New York: Random House,1998, 2006 Stories that Transcend their Imaginary Maine Landscapes Don’t check the map to find the places in Maine where novelist Elizabeth Strout locates her books, because Shirley Falls, West Annett and the Sabbanock River are all fictional. Yet they feel real; testimony to the insight and empathy of Strout, a native
Corrections
In last month’s story on fish ladders in Somesville, Dennis Smith was misidentified as Dennis King. In our page 3 story about the coastal working waterfront mapping project (WWF April 07) we slipped a decimal point two places, leaving the impression there’s even less working waterfront left on the coast than the mappers found. Twenty
Looking Windward
Within the past few years, we’ve all received a few shocks concerning energy prices. But few of us have experienced the shock felt by many Vinalhaven residents in 2006 when their electric bills went up by $100 to $300. Not surprisingly, the rate increase caused great concern on the island — especially because the cost
The “Local Science” of Eliot Coleman
The health of the biosphere demands our attention. We are called to consider what we are doing that harms the environment, and how, in turn, we too might be negatively impacted. Our attention has been drawn, large-scale, to carbon footprints and renewable resources. But right in our own kitchens, take a look at the food
In a million little ways, climate change affects all of us
With luck, the people who don’t believe in global warming won’t be affected by it. However, the odds are not good. Already, scientists say rising ocean and land temperatures are exposing people to diseases and pathogens they have never known before and threatening the food supply. A shellfish farmer in Cordova, Alaska, grew oysters in
In the Beginning
Our house began its life about 50 years or so ago when a native young fella built him a fish house on the shore of Sands Cove, right on the banking. Not a very large fish house, about 16 feet long and 12 feet wide, sufficient for building wooden traps and rigging fishing gear. By
School “Arts Team” mounts spring productions
Vinalhaven’s kindergarten through fifth grades put forth their best effort March 15 and 29 in two spring performances of song, dance, art and French language. Kindergarten through second graders presented “A Taste of Impressionism” and the third through fifth graders presented “Through the Decades.” The shows were the result of a collaboration among the art,
Bremen-baked gingerbread sea creatures reach far-flung destinations
About five years ago, Bremen resident Kim McClain was baking gingerbread cookies, in her warm coastal kitchen, with a group of students enrolled in the Jobs for Maine’s Graduates program. (McClain’s job was to assist the students in developing life and work skills.) Surrounded by students (some of whom were lobstermen) and the tantalizing smell
Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound
Public Affairs/Perseus Books May 2007 Not In My Backyard! It’s a surprise when a book on environmental politics reads like a good whodunit or an exposé. Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm proposed in the U.S., is the “big idea” of alternative energy developer Jim Gordon, who wants to place 130 wind turbines in
Maine’s Northern Shrimp Bigger, better, but a blip on the world market
Northern shrimp, coldwater prawns, pink shrimp — whatever Pandalus borealis is called in a given market, it is one of the few major commercial species where the problem is not supply. Right now, the resource, especially in the Northwest Atlantic, is strong and appears to be building. That’s the good news for shrimp producers in