Working Waterfront

Home-grown electrons are the best electrons

By Tom Groening When I was eight years old, I invented a perpetual motion machine. As I recall, I was in the back of my family’s station wagon on a trip, doodling in a little notebook, and my plans included rubber bands, springs, and a reconfigured wire coat hanger. When… SEE MORE

Mount Desert Island High School's Eco Team includes: Winslow Jeffery

Working Waterfront

On the record with… MDI High School’s Korstanje and Dowling

By Laurie Schreiber A group of Mount Desert Island High School students, with faculty advisor Ruth Poland, are tackling climate change and sustainability issues as the school’s Eco Team. Among many projects, the group helped organize and participated in climate strikes and assisted plans for the school’s solarization. Ongoing initiatives… SEE MORE

Sean Todd of Allied Whale and College of the Atlantic.

Working Waterfront

On the record with… Sean Todd of Allied Whale

By Laurie Schreiber The plight of the North Atlantic right whale has steadily made its way into Maine news. One of the world’s most endangered large whale species, the population of about 400 is shrinking due to increasing mortality and lower birth rates. Stakeholders, including Maine’s lobster industry, have implemented… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Citizen science’ key to Acadia foliage project

By Tom Groening Stephanie Spera promises she won’t be bored by your old vacation photos, even if she doesn’t know any of the people in them. As long as those photos show Acadia National Park in autumn, she’s interested. Spera, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Richmond… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A whole lot of canning going on

By Sandy Oliver There is a whole lot of canning going on out on Islesboro. Probably no one in Maine with a garden or access to plentiful vegetables is exempt from pickling, canning, freezing, drying, storing away. It is September, which is “Putting Food By” month… well, not officially, merely… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A catastrophe in which no beauty can be found

By Dana Wilde Long ago, before realizing I was unfit to write poetry, I set myself a project I thought might become my life’s work. My childhood was still fresh and glistening with pain, and one of the more frightening disturbances had been the Cuban Missile Crisis, when I was… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Quimby reveals plans for Schoodic campground

By Jacqueline Weaver When philanthropist Roxanne Quimby bought the 113-acre Ocean Wood Campground on Schoodic Peninsula three years ago for $2 million, her intent was to save the land and its 3,200-feet of bold ocean frontage from development. Now she has a clearer idea of the best possible use of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Women on the working waterfront, and on our pages

By Tom Groening If newspaper readers could be proverbial flies on the wall during meetings at which editors plan news coverage, most conspiracy theories about bias and political agendas would fade away. I’m reminded (yet again) of a Jerry Seinfeld comedy bit, in which he notes, “It's amazing that the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Merritt Carey fights for a waterfront way of life

By Tom Groening She’s sailed around the world with an all-female crew and competed in the America’s Cup with the first all-female team. She earned a law degree, worked for a Canadian seaweed processing firm, and lived for a time in New Zealand. But for Merritt Carey, the small coastal… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering the sedition trial of Scott Nearing

By Jacqueline Weaver Scott Nearing may be best known in coastal Maine as an inspiration in the back to the land movement. He and his wife Helen and their book Living the Good Life are cited by hundreds—if not thousands—who came to Maine in the early 1970s, seeking a more simple, rural… SEE MORE