Digital Commons Network^™

Maine Lobstermen's Association Whale Update, Amber-Jean Nickel, Maine Lobstermen's Association

Fisheries

The Maine Lobstermen's Association “has been closely following the death of Right Whale 5120 found dead on Martha’s Vineyard on January 28th. The MLA was shocked and dismayed when NOAA Fisheries announced on February 14th that the rope removed from the deceased whale 'is consistent with the rope used in Maine state water trap/pot buoy lines.’”

“Maine lobstermen have made many changes to how we fish to avoid harming a Right whale which makes this news hard to believe. As we move forward, MLA will push back on NOAA’s finding until the industry’s questions about the entanglement and how NOAA …

The Impact Of Conservation Land On Property Taxes And Municipal Budgets In Maine: A Mixed-Methods Study, Abigail Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is an interdisciplinary project done in collaboration with the Municipal Budget and Conservation Working group, a group of stakeholders that formed in 2018 to study conservation and town budgets. We use mixed methods to explore the impacts of conservation and municipal budgets in Maine. We use regression analysis on 21 years of panel data to identify causal relationships between conservation and mill rates, controlling for economic and town budget factors. We found statistically significant but small effects on average, with a 1% increase in conserved acres in a town associated with average tax bill increases of $1 or …

The Promise Of Floating Offshore Wind Power In The Gulf Of Maine: New Developments And New Challenges, Jack Shapiro

Maine Policy Review

Maine has set ambitious climate and clean energy goals in the past few years, requiring an economy-wide transition away from fossil fuels. This includes displacing fossil fuel power generation, as well as electrifying end-uses of energy in heating our buildings and fueling our vehicles. This transition will require significant amounts of new renewable energy. This commentary will explore the key role that floating offshore wind will play in in meeting Maine – and New England’s – climate and clean energy goals, including the challenge and promise of being a leader in newer floating offshore wind technology, floating offshore wind technologies …

Harnessing The Power Of Storytelling And Storylistening: Fostering Challenging Conversations In Coastal Communities, Holly E. Parker Phd

Maine Policy Review

As sustainability practitioners we often spend our time in vibrant echo chambers. We’re invigorated by debates about how to support just and sustainable communities and environments. But what happens outside that echo chamber? What happens when we meet a neighbor, a colleague or a decisionmaker who doesn’t share our urgency for action? Do we go it alone as we seek to make change? Or do we need to build new, unexpected partnerships? In a time when technology and political and social divisiveness make it easy to dismiss the other, it is vital that we build pathways to understanding opposing points …

Lessons For The Future From 50 Years Of Maine Fisheries, Robin Alden

Maine Policy Review

Fifty years of technological advances in fishing and the differing consequences of state and federal scientific and regulatory methods are examined to discern lessons for the future of Maine’s fisheries. This examination suggests that Maine’s fishery management is consistent with the governance approach recommended from study of social-ecological systems (SES), an adaptive systems approach suitable for an era of climate change. Maine’s regulations have demonstrated a way to break the pattern of overfishing and persistent depletion that has characterized fishing for over 200 years. As the gulf changes, the state’s coastal community fisheries have a strong foundation for incorporating a …

Fogler Library Salon Series: Protecting Acadia National Park Through Public-Private Partnerships, Daisy Domínguez Singh, John Daigle, Kevin Schneider, Ken Olson

UMaine Video

University of Maine Professor of Forest Recreation Management John Daigle conducts an armchair conversation about the operational, philosophical and political realities of running Acadia National Park, Maine’s most visited natural destination. Acadia faces challenges ranging from climate change to increasing diversity of its visitors to managing congestion and crowding. Acadia Superintendent Kevin Schneider will speak to the National Park Service mission of providing for visitor enjoyment, education, and inspiration while meeting the legal imperative to leave the parks unimpaired for future generations. Retired President and CEO of Friends of Acadia Ken Olson will lay out the part nonprofits perform in …

