Working Waterfront

Fresh recruits take on first-responder charge

On an island with a more-or-less fixed population of fewer that 400 people, burn-out is an all-too-common phenomenon. After so many years on a board or in a volunteer position, enthusiasm wanes and performance slips. The flip side is the narrowing perspective that can come from one person occupying a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Signs of spring in our rivers and bays

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. As the warmth finally starts seeping into our bones, the grass greens up and flowers bloom, other signs of spring emerge in our harbors and rivers: the migratory and river-run fish. As anglers dig out rods, reels, lures, and flies—or… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Moons, little islands, big names and tragedy

In the Great Green Room The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown By Amy Gary New York: Flatiron Books, 2017 Different things draw us into writing projects. Sometimes it’s a great story or a narrative that instructs or informs in some unique or unusual way. Sometimes it’s a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Confronting a simple truth, a word at a time

I’ve been struggling with a simple truth visited on me recently, something that came much sooner than anticipated. It’s been suggested that writing about it might help me cope. I’ll try it one word at a time. The first word is “I’m,” short for “I am,” and “I am” is,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The tragic mistake made by Maine’s first European colony

By William A. Haviland As I read the article on Maine's first European colony in the May issue of The Working Waterfront (“Mysteries of Maine’s first European colony”), which recounted the founding—and failing—of the Popham Colony in modern-day Phippsburg—one phrase caught my eye: "… the colonists worked doggedly even as… SEE MORE

Opinion

Working Waterfront

Directing community theater in Eastport invigorates

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. This week has been one of anticipation in Eastport. I’m not referring to spring’s slow arrival, though… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nothing simple about four walls and a roof

The 35-year-old recovering alcoholic living in his car as he gets his life back together and the $4 million, seasonally occupied house blocking views of the water illustrate just part of the range of Maine’s housing issues. But however broad and complex, we would do well to understand these matters,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The art of serving your community

The first time I visited Ashley Bryan’s home on Little Cranberry Island, also known as Islesford, I knew I’d met an extraordinarily special person. I still feel that way every time Ashley and I meet. When asked to describe it at the time, I said it was like walking into… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The ticks don’t care

In the 1980s and 1990s when I was teaching at Unity College, the outdoor recreation professors drilled a memorable sentence into every generation of student: “The woods don’t care.” It meant that along with being remarkably beautiful, the forest is remarkably dangerous. The oaks and cathedral-like firs do no more… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Weather, The Great War and a homeward bound schooner

Let’s start with the weather. It’s April, that often cruelest of months, as this is being written. In Maine, April is a flirt, flashing a warm, beckoning smile one day, and spitting snow the next. This winter followed the pattern of last year’s, easier on the snow and cold—though in… SEE MORE