Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

In an August 15 article in the Bangor Daily News, Mitchell Center researcher Sarah Nelson and her colleague Steve Kahl of Unity College discuss a decades-long study that reveals good news for Maine lakes. The study found that lakes in Maine and New England are recovering much faster from the effects of acid rain than […]

In a recent UMaine News story, SSI Ph.D. graduate Spencer Meyer discusses the rapid increase in land protection in northern New England from 1999-2010. Meyer’s research team, which included Christopher Cronan, School of Biology and Ecology, Robert Lilieholm, School of Forest Resources, David Foster, Harvard University and fellow Ph.D. graduate Michelle Johnson, studied the socioeconomic […]

The Maine Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI), a program of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, joins the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), stakeholders and academic partners in recognizing the importance of the pivotal Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) on it’s 50th anniversary. Signed into law by in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson, […]

Jeff Lord concedes he does a lot of sitting, watching and waiting along the herring ladder at Highland Lake. But when gangs of alewives begin to leap and flop their way upriver from Mill Brook, his patience is well rewarded. “It can get a little boring, so I really appreciate when there is action,” the […]

Why do some landowners embrace sustainability and conservation in their environs while others ignore these concepts altogether? This was one of the main questions Michael Quartuch explored in his doctoral research at UMaine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI). It’s a complex query. As part of SSI’s People, Landscape and Communities team (PLACE), Quartuch, a recent PhD […]

A position is available for a Postdoctoral Research Associate (Estuarine Modeler) on the NEST Safe Beaches and Shellfish Project. The successful candidate will work as a member of an interdisciplinary team developing and implementing estuarine-coastal models to investigate the interaction between estuarine conditions and bacterial pollution. To see job details or apply, please visit the […]

Among environmental researchers, the challenges of interdisciplinary engagement have become a hot topic. The participants in that discussion range from environmental economists to communications specialists to ecologists. Yet the literature says hardly anything about the potential role of law. Meanwhile, the legal world has been engaged in its own debates about interdisciplinary research. Many participants […]

Plants that grow in alpine environments are often the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to climate change. A number of plants have disappeared from Acadia National Park despite being protected for nearly a century. Climate change is the prime suspect. Christine Lamanna, a post-doctoral fellow at the Mitchell Center’s Sustainability Solutions […]

A new article in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences (PNAS) documents nearly 15 years of crucial, dynamic vernal pools research and management by UMaine’s Aram Calhoun who is leading an interdisciplinary team at the Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), a program of the Mitchell Center. In the article, published this week online at www.pnas.org, Calhoun […]

Senator George Mitchell and David Hart will appear at the Jesup Memorial Library on Tuesday, July 15 at 7:00 PM to speak about the economic and environmental conundrums facing us on MDI, and how we can work together to address these issues. For example, we need more housing on MDI, but we want to preserve […]