Factors Contributing To Recurrent Homelessness Among Single Mothers Using Shelters, Favour O. Akhidenor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Building on the long-term benefits of early homelessness prevention and intervention. And scaling up support for single parents with children is essential to improving economic status, good health, human capital, and well-being across all areas of life expectancy. Chronically homeless people, homeless veterans, and homeless families have all been the subject of specific studies. Yet only a few studies have investigated single mothers' return to homelessness (Anderson, 2021). Studies suggest that between 4 and 25 percent of women, who were previously homeless, end up using shelter services again, despite being provided with "permanent" housing (Johnson, 2016). This indicates that, as …

The Disposal Mode Of Maine’S Waste Governance, Travis Blackmer, Brieanne Berry, Michael Haedicke, Cindy Isenhour, Susanne Lee, Jean Macrae, Deborah Saber, Erin Victor

Maine Policy Review

Maine’s materials management system is stuck in a disposal mode of waste governance. Despite significant investments in programs and policies designed to reduce the amount of waste the state buries each year, recent shocks and uncertainties have resulted in increased waste generation and disposal. This paper analyzes specific ways through which materials management in Maine has become locked in to a disposal mode of waste governance. We build a framework to help understand various forms of lock-in and how they might be unlocked. This framework is applied to the extended producer responsibility packaging law that is presently under the rule-making …

Before And After The Clean Water Act: How Science, Law, And Public Aspirations Drove Seven Decades Of Progress In Maine Water Quality, David L. Courtemanch, Susan P. Davies, Eileen Sylvan Johnson, Rebecca Schaffner, Douglas Suitor

Maine Policy Review

In the 1950s, Maine established a water quality classification system creating the conceptual scaffolding of a tiered system of management. Passage of the federal Clean Water Act in 1972 drove dramatic advances in science, technology, and policy leading to systematic improvement for the next five decades. Today’s tiered classification system provides a range of management goals from natural to various allowable uses. The state assigns uses and standards for each classification, incorporating physical, chemical, and biological indicators. This system has brought steady improvement in water quality, ecological condition, and overall value for human use. Visible evidence of improvement and adoption …

Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (Idea) Workforce Shortage, 2022-2023 Cohort Of New Hampshire-Maine Leadership Education In Neurodevelopmental And Related Disabilities (Nh-Me Lend) Program Trainees

Policy Analysis

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), our nation’s special education law, ensures special education and related services to children with disabilities. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) was created in 1975 to ensure that children with disabilities are able to access free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE). This act was reauthorized as IDEA in 1990. One in every seven students in the United States receives special education services through the IDEA, requiring a large, highly qualified special education workforce to support students’ rights to FAPE. Highly qualified personnel provide specialized …

The Wpath Standards Of Care: Their History And Importance In Advocating For Transgender Health, Alexander Cross

Honors College

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care publication one most-often cited in the defense of increasing attacks on transgender rights to gender-affirming healthcare, as it is the reigning body of clinical guidelines and recommendations for the medical treatment of transgender and gender-diverse populations developed for application in a global context. This paper recounts the history of the WPATH organization––formerly called the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association––and the evolution of its Standards publication. In light of historical and recent attacks on gender-affirming care, an overview of the material implications of the Standards’ changes as they pertain …

Identifying The Interconnection Between Maine's Lobster Industry And The North Atlantic Right Whale Population In Order To Guide Federal Action, Devon Lammert

Honors College

North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW) are on the verge of going extinct because of human activity. Entanglements in fixed fishing gear and vessel strikes are killing NARW at such a rate that their extinction is inevitable unless human-caused deaths are significantly reduced. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has subjected Maine’s lobster fishery to regulations aimed at protecting whales since 1997 as part of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. Recently proposed changes to the plan would effectively regulate Maine’s lobster industry out of existence. Lobstering is a cultural and …

Caverly (Irvin C.) Papers, 1917-2023, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Finding Aids

Irvin "Buzz" Caverly, Jr. began working at Baxter State Park in 1960 as Park Ranger I immediately after graduating from Lee Academy in Lee, Maine. In 1982, 22 years after first being hired as a ranger, Caverly was selected to be the Baxter State Park Director, a position he would remain in until his retirement in 2005. Caverly remained active with the park, accepting an appointment from Governor Baldacci in 2007 to serve as the Baxter Park Wilderness Trust Fund Commissioner.

