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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Endangered Whales Still Get Tangled In Fishing Gear: Let’S Change The Way We Approach The Problem, Tora Johnson Dec 2023

Endangered Whales Still Get Tangled In Fishing Gear: Let’S Change The Way We Approach The Problem, Tora Johnson

Maine Policy Review

The Gulf of Maine lobster industry has been roiled by conflict over whale entanglement for decades. With fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales remaining, federal regulators are again seeking to implement new measures to protect them from tangling in fishing gear, while the lobster industry faces myriad challenges. My 2005 book Entanglements examined the complex and fraught debate between whale advocates and fishermen. Each side believed the other was inherently evil, greedy, and unduly powerful. Of course, the truth lay somewhere between. Between them were the brave souls who went to sea to wrestle fishing gear off of entangled …


Blunt Instruments, Glass Slippers, And Unicorns: Ocean Governance In A Climate-Changed Gulf Of Maine, Susan E. Farady Dec 2023

Blunt Instruments, Glass Slippers, And Unicorns: Ocean Governance In A Climate-Changed Gulf Of Maine, Susan E. Farady

Maine Policy Review

Management and governance systems should ideally match the nature of the natural environment and the range of human uses. Today’s ocean and coastal governance system is made up of singular laws and government agencies, the product of years of evolution. This system was never intended to reflect the complexities of the marine ecosystem and varied human uses of marine resources. The resulting “silo-ed” management system has never worked particularly well, but as we face a rapidly changing Gulf of Maine, and accompanying changes in uses, this system’s limitations are increasingly obvious. An “ideal” ocean governance system would be comprehensive and …


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 May 2023

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 …


Hunting In Maine, Elizabeth Tibbetts Apr 2023

Hunting In Maine, Elizabeth Tibbetts

Honors College

Hunting remains a common practice for many people in the state of Maine. While the stories and traditions held by hunters differ from person to person and family to family. There are commonalities that aid in building the sense of community between hunters in the state of Maine. This hunting community is strengthened through the sharing of stories and the common traditions shared by many. These communities remain strong even as the Maine landscape and hunting legislation changes over time. Here a number of questions regarding hunting are explored through the lens of one family spanning multiple generations through oral …


Interdisciplinary Research And Environmental Law, Caroline L. Noblet, Dave Owen Jan 2014

Interdisciplinary Research And Environmental Law, Caroline L. Noblet, Dave Owen

Publications

This Article considers the involvement of environmental law researchers in interdisciplinary research. Using a survey and a series of unstructured interviews, we explore environmental law professors’ level of interest in such research; the extent of their engagement in it; and the inducements and barriers they perceive to such research. We conclude that levels of engagement in such research are probably lower than they ought to be, and we therefore recommend steps that individuals and institutions could take to facilitate more and better interdisciplinary work. More generally, we conclude that some common critiques of interdisciplinary legal research rest on assumptions that …


Mapping, Modeling, And The Fragmentation Of Environmental Law., Dave Owen Jan 2013

Mapping, Modeling, And The Fragmentation Of Environmental Law., Dave Owen

Publications

In the past forty years, environmental researchers have achieved major advances in electronic mapping and spatially explicit, computer-based simulation modeling. Those advances have turned quantitative spatial analysis — that is, quantitative analysis of data coded to specific geographic locations — into one of the primary modes of environmental research. Researchers now routinely use spatial analysis to explore environmental trends, diagnose problems, discover causal relationships, predict possible futures, and test policy options. At a more fundamental level, these technologies and an associated field of theory are transforming how researchers conceptualize environmental systems. Advances in spatial analysis have had modest impacts upon …


Critical Habitat And The Challenge Of Regulating Small Harms., Dave Owen Jan 2012

Critical Habitat And The Challenge Of Regulating Small Harms., Dave Owen

Publications

This Article investigates how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the courts are implementing the Endangered Species Act’s prohibition on “adverse modification” of “critical habitat.” That prohibition appears to be one of environmental law’s most ambitious mandates, but its actual meaning and effect are contested. Using a database of over 4,000 “biological opinions,” interviews with agency staff, and a review of judicial decisions considering the adverse modification prohibition, this Article assesses the extent to which the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the courts are relying on the adverse modification …


Urbanization, Water Quality, And The Regulated Landscape, Dave Owen Apr 2011

Urbanization, Water Quality, And The Regulated Landscape, Dave Owen

Publications

Watershed scientists frequently describe urbanization as a primary cause of water quality degradation, and recent studies conclude that even in lightly-developed watersheds, urbanization often precludes attainment of water quality standards. This article considers legal responses to this pervasive problem. It explains why traditional legal measures have been ineffective, and it evaluates several recent innovations piloted in the northeastern United States and potentially applicable across the nation. Specifically, the innovations involve using impervious cover TMDLs, residual designation authority, and collective permitting. More generally, the innovations involve transferring regulatory focus from end-of-the-pipe to landscape-based controls. I conclude that the innovations, while raising …


