Birds of a Feather I’m not a bird watcher but I did notice, last week, an eastern phoebe light on a weather stick outside my window. The stick was tiny and delicate but the phoebe was even more so and the stick’s trajectory, thrusting upward, (high pressure, clear day ahead) didn’t change when the half-ounce
Danish energy expert to islanders: wind is an export
Soren Hermansen, of Denmark, may be an international expert on renewable energy, who travels the world to talk about wind, solar and biomass power. But his instant connection with the 30 residents of Chebeague Island whom he spoke to at the Chebeague Island Boatyard on Nov. 6, emphasized that Hermansen, despite his international fame, remains
Opinion
Much has been reported over the past couple of months about the dire circumstances surrounding the Maine lobster industry. Boats prices are at record lows, the demand for both live and processed lobster is soft, and expenses relative to the harvesting and transportation of product are up. While the state’s action to acknowledge the current
Audubon shutters Hog Island bird camp
Birdwatchers won’t be flocking to Hog Island next summer, despite its reputation as an idyllic place to enjoy Muscongus Bay’s wildlife. After 70 years, this celebrated Audubon retreat is closing its summer camp. The cause is financial, according to Maine Audubon, and the future of the camp, a five-minute boat-ride from the mainland, is uncertain.
Cranberry Report
The beauty of November After the pretty days of September and October, November has a different kind of beauty. The angle of the sun is noticeably lower, infusing afternoon light with the glow of brushed pewter. It is the kind of sky that gives bare trees a crisp outline and predicts approaching snow and colder
The Pingrees: North Haven’s mother-daughter political team
When North Haven’s Chellie Pingree first ran for the State Senate in 1992, her oldest daughter, Hannah, helped out. Mother and daughter went to Knox County Town Meetings together as Chellie introduced herself to mainland voters. “I came over to Rockland and knocked on doors with her,” said Hannah, who was in high school at
Opinion
The lobster industry needs to go back to basics now that the turmoil has finally unfolded. “The cat is out of the bag,” so to speak. Leadership’s role in the industry has remained ill-directed and not proactive in that it allowed several years of expanded effort after it established trap limits, which doubled the effort,
Maine books to give (or receive) during the holidays
Somebody not terribly famous once said: “After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all.” I ponder this old adage wistfully glancing around my small house. What I need are more walls. I suffer from an incurable disease – bibliomania. About 5,000 books of all sizes, shapes and subjects rise up the walls
It could have been any of us: The search for missing Matinicus lobstermen
This is not an easy story to tell. Sometime on Monday, October 27, 2008 a young lobsterman went missing in the waters near Matinicus Island. Christopher Whitaker, 24, of Matinicus was last seen hauling from his open boat that day to the northeast of the island. Later the same day, floating objects such as a
The Long View: Sustainable island living
Soren Hermansen, Samso Island Denmark’s renewable energy ambassador to the world, was in Maine last month as a guest of the Island Institute. He visited islanders on Chebeague and Long, spoke to a crowd of 200 in Portland, met with 50-60 Vinalhaven and North Haven residents and students before appearing as the keynote speaker at