Working Waterfront

Tough times ahead, but businesses bank on resiliency

By Meghan Grabill Recent reports have suggested that Maine’s economy is highly vulnerable to the impacts of the coronavirus. On the surface, data indicators can point to many different outcomes in an approachable and easy-to-understand way. But this simplicity leaves no room for nuances like resiliency. Many of Maine’s characteristics… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine: ‘Birthplace of Social Distancing’?

By Tom Walsh It seems there is no better time to be living in the middle of nowhere. In fact, Maine might consider rethinking its archaic “Vacationland” license plate slogan. Maybe instead, “Birthplace of Social Distancing.” Maine has a population of 1.3 million people scattered over 35,383 square miles, including… SEE MORE

A view of Somes Sound on Miount Desert Island.

Working Waterfront

Is the fear about the ‘if, when’ virus unprecedented?

By Dana Wilde “This is like an atomic bomb, or worse,” Xiao Xingzheng wrote to me from his home in the island-city of Xiamen, China. This was in late March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was subsiding there and intensifying here. He and his own family had, luckily, escaped illness so… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Telling Vinalhaven student stories a worthy exercise

By Nancy Lloyd The joy of teaching lies in seeing the whole class come alive, with everyone on target and enjoying the work. Working with the Telling Room process makes that happen more often than not. The Telling Room is a Portland-based educational nonprofit that works with students from 6-17… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The joys of a ‘staycation’

By Courtney Naliboff Ah, staycation. That portmanteau word might seem like a consolation prize—a vacation born of a lack of funds or time, but it actually speaks to a period of relaxation and an opportunity to get to know your community as a person of leisure. My family and I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Town meeting, painting lines, eating doughnuts, and throwing rocks

By Barbara Fernald Activity on the islands, at the end of February and into March, is like a mirror image of the action at the end of August into September. Just as the summer residents of the Cranberry Isles end their vacations right before fall, many year-round residents end their… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Good reasons to eat (and live) on an island

By Sandy Oliver Recently, three days spent on the mainland prompted ponderings about what it would be like to live and eat there. For 30-something years now, I’ve eaten three meals a day on-island, the vast majority of them home-cooked by myself, or friends and neighbors. The exceptions are a… SEE MORE

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