Stories
What if you could design a house that on a cold day in January would stay at 70 degrees inside — without running the furnace? Or even having a furnace? It’s already being done. In fact, what’s known as the passive house concept came to the United States in 2006, and is being used to…
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On a perfect summer day at the summit of Acadia’s Cadillac Mountain, throngs of tourists are taking in the expansive view of rocky ledges, surrounding hills and the Gulf of Maine spreading out endlessly to the south. But Chris Nadeau is focused on the tiny plants at his feet, shooting up from thin soil between…
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Erin Wolf of Falmouth loves being a mom. She and her husband already had two boys when she found out she was expecting a third in 2016. “Which was a very much wanted and planned for pregnancy,” she says. They decided to name him Dylan. Wolf was 35 and considered advanced maternal age, which meant…
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More than two decades after a landmark state law passed requiring Maine schools to teach Wabanaki studies, a new report finds the law has not been fully implemented and the state Department of Education has not enforced it. The report recommends that the DOE work with a new Wabanaki Studies Commission to create model curriculum,…
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There are eight Maine rivers that are federally recognized as having distinct populations of Atlantic salmon, from the Sheepscot River in the Midcoast, to the Denny’s River Down East. But salmon also once spawned further north, in Aroostook County, and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians is trying to bring them back by restoring not…
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From his pickup truck, Robbie Irving points to a wide irrigation system providing water to hundreds of acres of plants on the Caribou potato farm that his family has harvested since 1936. Irving’s grandfather started on the system decades ago, and Irving said it’s proved to be vital as temperatures in Aroostook County, Maine, have…
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Wednesday funding for what’s being called a potentially transformational pilot program to help forest landowners in Maine and the rest of New England mitigate climate change. The goal of the program is to remove more carbon from the atmosphere by growing more and better quality wood, verifying the…
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You may have noticed that your most recent electric bill is higher than usual — and if that change hasn’t happened yet, it’s probably coming this fall. These price spikes are occurring across New England, but bills are rising more in some places than others. Some ratepayers in New Hampshire saw the price of electricity double…
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An international seafood rating program has red-listed the American lobster because it poses a threat to the survival of endangered North Atlantic right whales. The designation from Seafood Watch means the group is urging businesses and consumers to avoid buying lobster. Seafood Watch, a program out of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, says entanglement in fishing…
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When the pandemic upended schools two years ago, the federal government took the step of providing universal school meal waivers nationwide, in effect making meals free for every child. This fall, those waivers are ending. But a few states, including Maine, have decided to continue providing free meals to every public school student. Local officials…
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