NORTH HAVEN — When my pager went off for the first time, I had just settled in for a second cup of tea, further delaying the household chores I had scheduled for this Thursday of my February break. It took a second to place the sound, then as realization hit, I scrambled around making sure
Alewives on the St. Croix: a ‘mistake’ fixed
AUGUSTA — By May 1, alewives could have a clear path up the St. Croix River drainage for the first time in 18 years. After a contentious hearing March 25 which lasted almost four hours, the work session April 1 at which the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee unanimously approved a bill opening two dams on
How not to be an April fool
I thought the Druids invented April Fools’ Day, but it turns out they had first actually invented Easter, not the Christian kind, but the pagan kind that celebrated springtime fertility with rabbits and eggs to coincide with the vernal equinox, an astronomical event, when people also are accustomed to running around making jokes and pulling
Searsport propane tank proposal withdrawn
SEARSPORT — A high-profile plan to build a 23 million gallon liquid propane storage tank at Mack Point in Searsport is dead. DCP Midstream, an offshoot of oil giant ConocoPhillips, announced Tuesday that it is giving up its efforts to build the $40 miliion facility on the shores of Penobscot Bay, after three years of
Inside the whale: exhibit creates an otherworldly experience
PORTLAND — Fishing-net-like curtains define a 17-foot by 21-foot cubical exhibit space where viewers, serenaded by recorded whale songs, wonderingly touch dozens of individual whale bones suspended in a dense matrix. There’s a sense of being part of an otherworldly experience — not inside a whale, exactly, but inside something timeless and venerable. The bones,
Remembering Richard
The first day of spring arrived on Swan’s Island about 14 hours after a blizzard arrived. I watched the snow blur outside my window, debating over the phone with Sue Wheaton about whether knitting group ought to be canceled. It was. Spring seems to have sunk in at last, with a few rain showers driving
Insider, outsider a matter of intent
We Island Fellows are asked to submit monthly reports to the Island Institute. Largely, the purpose of these reports is to give updates on current projects and to relay stories about life on an island. One question we are asked to address each month assesses our integration into the community. It is presumed that, as
On North Haven: Brown wharf project must navigate family waters
NORTH HAVEN — On July 13, the Brown family will celebrate 125 years of doing business on the shores of the Fox Islands Thorofare. As impressive an accomplishment as that longevity is, it’s not enough for Rachel Brown and her cousin, Adam Alexander. The two want to restore Brown’s Coal Wharf as a marina serving
Netting nature led Stephanie Crossman to national stage
VINALHAVEN — When Stephanie Crossman’s great-grandmother-in-law, Gram J, taught her traditional island netting over 30 years ago, Crossman was a stay-at-home mom. She thought she could use these skills to make a little extra income by making bait bags and selling them to local lobstermen. Never did she imagine that Gram J was starting her
The Penobscot: a threatened bay
Once again there is good reason to be concerned about the future of Penobscot Bay. The ongoing lack of a regional approach to industrial development, a narrowing economic base, aging demographic trends and the shifting seas of global markets now conspire to pull apart what was once a coherent system. In 1996 the Island Institute