Category Archives: Multiple Use Management

Rewilding Maine’s Southern Beaches

Before last weekend, the last time I had spent any time on Maine’s Southern beaches was a field trip for a geology class in my first year of college (don’t ask the year).  Professor Hussey used the trip to immerse us in the patterns of coastal geology.  In early April we spent a couple of […]

What It Means When Humans Impoverish Nature

In Henry Beston’s eloquent classic of nature writing, The Outermost House, he worried about the decline in birds he was seeing on the Great Beach of Cape Cod.  Even in the 1920s when he spent his year on the Beach, humans were adversely impacting birds and other parts of nature.  Beston identified a “new” danger:   […]

The Wilderness Ethic

In many faith communities it is common for adherents to sacrifice.  The Shakers embraced celibacy, though some might find that a flawed “business plan” for the endurance of the sect.  Catholics for years avoided eating meat on Fridays, a practice good for fish mongers. Likewise, many Jews and Muslims forsake pork in their diets.  Dietary […]

The Myth of Pinchot

Like many people, I found Governor LePage’s refusal to issue Land For Maine’s Future (LMF) bonds a violation of democratic principles.  When I voted on the bonds there was no language saying that I was approving the Governor’s use of the bonds as bargaining chips for issues of importance to him.  He had “promised” to […]