Working Waterfront

Let us be thankful for lettuce

‘Tis lettuce season for certain on-island. We are devouring the first planting of lettuce, which has turned into heads of glorious size, while the second planting is sizing up nicely, and the third has just been planted out to the garden from their nursery flats in the hoop house. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island images demand answers to deeper questions

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. On a foggy morning in June, a friend and I were down at the dock loading up his lobster boat to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tourism industry adapted, but more help needed

As COVID-19 spread around the world, it found its way into every nook and cranny of society, and into the very fabric of Maine. And tourism—welcoming visitors from out of state, and encouraging our residents to enjoy all we have to offer—was impacted in unprecedented ways. Over the next few… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Dealing with those not-so-new pests

A side effect of working from home from March through the end of May was that I became an even more obsessive gardener. We’ve been in our home, purchased through North Haven Sustainable Housing, since 2008, and I have three pretty well-established vegetable gardens around the house. I’ve managed to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Column raises important question for schools

Thank you for the Field Notes column by Rob Snyder (sent via email on June 5 and included in this issue of the newspaper, on page 20) about Maine and diversity. But I was surprised by this line: “But what if one of the underlying issues in a community is… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Strained relations with the ferry service

On a late spring morning in 1920, the steamboat Governor Bodwell was docked at Tillson’s Wharf in Rockland and preparing to depart for Vinalhaven. Shoveling coal below decks was my grandfather, Edwin Maddox. His eleventh great grandparents, William and Mary Brewster, had arrived on the Mayflower 300 years earlier. Unbeknownst to him, he… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nature wants us to cook

Mother Nature has had it with her most pestiferous species. She has answered the species’ greed and carelessness with wildly fluctuating weather and now disease. Since she has outlived all of us and our vaunted civilizations by millions of years, we can be pretty sure she’ll come out on top… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine’s climate work must aim for equitable impact

When it comes to confronting climate change, how can we design responses to meet the needs of Maine’s rural and natural resource–based communities? How can we expand these considerations to ensure that climate action will serve all Maine people equitably—particularly those who have been excluded in the past, and who… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Leadership means having the seat with the view

The Passamaquoddy word for leadership is nihkanke. The literal translation of that word is “the one who paddles in the front of the canoe.” I clearly remember when I first heard this word and learned its cultural context. I was at a leadership seminar for island leaders, sponsored by the Island Institute. Linda Cross Godfrey, founder… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Portland: Why ‘no one goes there any more’

Editor’s note: This is another response to the Rock Bound column in the April issue, “Will Portland choke on its success?” “No one goes there anymore—it’s too crowded.” As someone who has lived on the coast of Maine most of my life, including living on Peaks Island as a child,… SEE MORE