Working Waterfront

Town meeting, painting lines, eating doughnuts, and throwing rocks

By Barbara Fernald Activity on the islands, at the end of February and into March, is like a mirror image of the action at the end of August into September. Just as the summer residents of the Cranberry Isles end their vacations right before fall, many year-round residents end their… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Good reasons to eat (and live) on an island

By Sandy Oliver Recently, three days spent on the mainland prompted ponderings about what it would be like to live and eat there. For 30-something years now, I’ve eaten three meals a day on-island, the vast majority of them home-cooked by myself, or friends and neighbors. The exceptions are a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Earth Day turns 50, and it’s more complicated than ever

By Philip Conkling One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the fates of humans across the globe are inextricably linked. Fifty years ago, the idea our lives depended on linkages with the natural world was a central part of the message of the first Earth Day and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lost in translation and the international incident

By Phil Crossman In August of 1964 I was stationed on the carrier USS Saratoga in the Mediterranean. A buddy and I took a few days leave and hitchhiked up the coast of Italy from Naples to the Riviera. We started out with a jug of Chardonnay, a big jug—the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The wrath that follows environmental sin

Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Bill McKibben; Henry Holt and Co., New York, 2019; 300 pages, hard cover, $28. Review by Dana Wilde Recently, a lobsterman from Swan’s Island told a reporter that, despite scientists’ finding that climate change has driven lobster populations north from… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine Islands Coalition—a much-needed network

By Roger Berle The Maine Islands Coalition, or MIC, was formed in 2003 when residents of some year-round Maine Coast islands felt insecure as individual communities dealing with a series of external threats. In Casco Bay at the time, proposals to build liquid natural gas terminals loomed as a major… SEE MORE

The Matanuska is designed to carry 450 passengers and has a vehicle capacity of approximately 83

Working Waterfront

Stranded: Alaskan islanders see sharp cuts to ferry service

By Ari Snider Even under normal circumstances, getting to and from Tenakee Springs, a small island town in Southeast Alaska, is no cakewalk. Alaska Seaplanes flies twice daily to Juneau, the capital city, but that’ll run you upwards of $300 roundtrip, and storms can ground planes for days or even… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

From March madness to marathon: seeing possibility within pandemic

By Rob Snyder Along the coast, March madness is a state of mind linked to living off diminishing savings from last summer, the uncertainty of livelihoods linked to the next tourism and lobstering seasons, isolation, and bracing for a few final snowstorms. Most years, this lasts through April. During an… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island complexity explained by four islanders

By Tom Groening Consider the extremes in how islands are portrayed in literature, film, and on TV. The island setting often is used to show how the very best of community values can thrive, or how the very worst of human nature can fester. In Richard Russo’s Empire Falls, the protagonist’s… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What ‘resilient leadership in times of crisis’ means

By Rob Snyder Island and coastal communities, and the people who care about them near and far, must pull together right now. Tourism and lobstering, our key economic drivers, are in peril. The islands and coast rely on an annual influx of $4 billion in tourism revenue, earned primarily between… SEE MORE