Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Minerva 2007, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes an article on the hiring of first-ever full-time Honors faculty members, Mimi Killinger and Mark Haggerty; an article on Honors alumna Molly Barker '00; and a reflection by former Honors Program Director Sam Schuman.

Biomass And Biofuels In Maine: Estimating Supplies For Expanding The Forest Products Industry, Jonathan Rubin, Kate Dickerson, Jacob Kavkewitz

Energy & the Environment

This paper estimates the renewable energy potential of Maine’s forest resources, and how much energy these resources could potentially provide the state. Using the most recent state-specific data available, and a methodology similar to the Billion Tons Report, we find that ethanol production from Maine’s forest residues could potentially provide 18% of Maine’s transportation (gasoline) fuels with a fermentation wood to ethanol process. Making Fischer-Tropsch diesel (F-T diesel) using forest residues can replace 39% of Maine’s petro-diesel consumption. Actual levels of biofuels that can be produced will depend on conversion factors and forestry residue removals that are subject to uncertainty.

Assessing The Sustainability Of Agricultural Systems, Laura L. Kramar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work constructs and tests a comparative technique that can be used to determine the ability of agricultural systems to meet multiple objectives of sustainability. Assessments are based on an agricultural system's ability to maintain five system stocks that represent environmental capital, social capital, human capital, physical capital, and financial capital. The capital stocks are measured as stock objectives, which are decomposed as indicators to calculate agricultural system scores. An examination of the complexity of agro-ecosystems and the multiple equilibria produced by balancing multiple objectives is used to explain the alternative criteria used in this comparative technique to evaluate agricultural …

Maine Drug-Induced Deaths: A Brief White Paper Prepared For The Spf-Sig State Epidemiology Workgroup, August, 2007, Marcella H. Sorg

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Drug death statistics for Cumberland County declined following an effort at public health information targeted at users/misusers. Specific education messages aimed at young adults, particularly males and 20-34 year olds will potentially reach the most at risk group. Messages regarding the dangers of diversion, recognition of snoring as a warning sign of respiratory distress, the benefits of placing users in the “recovery position to maximize airway access are being used in Cumberland and Kennebec Counties.

Education efforts targeted at health care providers who write narcotic prescriptions and the patients who receive them should be supported, particularly encouraging messages about the …

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.

Alternative Large-Scale Conservation Visions For Northern Maine: Interviews With Decision Leaders In Maine, Elizabeth Dennis Baldwin, Laura S. Kenefic, Will F. Lapage

Maine Policy Review

Based on confidential interviews with 21 decision leaders in Maine, Elizabeth Baldwin, Laura Kenefic, and Will LaPage examine the complexity of the conflicts over alternate visions for large-scale conservation in Maine. Exploring models that may be useful for policymakers grappling with competing values for Maine’s forests, they present four alternatives: national forests, new U.S. forest service models, forest heritage areas, and the British national park model. The authors found that the leaders interviewed agreed about the need for some level of conservation, but did not completely agree on how this might happen and where the decision-making power should lie.

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.