When I moved to Maine four years ago, I quickly observed that Mainers are resourceful, creative problem-solvers. I have noticed this is particularly true of islanders, who, by necessity, take extra care to think about resources available on-island and how and when they come and go. When COVID-19 made its way to Maine, residents carefully adapted behaviors and systems to…

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. On…

As COVID-19 spread around the world, it found its way into every nook and cranny of society, and into the very fabric of Maine. And tourism—welcoming visitors from out of…

A side effect of working from home from March through the end of May was that I became an even more obsessive gardener. We’ve been in our home, purchased through…

Thank you for the Field Notes column by Rob Snyder (sent via email on June 5 and included in this issue of the newspaper, on page 20) about Maine and…

Like many of my friends, this spring, I have found great solace in my garden. Whenever I feel pandemic depression take hold, I try to get outside. The minute I…

On a late spring morning in 1920, the steamboat Governor Bodwell was docked at Tillson’s Wharf in Rockland and preparing to depart for Vinalhaven. Shoveling coal below decks was my grandfather, Edwin Maddox.…

Six months of very limited access to and from Campobello Island in New Brunswick and Lubec in Maine are having real impacts on real people on both sides of the…

Mother Nature has had it with her most pestiferous species. She has answered the species’ greed and carelessness with wildly fluctuating weather and now disease. Since she has outlived all…

When it comes to confronting climate change, how can we design responses to meet the needs of Maine’s rural and natural resource–based communities? How can we expand these considerations to…