Category: Blog

A Few of Our Favorite Things: Businesses Doing Better

Posted by & filed under Blog.

In our next installment of “A Few of Our Favorite Things” with Luke’s Lobster, we’re featuring some wonderful for-profit businesses in Maine that are doing good things for our coast and our communities. From the working waterfront to manufacturing and maple syrup, each of these businesses represent a piece of who we are and some of the… Read more »

A Few of Our Favorite Things: Gifts that Support the Coast

Posted by & filed under Blog.

This week, we’re once again teaming up with Luke’s Lobster to share some of our favorite things about Maine with you. Maine’s pristine coastlines, harbors, and working waterfronts are part of both our state’s character and economy. We depend on the ocean for its resources and the inspiration and opportunity it provides artists, visitors, local… Read more »

Maine’s climate action plan—one year later

Posted by & filed under Blog.

What do 40,000 heat pumps, 5,577 electric vehicles, and 2,043 homes weatherized all have in common? If you guessed that they are all highlights from a year of climate action in Maine, you guessed right! December 1, 2021, marked the one-year anniversary of the release of Maine Won’t Wait, the State of Maine’s groundbreaking climate… Read more »

Maine’s working waterfronts need our help

Posted by & filed under Blog.

It seemed like a no more than a week would go by and we would be at it again; handling calls or emails from individuals, businesses, and communities about the critical challenges facing Maine’s iconic working waterfronts. We knew the themes well enough: skyrocketing real estate prices creating increased pressures to sell and uncertainty for… Read more »

A Few of Our Favorite Things: Giving Tuesday 2021

Posted by & filed under Blog.

This year on Giving Tuesday, in collaboration with our friends at Luke’s Lobster, we’re reigniting our series, “A Few of Our Favorite Things,” highlighting the organizations, people, and places that we cherish—both here in Maine and beyond. To kick it off, we’re featuring four Maine nonprofits we admire, whose missions are focused on inclusion, trust,… Read more »

Different Bays, Similar Spirit

Posted by & filed under Blog.

I first discovered Jay Fleming back in 2017 shortly after I became the Island Institute’s multimedia storyteller. My research led me to a contemporary counterpart who has been doing similar work for many years in the Chesapeake Bay region where the fisheries…

A lifeline for island communities

Posted by & filed under Blog.

Whether you live on an island in one of the Great Lakes or off of the coast of Maine, the commute to and from your community is over water. However, ferry, water taxi, and air services provide more than just transportation to and from island communities. They act as emergency medical transportation, provide school and extracurricular transportation, and deliver mail and other essential freight such as groceries and prescriptions.

Islands are Rising

Posted by & filed under Blog.

Throughout our nearly 40-year history, the Island Institute has often played a role to help connect Maine’s island communities to other, similarly situated communities in the U.S. and beyond. By participating in networks, learning exchanges, and even research publications, we’ve seen the value in helping Mainers expand their networks and even build their confidence as leaders by providing an avenue for them to share the stories of their hard work.

Legislative Update: Summer 2021

Posted by & filed under Blog.

We work collaboratively with communities to tackle challenges and build resiliency. While this often means spending time in the places where we live and work, it also means focusing on what’s happening further inland at the State House. This “long” session of the Maine Legislature lived up to its name this year as significant legislative work happened well into mid-July. The policy landscape shifted dramatically during this session, with more than $300 million available to support economic and climate resilience work.