Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

A $500,000 grant to study small- and medium-scale honey and maple syrup production in Maine is awarded to College of the Atlantic and the University of Maine by the United States Department of Agriculture. The grant creates opportunities for undergraduate students to develop their research skills as part of a Sustainable Food Systems Research Collaborative (SFSRC). […]

University of Maine researchers have developed a tool called “BeeMapper” that will allow blueberry growers to assess the predicted wild bee abundance in the landscape surrounding their crop fields. They will debut and demonstrate the computer-based tool on Wednesday, July 19 at the UMaine Cooperative Extension annual Wild Blueberry Summer Field Day at Blueberry Hill […]

Research by Mitchell Center Fellows Mac Hunter and Aram Calhoun was recently featured in Washington Post. Read more…

Good to his word, Aaron Strong returned to Maine to tackle sustainability challenges After completing his Ph.D. in environment and resources at Stanford with an eye trained on the human dimensions of sustainability challenges, Aaron Strong, the son of two Bates College professors and now a UMaine School of Marine Sciences assistant professor of marine […]

Brie Berry extends her reuse work to food redistribution In the spring 2017 semester, Ph.D. student Brie Berry began work on a research project focused on food waste and food insecurity in Maine, in partnership with the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and the Mitchell Center. Food insecurity is defined as “being without reliable access […]

An innovative multi-institution course teaches how to link knowledge with action  The Mitchell Center’s Future of Dams project is designed to develop a stakeholder-engaged, solutions-focused framework for decision-making relative to New England’s hydropower dams—more than 50 of which are scheduled for relicensing in the next decade, and iconic mill dams, many of which are now […]

Portland Press Herald July 2, 2017 Aaron Strong once quit a graduate program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But don’t worry, he definitely still managed to get a good education. The Maine native arrived at the University of Maine to teach in the School of Marine Sciences armed with plenty of degrees (Swarthmore, Tufts, […]

Ecologists and conservationists have long recognized that keystone species have major ecological importance disproportionate to their abundance or size. Think beavers, sea stars and prairie dogs — species that keep a ecosystem balanced. Read more about Mitchell Center Fellow Malcom Hunter’s work published recently in a Special Issue of “Biological Conservation.”

Clams are an iconic species to the state of Maine. But do you know what it takes to get them from the mud to the market and finally to your plate? Since early 2015, Mitchell Center researchers have been working with clam harvesters to develop engaged media production techniques that can enhance the visibility of their […]

ORONO, ME – A database of over 6,000 community-based renewable energy projects nationwide developed by University of Maine researchers is now publicly available via the Internet. The website will aid those interested in pursuing group, shared, municipal, or non-profit energy projects to connect, learn from each other, and help projects develop from the bottom up. […]