At Islesboro Central School, high school students are learning about Tollman’s Sweet, Yellow Bell Flower, Fameuse, Astrichan, Roxbury Russet and several other varieties of apples unfamiliar to most people. The students have found trees on the island bearing these identifiable apples, plus a couple of so far unidentified varieties that John Bunker, an apple expert,
Birds, Not Bombs Corps of Engineers plans cleanup of offshore island
Seal Island, a 65-acre wildlife refuge six miles east of Matinicus, is home to nesting seabirds but off limits to visitors. That’s because this barren, rocky isle 21 miles out to sea from Rockland was a bombing target for training U.S. Navy pilots from the 1940s through the 1960s. Live explosives could still lie buried
Building Liberty Ships
To the editor: What a surprise to see a picture of the Liberty Ship JOHN W. BROWN, built in Baltimore, in the Sept. 2007 issue of Working Waterfront. My dad, Fred Knight, was a lead-man on the USS F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, built in South Portland Shipyard. His bosses gave him a choice of having a
North Haven moves ahead on affordable housing
Only three years ago, an all-volunteer group on North Haven decided to tackle the lack of affordable-housing on the island, and approached the Genesis Community Housing Fund in Damariscotta for assistance in becoming an incorporated nonprofit organization. Today, a new, energy-efficient home is housing a local teacher and her husband and the North Haven Sustainable
Curmudgeonly Kenneth Roberts helped generations know their past
Maine author Kenneth Roberts died 50 years ago this past July at the age of 71. As a boy, I read a number of his books, though I knew next to nothing about him as a person. I did know Roberts was a prolific writer of historical fiction and that I enjoyed the stories he
Building Ferries
To the editor: I read with interest the article in your November issue concerning the Islesboro ferry and the inability to find a shipyard to respond. I am presently working on a project for the State of Washington Ferry Service and thought one of their unusual purchasing practices might be of interest. While Washington has
Don’t Jump Twice!
To the editor: At present, and for many years, I have been an ardent admirer of the Island Institute, its publications, its mission. Four years of the Island Journal are on permanent display in my living room. So, here is my problem. I have seldom, if ever, been able to read all the articles in
“Bowdoin boy” learns about lobstering, climate change and life
“We used to say around here if you can’t get a girl, get a Bowdoin boy” a successful Harpswell lobsterman says to me as we motor toward his next string of traps. It’s early afternoon in mid June and the sky is stubbornly blue despite forecasted rain. I’m feeling very lucky to have the opportunity
Everything I enjoy
To the editor: I’ve been getting Working Waterfront five plus years, I think. I read it front to back, and enjoy it more than any other paper I get. First off, I’ve been fishing the ocean since I was five years old with a rope tied around my stomach so I wouldn’t fall in, off
“Step it Up!” promotes climate change awareness
“If sea level rises just three feet — that’s less than a meter — the Blue Hill peninsula loses over 2,420 acres of land,” said independent researcher and freelance journalist Judith Lawson, of Brooksville. Last April, she said, she helped students at Blue Hill’s Liberty School with the calculations. “They found the formula for calculating