I have mixed feelings about summer. For some on North Haven, as in any community whose economy centers around fishing and tourism, summer is a time of 12-hour or longer work days, of hustling to seize every extra opportunity for income before the quiet of the cold seasons. I love to see our seasonal friends return, but I don't love…

There's one more day of summer showing on the calendar as this column is being written, but the signs of autumn are everywhere on the coast of Maine. Along with…

When Christine Dentremont finished the industrial design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., she relocated two days later to Swan’s Island, where she would spend the next few years…

Twenty years ago, late on a Saturday afternoon after I'd spent the day dumping firewood into the basement, you might have heard me proclaim: "Wood heat's great, but man, I…

A weeder’s dream vacation is going to a Maine island and staying in someone’s house, getting three squares a day, and all the fresh air you can breathe in exchange…

Editor's note: One of the best programs the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront) ever created is its cadre of Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service…

Heating efficiency experts will tell you the best bucks you can spend on your home are those that keep the heat you've already paid for inside a little longer. Air…

Islanders provide for themselves and Chebeague Island is no exception. Over the years, we Chebeaguers have built our own library, recreation center, museum, daycare center and affordable housing; created an assisted…

When your community's electric rates are among the highest in the nation, it pays to consider ways to cut consumption. Work done on Monhegan Island, with help from the Island…

Forget the stoner stereotype: Paul McCarrier, 29, is serious, animated, maybe even intense as he talks about his work as the leading proponent of the effort to legalize the recreational…