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Wabanaki Experiences And Perspectives On “Our Shared Ocean”: Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission Special Report Sea Run, Anthony W. Sutton, Judson Esty-Kendall, Paul Thibeault Dec 2023

Wabanaki Experiences And Perspectives On “Our Shared Ocean”: Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission Special Report Sea Run, Anthony W. Sutton, Judson Esty-Kendall, Paul Thibeault

Maine Policy Review

The Maine Indian State Tribal Commission (MITSC) recently published a special report titled, Sea Run, documenting the impact of Colonial and Maine policies and activities on the quality and quantity of tribal fisheries spanning the time from first contact between Europeans and the Wabanaki Nations to today.


Forest Policies And Adaptation To Climate Change In Maine: Stakeholder Perceptions And Recommendations, Alyssa R. Soucy, Sandra De Urioste-Stone, Ivan J. Fernandez, Aaron Weiskittel, Parinaz Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, Tom Doak Jan 2021

Forest Policies And Adaptation To Climate Change In Maine: Stakeholder Perceptions And Recommendations, Alyssa R. Soucy, Sandra De Urioste-Stone, Ivan J. Fernandez, Aaron Weiskittel, Parinaz Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, Tom Doak

Maine Policy Review

Socioeconomic pressures require forest management to address the impacts of climate change. However, we must ask, Are current forest policies sufficient to deal with the impacts of climate change? Here, we report on two surveys of forest stakeholders in Maine including woodlot owners and forestry professionals and discuss their perceptions of the barriers to climate change adaptation. We conclude with several policy directions including reevaluating existing policies, expanding incentivebased policies, integrating adaptation efforts into mitigation efforts, and increasing communication and outreach.


Place-Based Approaches To Alternative Energy: The Potential For Forest And Grass Biomass For Aroostook County, Jason Johnston, Soraya Cardenas Jan 2012

Place-Based Approaches To Alternative Energy: The Potential For Forest And Grass Biomass For Aroostook County, Jason Johnston, Soraya Cardenas

Maine Policy Review

Teams at the University of Maine Presque Isle and the University of Maine at Forth Kent are engaged in evaluating the potential for forest and grass biomass energy in Aroostook County, funded through Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative. The article discusses how this potential is being evaluated and the possible ways in which expanding grass and wood biomass might benefit farmers and residents of The County. It suggests that using some of Maine’s farmland for fuel might be sustainable with appropriate management and with consideration for potential environmental and socioeconomic drawbacks


Reaching Into The Past For Future Resilience: Recovery Efforts In Maine Rivers And Coastal Waters, John Lichter, Ted Ames Jan 2012

Reaching Into The Past For Future Resilience: Recovery Efforts In Maine Rivers And Coastal Waters, John Lichter, Ted Ames

Maine Policy Review

John Lichter and Ted Ames discuss how analysis of environmental histories of human activities affecting Maine’s estuary, river, and coastal marine ecosystems can shed light on the role key fish species may play. Through Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative, a group of researchers from Bowdoin, Bates, Univer­sity of Southern Maine, and Penobscot East Resource Center have teamed up to examine ecological recovery in the state’s waterways and coastal fisheries. Several river restoration efforts were already underway, and others are being planned as a direct result of this inter­disciplinary project.


It’S Growing Season For Maine’S Food System, Deborah Felder Jan 2011

It’S Growing Season For Maine’S Food System, Deborah Felder

Maine Policy Review

In the introduction to this special issue, guest editor Deb Felder lays out the elements of a sustainable food system. She notes that the increased interest in more ecologically sustainable, safe, humane, and economical community-supported food systems has “put Maine in the forefront of the food movement.”


Building A Sustainable Seafood System For Maine, Robin Alden Jan 2011

Building A Sustainable Seafood System For Maine, Robin Alden

Maine Policy Review

In this article, Robin Alden notes that Maine could have one of the premier marine food systems in the world. However, that means adequate steward­ship of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem and diversifying the fishing industry beyond lobster by creating innovative public policy and a food system that supports community fishing.


Farms And The Working Landscape, John Piotti Jan 2011

Farms And The Working Landscape, John Piotti

Maine Policy Review

After years of losing farms and farmers, Maine is seeing an increase in the number of acres being farmed, due partly to a resurgence of interest in farming and new tools that help preserve working landscapes. These tools include agricul­tural easements such as those offered by the Land for Maine’s Future, the Buy/Protect/Sell program at Maine Farmland Trust, local ordinances, and several federal programs


Historical Perspectives On Resource Use In Food Systems, John Jemison, Amanda Beal Jan 2011

Historical Perspectives On Resource Use In Food Systems, John Jemison, Amanda Beal

Maine Policy Review

No one would deny that industrial agriculture and fishing have been highly productive—but at what cost? This article explores the historical development and contemporary impact of food production on the environment, availability of water and other resources, energy, food safety, and even our waistlines


Resource, Environment And Energy Considerations For Maine Food Security In 2050 And Beyond, Amanda Beal, John Jemison Jan 2011

Resource, Environment And Energy Considerations For Maine Food Security In 2050 And Beyond, Amanda Beal, John Jemison

Maine Policy Review

This article discusses some of the expensive “externalities” produced by industrial agriculture and fishing. These include impaired watershed quality, soil degradation, pollution, reduction in biodiversity, and impacts on human health. The article also includes a discussion of transgenic crops and how these relate to sustainable agriculture


Adrift In A Sea Of Information About Sustainable Seafood: The Maine Consumer Perspective, Catherine V. Schmitt Jan 2011

Adrift In A Sea Of Information About Sustainable Seafood: The Maine Consumer Perspective, Catherine V. Schmitt

Maine Policy Review

The desire for a sustainable seafood industry that protects the environment and the future of fishing is certainly of interest to consumers, but even here there are conflicting standards, as Catherine Schmitt explores in this article.


