Blog

Beaver Island, Michigan is one of 26 year round island communities in the Great Lakes. It is 32 miles offshore and requires a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride or 15 minute flight in a small plane. This month, the Island Institute hosted an information exchange with five guests from Beaver Island and two guests from the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes. Prior to their visit, residents of Beaver Island identified five priority areas for their island communities’ sustainability.  During their visit, the Beaver Island delegation focused on learning what Maine islands are doing to address these very issues. The list was strikingly familiar to those of us working at the Island Institute: economic diversification (including broadband), K-12 education, marketing/tourism and emergency services.

Since the first Weatherization Week on Vinalhaven in 2012, we have held a Weatherization Week on 13 of 15 year-round Maine islands and reached more than 350 homes. This work saves Maine island homeowners $122,500 per year, reducing energy bills by about $350 per home every year. With your support we hope to raise funds to support two Weatherization Weeks and surpass 400 homes weatherized on Maine islands.

Are you in search of buoyant stories from Maine’s island and remote coastal communities about economic stability and resilience? The Island Institute’s Economic Development staff welcome you to this new resource for island and coastal small businesses.

On Vinalhaven in 2012, something started eating the trees. Leaves on the south end of the island were desiccated, and the culprit was the newly arrived, invasive winter moth. Science teacher Amy Palmer decided that the best Vinalhaven residents to take on the pest were her students. Over the next few months, Amy and a small group of students worked after school to monitor, document, and manage the moths.

How to translate lessons from an island in Denmark back to Maine? After a year spent implementing energy efficiency efforts here on Peaks, five learnings have helped Sam Saltonstall stay focused on island energy work.

Aquaculture in Maine—primarily mussels, oysters, and kelp—has huge economic potential. The area covered by all of Maine’s current aquaculture leases could fit inside Rockland harbor, but don’t let the small size fool you: it is a growing industry and the established producers can’t keep up with demand. Maine’s cold, clean, waters can produce a superior product, and when combined with the Maine “brand,” sales are ready to expand throughout the Northeast and beyond.

Peaks is one of a number of Maine islands to have formed Community Energy Action Teams with financial support from the EPA through the Island Institute. Our team has named itself the Peaks Energy Action Club (PEAC), and looks forward to addressing some of the energy challenges identified here on Peaks Island. Our mission is to provide informational resources to our community about energy efficiency and renewable energy options. The Island Institute has provided us with educational materials and state-of-the-art tools to help us investigate local energy projects of our own choosing.

The Vinalhaven Energy Club seeks to improve energy and resource efficiency for residents of the Fox Islands. Energy education and awareness are essential if we are to maintain affordable, warm, and well lit homes and buildings. We have helped promote energy efficient projects such as utilizing smart grid technology, encouraging use of electrical thermal storage units, weatherizing, and installing interior storm windows. Our members are Bill Alcorn, Patrick Trainor, Naill Conlan, Karol Kucinski, and Del Webster.

Island Fellow Luke Milardo worked with the Frenchboro school students to start a garden under grow lights this spring, then shared the seedlings with the whole community.