Collection, (1917-2023) includes papers, personal correspondence, and publications regarding former Governor Percival P. Baxter (1876-1969) and Baxter State Park. …

Maine’S Potential To Be A Global Leader In Sustainable Seaweed Harvesting And Management, Hannah M. Webber, Stefan Claesson, Shep Erhart, Catherine V. Schmitt, Jessica F. Muhlin

Maine Policy Review

A multitude of macroalgae (i.e., seaweed) species that are harvested in Maine are economically and ecologically important. Currently, management of these resources in Maine is focused on rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum). This seaweed grows in abundance along intertidal rocky shores and provides a number of benefits including serving as habitat and nursery for many species including fin-fish, coastal protection from storms and sea level rise, carbon sequestration, and is a harvestable natural resource used primarily in fertilizer and animal feed production. It is critical that these functions and benefits are maintained and harvesting activities managed to ensure a sustainable …

Small Town Government With Big World Challenges, Valerie Peacock

Maine Policy Review

Bar Harbor's relationship with tourism is shifting from a focus on attracting visitors to the need to balance economic interests with the quality of life for residents. As a coastal community, cruise ship tourism is at the center of the debate about the appropriate scale of visitation. This article focuses on the challenges and recommendations for how a small town with a Town Meeting-Town Council form of government might manage cruise ship tourism over changing times.

Exploring Reusable Takeout Packaging As An Alternative To Disposable Plastics In Maine's Restaurant Industry, Jared Wildwistle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the emergence of plastic over 100 years ago, businesses have increasingly relied on them to protect products. While convenient, the proliferation of plastic packaging is a major contributor to pollutants in the soil, oceans, and bodies of humans and animals alike. Goals in states like Maine seek to reduce the amount of waste and alleviate these issues. However, the deeply embedded popularity of disposable packaging and lack of reliable waste processing capabilities has caused Maine to fall short of its goals. While solutions need to focus on reducing the amount of packaging entering the economy, most businesses rely on …

Tour De Fort: Creating And Evaluating Guided Archaeology Tours, Laura K. Clark Hunt, Mike Thomin

Journal of Archaeology and Education

Since 2011, the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) Coordinating Center office in Pensacola, Florida has partnered with the National Park Service staff at Gulf Islands National Seashore (GUIS) to develop and implement a public program called Tour de Fort. This guided bicycling tour was created by FPAN with the goal to promote the public appreciation for the many terrestrial and underwater archaeological resources located within the GUIS Fort Pickens Area. Tour de Fort has remained a popular and well attended program over the years. Based on public demand, other guided tours were developed using Tour de Fort as a …

Not All Trails Are Straight: The Effects Of Attachment On Rural Youth Residential Aspirations, Zach T. Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The out-migration of rural youth is a critical issue for the sustainability of rural communities. Youth out-migration poses challenges for rural communities as they strive to address workforce shortages, population decline, and broader social and economic issues. The departure of youth from rural areas can decrease the diversity of local workforce skills, change the vitality of communities, and undermine community and economic development efforts. In addition, certain groups of young people in rural areas, such as queer young adults, face additional identity-based challenges that can influence their migration decisions and distinguish aspects of their decision-making from other youth. Exploring the …

“Bacanora For Bats”: A Multispecies Ethnography In The Sonora-Arizona Borderlands, Sara Lowden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a multispecies ethnography that explores the relationships among agaves, bats and humans in the border region shared by Sonora, Mexico and Arizona, USA. The work follows the lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae); Agave angustifolia, which is the species of agave used to make bacanora; and the human stakeholders who have become increasingly entangled in these bat-agave relationships. This ethnography de-centers the human actor bringing bats and agaves into the center of the story to provide alternative ways to understand human relationships with other species. In doing so, the ethnography challenges dominant assumptions about the human-nature divide. The …

Quantifying Spatial Heterogeneity Of Wild Blueberries And Crop Water Stress Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Technologies, Kallol Barai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The wild blueberry is one of the major crops of Maine, with significant economic value and potential health benefits. Due to global climate change, drought impacts have been increasing significantly in recent years in the northeast region of the USA, causing significant economic losses in the agricultural sectors. It has been predicted to increase further in the future. Changing patterns of the elevated atmospheric temperatures, increased rainfall variabilities, and more frequent drought events have made the wild blueberry industry of Maine vulnerable, suggesting the adoption of novel approaches to mitigate the negative impacts of global climate changes. Also, wild blueberry …

The Viking, June 2022, Town Of Veazie

Maine Town Documents

The Viking is the newsletter of the Town of Veazie, Maine and the Veazie Community School.