Maine Implements The Clean Air Act: Federalism, Environmentalism And Interest Group Accountability, Jon Reisman Jan 1996

Maine Implements The Clean Air Act: Federalism, Environmentalism And Interest Group Accountability, Jon Reisman

Maine Policy Review

The implementation of environmental policy initiatives often brings about a complex interplay between science and policy, public opinion, interest groups, federal and state mandates, and political machination. Jon Reisman uses Maine’s recent experience of compliance with the 1990 Clean Air Act to illustrate this complexity. In doing so, he addresses several important, but often ignored, issues, such as stakeholder participation in the policy making process, interest group accountability to implementation, and the long term consequences to the environment if these issues are avoided.


Social Impact Summary : Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project / Prepared For The Department Of The Army, Corps Of Engineers, New England Division, Edward C. Jordan Company, Inc. Jan 1977

Social Impact Summary : Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project / Prepared For The Department Of The Army, Corps Of Engineers, New England Division, Edward C. Jordan Company, Inc.

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

The Dickey-Lincoln Hydroelectric Dam is a water resources project proposed by the Federal Government (U. S. Army Corps of Engineers). Therefore, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Corps of Engineers is required to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the project. A federal plan or project such as Dickey-Lincoln should take into account its effect upon man's health, safety, welfare and economic well-being, as well as effects upon the surrounding environment. More importantly, project plans should be evaluated in a "manner calculated to encourage harmony between man and his environment." In other words, project plans or …


Summary Of Labor Impacts During Construction : Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project, Edward C. Jordan Company, Inc. Jan 1977

Summary Of Labor Impacts During Construction : Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project, Edward C. Jordan Company, Inc.

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

This study is to assess the effects or impacts of construction and operation of the Dickey-Lincoln hydroelectric project upon the people in the St. John Valley, Maine, and New England. Having determined the effects of the project, a second objective is to discuss mitigation of defined adverse impacts. More specifically, this study attempts to identify adverse impacts and deal with how to minimize such impacts if at all possible.


Transmission Planning Summary : Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Transmission Studies, United States Department Of Interior Jan 1976

Transmission Planning Summary : Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Transmission Studies, United States Department Of Interior

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

This report summarizes the results of system planning, environmental, and location studies for transmission facilities associated with the proposed Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project in northern Maine. The studies recommend the construction of two 345-kV transmission circuits from a substation near the project along a route through western Maine into northern New Hampshire and Vermont. The plan will integrate the power produced by the project into the New England Power Pool Transmission System. Five alternate integration plans were identified and studied. Of the five plans, the recommended plan, which calls for the lines to be suspended from a single row of …


A Study Of The Dickey-Lincoln Hydroelectric Project And Its Impact On The Resources Of The Upper Saint John River Valley, Rosemary M. Manning, Sierra Club, New England Chapter Jan 1973

A Study Of The Dickey-Lincoln Hydroelectric Project And Its Impact On The Resources Of The Upper Saint John River Valley, Rosemary M. Manning, Sierra Club, New England Chapter

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

This report was under-taken primarily to evaluate the impact that the construction of the Dickey-Lincoln project would have upon the resources of the Upper St. John River, and to examine the assertion that the Dickey-Lincoln project constitutes a wise use of the public's environmental and economic resources. Since the case that has been made for the construction of the Dickey-Lincoln project rest primarily on the justification of the project in economic terms, this aspect of the project proposal will be intensively explored.


Social And Economic Consequences Of The Dickey-Lincoln School Hydro-Electric Power Development On The Upper St. John Valley, Maine -- : Phase 1, Preconstruction, Louis A. Ploch, Nelson L. Leray Jan 1968

Social And Economic Consequences Of The Dickey-Lincoln School Hydro-Electric Power Development On The Upper St. John Valley, Maine -- : Phase 1, Preconstruction, Louis A. Ploch, Nelson L. Leray

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

The intention of this report is to present a still picture of the selected area as of the summer of 1966. The emphasis is on empirical relationships. The data contained herein will provide a base for subsequent analysis. Thus little attempt is made to cast the findings of the study in a theoretical framework. Later publications will utilize relevant theory and research to analyze the social and economic changes in an area related to the building of the Dickey and Lincoln School Dams. It is presumed that this particular report and its statistical sup-plement will be of particular interest to …