he and his wife, artist Nancy Gibson-Nash, set up on Peaks Island to that mythical Scottish village. True, the five or so-minute drive from the ferry terminal to the north end… SEE MORE