Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

Lake Auburn is the main source of drinking water for the Lewiston-Auburn area, and since 1991 the water district has received a waiver of filtration requirements due to the lake’s historically high water quality. Currently, development and recreational uses are restricted to varying degrees around and on the lake. A recent study commissioned by the […]

Margo Lukens, professor of English at UMaine, talked with the Bangor Daily News about the recently published book, “‘Still They Remember Me’: Penobscot Transformer Tales, Vol. 1.” Lukens co-authored the book with Carol Dana, Penobscot language master, and Conor Quinn, linguistics faculty at the University of Southern Maine, as a teaching tool for Penobscot citizens seeking to relearn their […]

Tourism is one of the largest industries in Maine, and Acadia National Park serves as a major driver. A new study led by Lydia Horne and overseen by Sandra De Urioste-Stone explores how perceptions of climate change risks may affect visitation and visitors’ experiences at the Park, and provides guidance for communicating about those risks. […]

From road-side flea markets and high-end antique stores to Uncle Henry’s circulars and church thrift shops—signs of Maine’s tradition of reuse are hard to miss. ResourcefulME is a multi-year research project that explores the social, environmental and economic value of Maine’s vibrant reuse economy. Using a unique combination of in-depth, on-the-ground conversations, archival research, and spatial […]

In a recent episode of the In Common podcast, Bridie McGreavy talks with Karen Bieluch about environmental communication, her work with Maine shellfisheries and in freshwater ecosystems, and how communication shapes collaboration. In Common explores the lives, research and activities of scholars and practitioners as they promote sustainable human-environment interactions. McGreavy is associate professor in […]

A new study by a team of researchers from UMaine and Wabanaki Tribal Nations identifies strategies for research and collaboration led by Indigenous communities that have the potential to promote decolonization of academic institutions and support tribal sovereignty. The team was led by Bridie McGreavy and Darren Ranco, both Mitchell Center faculty fellows, and included […]

Jared Entwistle, a UMaine master’s student in ecology and environmental sciences and business administration, recently authored a column on reusable packaging in the Bangor Daily News. Entwistle is a member of the Mitchell Center’s Materials Management team and the Scholars Strategy Network, a group of publicly engaged scholars from colleges and universities across the country. […]

As strawberry season began this year, WVII television interviewed Rachel Schattman about research she and her team are conducting on how strawberries in Maine may be affected by shifting precipitation patterns with climate change. View the segment here. Schattman is assistant professor of sustainable agriculture at UMaine and a Mitchell Center faculty fellow. She studies […]

Mitchell Center members share a passion for tackling complex sustainability problems that matter to people and communities through collaboration with diverse stakeholders and across many different areas of expertise. They come from a wide range of disciplines–from engineering and economics to fisheries and agriculture to business and communication–and take an interdisciplinary approach because that’s what’s […]

In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $92.2 million in competitive grant funding through the 2018 Farm Bill’s Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), as part of a USDA initiative to assist food producers affected by the pandemic. Funding included $77 million for the Farmers Market Promotion Program and Local Food Promotion Program. Both […]