A residential area on North Haven. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

GrowSmart Maine wins grant

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King have announced that GrowSmart Maine has been awarded $304,636 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Community Development Initiative grant program. The funding supports GrowSmart’s program training recipients in ten Maine towns on land use planning processes that will address farmland protection and… SEE MORE
A busy working waterfront scene on Islesford. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

Collins offers working waterfront bill

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Jack Reed have introduced the Working Waterfront Preservation Act. This bipartisan bill would help preserve access for fishermen and maritime workers to the waterfronts in coastal communities, supporting the commercial fishing, aquaculture, boatbuilding, and for-hire recreational fishing industries that are so vital to the culture,… SEE MORE
Sean and Andi Creeley. PHOTO: COURTESY SEAN CREELEY

Working Waterfront

New owners for Penobscot Island Air

A business providing a vital link to Maine’s offshore islands has new owners. Sean and Andi Creeley, who are based in Portsmouth, N.H., purchased Penobscot Island Air in November from Terry Waters. In a telephone interview, Sean Creeley said he expects little to change in the operation of the business,… SEE MORE
A blue crab. PHOTO: COURTESY MANOMET

Working Waterfront

Blue crabs on the rise in Maine waters

[caption id="attachment_38937" align="alignleft" width="300"] After trapping blue crabs in the New Meadows River, Manomet’s Jessie Batchelder tags the crustaceans before releasing them. PHOTO: COURTESY MANOMET[/caption] Blue crabs are expanding their range into the warming waters of the Gulf of Maine, raising questions about their long-term impact on other marine species… SEE MORE
Passengers board a Casco Bay Lines ferry in Portland. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

From here to there: why transportation matters

The people who live on Maine’s 15 unbridged, year-round islands are inspiring and a model of resilience. Despite the many logistical and resource-based challenges they experience from living separated from the mainland, they find solutions through cooperation and pure genius. Perhaps no other topic highlights this better than island transportation.… SEE MORE
A pavilion at one of the parks that is part of Cobscook Shores. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

More land conserved Downeast

Cobscook Shores, a nonprofit organization run by a millionaire philanthropist from New York, has purchased another piece of coastal property in Washington County, the latest in a series of parcels in the area bought by the group over the past eight years. Cobscook Shores purchased the former Leighton farm, consisting… SEE MORE