For mainlanders like myself, a 15-minute ferry ride to Chebeague Island is a novel way to start a Thursday morning. The parking fee and the shuttlebus ride? Economic and logistical challenges faced by islanders every day, but a welcome change from my morning routine working from home in Portland. Throw in the opportunity to tag along with the Island Institute’s…

Anyone who has lived, summered, or visited an island off the coast of Maine would agree that they are very special. They are incredibly beautiful, there is a strong sense…

The busy season on the island begins. Lobster boats are being launched after their winter on dry land and the harbor starts to fill with familiar names and colors. All…

Hung in bunches in the cellarway, our onions sprout. Apples stored in spackle buckets soften. So do beets. Our carrots sprouted feathery tops but we ate them all before they…

A while ago, I joked to someone online that my pandemic memoir would be titled The Year Without Singing. Although nobody has asked me to write a pandemic memoir (yet!),…

A commission studying affordable housing in Maine had a narrow focus—how local zoning and land use rules could be changed to create more housing. But one of its recommendations would…

Editor’s note: This profile first appeared on the Upper Valley Educators Institute’s website and is published here with that organization’s permission. In the first few minutes of our Zoom call,…

Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, has been elected president of the board of directors for the National Aquaculture Association. Since 1984, Belle has established best practices…

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.…

This time of year has me thinking about Cape Cod. I know the Cape is mostly a summer vacation destination, but for about 12 years my family spent the April…