Working Waterfront

Media is responsible for ‘eco anxiety’

By Mark Preston I read in the November issue of The Working Waterfront an interview with Mount Desert Island High School students demanding action on the climate. I have always found your publication highly suspect when it comes to environmental politics, and was appalled to see the interviewer asking the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island autumn has dazzling, magical quality

By Barbara Fernald The islands are so beautiful in the late fall. Most of the red is gone, but the last leaves on the birch trees are golden and the angle of the early afternoon sun causes them to glow before they blow away in the next storm. Migrating water… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Thankful for the garden that supplies the holiday meal

By Sandy Oliver Thanksgiving still is the holiday when people gather with family and friends to celebrate, even if it means miles and miles of travel, over the river and through the woods. With a curtailed ferry schedule, getting together on the mainland with family, or having family coming to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Coyotes are keystone carnivores, and play critical role

By Geri Vistein As a wildlife biologist here in Maine whose focus is educating our people about our returning or recovering carnivores and the skills to live well with them, I felt the need to respond to the article in the November issue of The Working Waterfront, “Coyotes on Chebeague worry islanders.”… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Considering Frenchboro’s always-open library

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 Natalie Hyde-Petersen I love libraries. The whole idea of making knowledge available for free makes the ideal of equality feel… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tacking toward the positive

By Barbara Fernald To ease myself through the weird transition that happens to me every year for at least a week on either side of Labor Day, I came up with a small thought pattern to help me fall asleep. With the light off, as I adjust my body to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

When small island nations speak, we should listen

By Kate Tagai Fourteen island states gathered in the Maldives in November 1989 for the Small States Conference on Sea Level Rise. Jack Hopa, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries for the island nation of Vanuatu (in the Coral Sea, east of Australia) asserted: “On the issue of sea level… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Hank Williams and my blue period

By Phil CrossmanWhen I was a teenager, I endured a blue period. Well—truth be known—it was a blue era, several years. And I was reminded, in recent weeks and particularly on the night of Saturday, Oct. 5, of what a companion country music had been during that long and anguished… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Can our communities be marine-friendly?

By Craig Olson You’ve heard it many times, but it bears repeating: “Change is the only constant.” For Maine’s coastal economy, that statement couldn’t be more appropriate. For those who work on the water or rely on marine-based businesses, shifts in ocean use, diminishing fisheries, and access to steady supplies… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nothing I’d rather be doing

By Courtney Naliboff It was a warm September day, and the horses had congregated in Fiona’s back yard. Not horses of the real, equine variety, but a bunch of women and one little girl, gamely wearing silicon horse and unicorn masks in the service of another Bait Bag music video.… SEE MORE