The top of Cadillac Mountain on a busy summer day.

Working Waterfront

Island Institute staff reflect on meaning of Earth Day

Some of the staff at the Island Institute agreed to share their thoughts about Earth Day, on this, its 50th anniversary. Robin ChernowCommunity Development Officer, Education My first Earth Day-specific memory is from 1st or 2nd grade. My class got to spend part of the school day outside, helping to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Earth Day turns 50, and it’s more complicated than ever

By Philip Conkling One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the fates of humans across the globe are inextricably linked. Fifty years ago, the idea our lives depended on linkages with the natural world was a central part of the message of the first Earth Day and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lost in translation and the international incident

By Phil Crossman In August of 1964 I was stationed on the carrier USS Saratoga in the Mediterranean. A buddy and I took a few days leave and hitchhiked up the coast of Italy from Naples to the Riviera. We started out with a jug of Chardonnay, a big jug—the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The wrath that follows environmental sin

Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Bill McKibben; Henry Holt and Co., New York, 2019; 300 pages, hard cover, $28. Review by Dana Wilde Recently, a lobsterman from Swan’s Island told a reporter that, despite scientists’ finding that climate change has driven lobster populations north from… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Olive ages, and faces regret

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (2019) Review by Tina Cohen You’d need a good memory or having both books (in hardbound) to realize this: Elizabeth Strout’s collection of stories, Olive Kitteridge, published in 2008, featured a single green leaf. And on the cover of her newest, Olive, Again, falling leaves… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Giving voice to emotional response to climate change

A Dangerous New World: Maine Voices on the Climate Crisis Meghan Sterling and Kathleen Sullivan, eds. Littoral Books, Portland, Maine, 2019 Review by Dana Wilde “No one wants to see disaster coming, but those who look, do,” David Wallace-Wells says in his chilling book about climate change, The Uninhabitable Earth.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A fully engaging read on half-modeling

Half-Hull Modeling: Step-by-step companion, from plans to finished model By Greg Rossel/Greg Rossel Boat Carpentry Reviewed by David D. Platt We’ve all admired half-hull models of ships and small boats. Some of us have wondered why and for whom they were made. Still fewer of us have asked how this… SEE MORE

Bicycles ready to be worked on in Milbridge.

Working Waterfront

Making Washington County bicycle friendly

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. By Dylan McBride A year ago, I was a college senior majoring in medieval studies with little idea of what I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Will Portland choke on its success?

By Tom Groening What if Portland wasn’t in Maine? What if the state’s border with New Hampshire fell along the shore of the Royal River in Yarmouth, instead of along the Piscataqua? Or what if Portland were somehow transported to the area near Newburyport, Mass.? What would be lost? It’s… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine Islands Coalition—a much-needed network

By Roger Berle The Maine Islands Coalition, or MIC, was formed in 2003 when residents of some year-round Maine Coast islands felt insecure as individual communities dealing with a series of external threats. In Casco Bay at the time, proposals to build liquid natural gas terminals loomed as a major… SEE MORE