Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

As scientists comb the globe for renewable energy ideas, biomass – the use of plant material and animal waste as fuel – has come to the fore as a potential solution. Could this new market have a future in Maine’s northernmost county? Researchers at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI), University of Maine […]

Each year the Maine Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) funds projects that further knowledge of the State’s water resources. Three projects are being funded in 2015 that range in focus from the water flow puzzle of vernal pools to the deconstruction of an algae outbreak to a novel fix to a difficult drinking water problem. […]

John Kramer says he feels kinship with those at UMaine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions who work to link knowledge with action, homing in on real world, place-based problems. His work has similar characteristics, but on a broader scale. Kramer is Director of Interdisciplinary Science at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). […]

Sandra Goff’s sustainability science research went to the heart of the discipline’s integrative mission. She created dynamic computer models of the interactions between social, economic and environmental systems. Working on a research assistantship with the Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), a program of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, Goff and colleagues looked […]

Watersheds still contain many mysteries. For example: how, specifically, does water pick up harmful bacteria as it flows toward its destination? And what factors within particular streams, rivers or lakes help filter out bacteria before water reaches its outlet? Graduate student Brian Van Dam has been researching and mapping the Gulf of Maine watershed and early […]

David Hart, Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, joined U.S. Senator Angus King, fishermen, community leaders, and stewards of the environment for a conversation on climate change and its effects on Maine’s winters. The forum, held at Naples Town Hall across from Long Lake, was organized to discuss the impact […]

The poster exhibition at this year’s Maine Sustainability & Water Conference reflected the conference’s broadening agenda on urgent issues affecting New England and beyond. Diverse research on citizen science, fisheries, energy conservation and other sustainability topics grabbed the interest of attendees, who had a midday opportunity to peruse the poster gallery. The poster session offered […]

Farmers have some measure of control over the land they till. They can buy it, divide it, get rid of things they don’t want. Not so for fishermen Like the fish and crustaceans they seek, fishermen are at the mercy of submerged ecosystems they cannot control. And, increasingly, scientists are aware that these systems are […]

Economics major Tagwongo Obomsawin didn’t anticipate huddles with biologists or shellfish harvesters during her undergraduate program. But as a research assistant for the New England Sustainability Consortium (NEST) Safe Beaches and Shellfish Program, she’s moved into the bustling crossroads of sustainability science. “I love that no day is same. I’m involved in a wide variety […]

A new digital tool could offer a wide range of Mainers access to streamlined, interactive data on climate, population, land use and nature. The tool is not just a clearinghouse of information. The user will be able to chart trends and use previously incompatible data sets to examine things like housing or demographic changes in […]