Are The Economics Of A Sustainable Maine Forest Sustainable?, Mike Levert, Charles S. Colgan, Charles Lawton Jan 2007

Are The Economics Of A Sustainable Maine Forest Sustainable?, Mike Levert, Charles S. Colgan, Charles Lawton

Maine Policy Review

Mike LeVert, Charles Colgan and Charles Lawton discuss the transformation of the economic environment of Maine’s forests over the past two decades. Paper companies have sold most of their holdings; residential and conservation demand for land has increased; forestland prices have skyrocketed; and new classes of landowners have different strategies, objectives, and time horizons than the old industrial landowners. The authors believe that management of Maine’s forests must now address changes in the economic environment with the same intensity as threats such as the spruce budworm were addressed if we are to keep Maine’s forests as forests.


Forging A Common Vision For Maine’S North Woods, Robert J. Lilieholm Jan 2007

Forging A Common Vision For Maine’S North Woods, Robert J. Lilieholm

Maine Policy Review

Robert Lilieholm takes stock of the challenges and opportunities facing Maine’s North Woods, the largest undeveloped forested block in the eastern United States. In the face of changing ownership patterns and development pressures, there is lively debate over current land use policies and trends. Lilieholm suggests that a broader, regional vision for the North Woods might better serve the long-term interests of both the area’s forests and its struggling communities.


U.S. Forest Ownership: Historic And Global Perspective, Lloyd C. Irland Jan 2005

U.S. Forest Ownership: Historic And Global Perspective, Lloyd C. Irland

Maine Policy Review

Mainers once enjoyed the sense that the state’s vast forested lands would forevermore be a feature of the state’s landscape and cultural heritage. However, this sensibility has been threatened by fragmentation and sprawl and rapid changes in ownership. According to Lloyd Irland, Maine is not unique. The U.S. is facing a crisis of sustainability in forests and rural communities. Irland provides a brief history of forest ownership in the U.S. and analyzes some global trends to help to explain this crisis. He suggests Mainers look to experiences elsewhere in the nation and world to come up with a new mix …


Evolution Of The Maine Lobster Co-Management Law, James Acheson, Terry Stockwell, James A. Wilson Jan 2000

Evolution Of The Maine Lobster Co-Management Law, James Acheson, Terry Stockwell, James A. Wilson

Maine Policy Review

In fisheries management circles, there is growing realization that traditional ways of managing marine resources are not working and that new approaches to management need to be tried. One of the most promising of these new approaches is co-management, where authority for managing fish stocks is shared between the industry and government agencies. This paper discusses the implementation of the new co-management system, which was initiated in the Maine lobster industry in 1995. The law has clearly been successful; it has been framed in a way to allow lobster fishermen to be able to generate rules to constrain their own …


Developing A Cooperative Research Agenda For Maine’S Commercial Fisheries, Robin Alden, Linda Mercer Jan 2000

Developing A Cooperative Research Agenda For Maine’S Commercial Fisheries, Robin Alden, Linda Mercer

Maine Policy Review

This past year the Maine Department of Marine Resources sponsored a unique series of meetings involving fishermen, academic and government scientists, and fishery managers. The goal was to define a shared research agenda for Maine’s marine fisheries. Robin Alden and Linda Mercer summarize the results of these meetings. In doing so they address the question: “What do we need to know to properly manage Maine's major marine resources?” Alden and Mercer also conclude that the collaborative process these meetings helped to establish is one of the keys to the successful management of Maine’s marine resources.


Best Practices In Endangered Species Recovery Planning: Lessons For The Conservation Of Maine’S Atlantic Salmon, Raymond J. O’Connor, Ray B. Owen, Judith Rhymer Jan 2000

Best Practices In Endangered Species Recovery Planning: Lessons For The Conservation Of Maine’S Atlantic Salmon, Raymond J. O’Connor, Ray B. Owen, Judith Rhymer

Maine Policy Review

The call for federal listing of Atlantic salmon as endangered implies that such action will result in a recovery plan for the species that is superior to Maine ’s Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan. In this article the authors compare the Maine plan against the findings of a recent review of Endangered Species Act recovery plans. The review, conducted by the Society for Conservation Biology in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, assessed the quality of a national sample of Endangered Species Act recovery plans with the intention of identifying “best practice.” By comparing the Maine plan to the …


Conservation Easements As A Forest Management Strategy, C. Edwin Meadows Jr., Donald J. Mansius Jan 1994

Conservation Easements As A Forest Management Strategy, C. Edwin Meadows Jr., Donald J. Mansius

Maine Policy Review

Conservation easements have become an increasingly popular way of protecting private lands that have public value. Maine, like other northeastern states, has a particular interest in conservation strategies given among other things, its natural resource-dependent economy. C. Edwin Meadows, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation (MDOC), and Donald J. Mansius, the Northern Forest Lands Coordinator for MDOC, address the forest management aspects of conservation easements and provide examples of easement land where forest management is permitted. An accompanying sidebar by Chris Spruce describes a conservation easement that has existed for more than a down years along the Penobscot River …