Take Action! Empowering Families Of Children With Disabilities As Leaders In Advocacy And Policy Development, Anita Tevanian

Poster Presentations

Families of children with disabilities are at the forefront of advocating for positive change in their communities. The policy development process can be intimidating and at times seem like a foreign language. Through development of leadership skills and networking, families can translate their lived experience into actionable steps toward a goal of policy change for the benefits of the wider community. The framework presented here reflects my personal story of advocacy work with the foundation of families as meaningful partners.

What Women Bring To The Fight: An Analysis Of Female Leadership In U.S. National Security, Alison Tobey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women have held some of the highest-ranking national security positions in the United States, though the overall number of women in leadership positions has remained relatively small until recently. The Biden Administration has achieved gender parity in their national security leadership positions, with over fifty percent of these positions being held by women. Since this is the first time in U.S. history that women have such a significant presence in the defense field, it is important to analyze and understand the changes that can come as a result.

The purpose of this research is to broadly understand the impact that …

The Viking, February 2022, Town Of Veazie

Maine Town Documents

The Viking is the newsletter of the Town of Veazie, Maine and the Veazie Community School.

Peace And Reconciliation Studies (University Of Maine) Records, 1987-2013, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Finding Aids

The University of Maine's Peace and Reconciliation Studies (formerly known as Peace Studies) was established in the 1987/1988 academic year, with an interdisciplinary, global perspective with the goal to infuse concerns for peace into the campus community and beyond. The program is currently a part of the College of Education and Human Development having formerly been in the Division of Lifelong Learning. The program provided training in conflict resolution, campus mediation, maintained a lending library, and organized Peace Week events and special events on campus.

The record series Digital Photographs of Peace Studies Posters contains photograph images of posters promoting …

Peace And Reconciliation Studies_Program Poster, University Of Maine Peace And Reconciliation Studies Program

General University of Maine Publications

Photograph of a poster outlining the University of Maine's Peace Studies' programming.

S5e7: What Career Opportunities Exist In The Outdoor Recreation Industry?, Ron Lisnet, Chris Bartram, Ryan Scott, Lauren Jacobs, Karen Beeftink

The Maine Question

Maine is known as Vacationland to lovers of outdoor recreation from around the world. An industry grew out of Mainers’ and tourists’ passion for hiking, biking, kayaking, skiing and other outside pastimes, and it generates $3 billion in economic activity for the state. The Outdoor Leadership program at UMaine was created to take advantage of this opportunity.

Working with an existing program at the University of Maine at Machias and University of Maine Cooperative Extension 4-H camps, this new program is preparing students for careers in tourism, education and other fields that pertain to outside activities and learning. In this …

The Viking, August 2021, Town Of Veazie

Maine Town Documents

The Viking is the newsletter of the Town of Veazie, Maine and the Veazie Community School.

The Defense Of American Exceptionalism: President Trump's Covid-19 Rhetoric, Sabrina Paetow

Honors College

This thesis uses grounded theory and content analysis to examine the political rhetoric President Donald Trump used in the Coronavirus Task Force press briefings during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. I collected 44 transcripts of these press briefings from when they began on February 26, 2020 until April 27, 2020. This time frame marks the period during which the press briefings happened with consistency and when Trump spoke at all of them. Through my research, I established that United States presidents have employed rhetorical tropes of American exceptionalism, including Trump. Trump invoked American exceptionalism in a three-pronged rhetorical …

The Viking, May 2021, Town Of Veazie

Maine Town Documents

The Viking is the newsletter of the Town of Veazie, Maine and the Veazie Community School.