Working Waterfront

On offshore wind, Island Institute weighs community costs, benefits

Renewable energy is critical for all of us as a response to climate-driven changes that are already impacting our fisheries and coastal infrastructure. It is important that we continue to move toward clean energy while also considering the costs inherent to energy generation. Leaders of island communities not connected to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fukushima conference suggests new ways to think about energy

Our imaginations often are limited when we face complex problems. For example, we assume the solution to heating homes must exist within the confines of the home. We also assume that our electricity must be generated at a distance. As we head into winter, the cost of heating and electricity… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Learning to give as a family lesson

When I was young, my experience of giving was watching the circular bottom of a wicker basket as it passed above my forehead, hand to hand, down the aisle at church. A few years back I became interested in figuring out how to engage my children in discussing giving, based… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islands and the zombie apocalypse

I once read a book that began with the author flying over the Amazon for the first time. While he hadn’t yet set foot in this part of the world, he had been there many times by reading, looking at maps and absorbing magazine photographs. In fact, the Amazon rain… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A dozen years of work on ocean acidification paid off

There’s something about the timeframe of 10 to 12 years. I’ve read that you can master something new in this amount of time—and ultimately, if you are brave enough, have four different careers in a lifetime. The field of sustainability studies has shown that system-level changes take an average of 10 to 12 years. At… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Why the Island Institute offers 12-week paid parental leave

Nonprofit organizations like the Island Institute are not exempt from the pressures of the bottom line. In fact, we are just as mindful of budgets as for-profit businesses because we are funded by finite sources—grants and donations—and can't count on an uptick in sales to provide a cushion. But despite… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Downeast to Casco Bay, coastal conversations float all boats

It must have been six years ago now that this paper made a concerted effort to add Washington County content. I recall raising grant funds to make it possible. The thought back then was that Washington County coastal communities shared a great deal in common with the island and remote coastal communities elsewhere in Maine. A… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Saving community underpinnings means recognizing them

A friend of mine once wrote that fishing villages came in to existence once they began to disappear. Once seaside villages were lost to other forms of development, nostalgia over their loss emerged, giving rise to the term “fishing villages” in the early 19th century. Most of the time, it… SEE MORE

The southern half of the Penobscot watershed.

Working Waterfront

Taking the long view means answering tough questions

“We will be the ancestors someday.” This truism came from Penobscot Nation tribal elder Butch Phillips as part of the welcome to over 300 people who attended the Penobscot Watershed Conference on April 9. The statement was a weighty one—when future generations look back, what will they learn from the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine’s caring economy is environmental and personal

An old friend, Glen Libby, stopped by the office recently. Those who know Glen may immediately think of community supported fisheries. Glen and his fellow fishermen began a national trend that connects fishermen to consumers based on the community supported agriculture model, where consumers buy a share of a farmer’s harvest.… SEE MORE