A Letter from the Editor
By Olivia Olson
Candidate for the M.S. in Quaternary and Climate Studies
University of Maine
Welcome to the ninth issue of Spire: The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability. We are delighted to announce that the winner of this year’s cover art contest is Madeline Hunter. Madeline’s “Planting” is the first installment in her series of illustrations which highlight the changing biotic communities that she witnessed during the planting phase of her graduate field work. Each illustration features a young woman, “Bean Girl,” and speaks to the interconnectedness of people and their environments, a fitting invitation to the ninth issue of Spire.
This year’s issue contains work from over 25 contributors from across the state of Maine and beyond, who all find space to reflect upon our relationships to the natural world. From poems that ground us such as Jacqueline Knirnshild’s “Roots” to op-eds that stimulate conservation action as seen in “Why Compostable Packing Isn’t a Silver Bullet Option,” authors have explored many facets of place and our care of our places. Authors not only relate to more-than-human relatives, but also to their own families in pieces including “Edna and Al” and “Elegy From Millinocket.” These pieces interrogate place in spatial and familial settings and begs the question: where do communities begin and end? And while Millinocket is just an hour’s drive away from Orono, contributors have taken us to the other side of the world in their reflections as part of the University of Maine’s delegation to the 29th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP29), held in “Baku,” Azerbaijan.
The visual art in this issue ranges from animation (“Reverie”) to woodblock prints (“Bear[ries]”), to watercolor paintings (“A Shared Generational Harvest”). A sculpture of a sockeye salmon made from recycled material calls our attention to the pollution that threatens populations of salmon, while “Flora II” pushes the boundaries of how we describe the natural world through art generated with computer programs that mimic biological processes where: “organisms grow, reproduce, compete for resources, and die” (Davis, 2025).
We thank our contributors who have shown incredible passion and dedication to their craft and also to our wonderful team of volunteer editors, without whom the present issue would not exist. Thank you especially to: Ernest Darkwa, Harrison Goldspiel, Kaitlyn Groh, Kaleigh Kogler, Alex Scaerce, Clinton Spaulding, Kathleen Spear, Sara Delaney Studer, Aaron Thibodeau, Erin Victor, and Tahi Wiggins. From September through April, the editors shared their time and energy in creating a beautiful issue that we are excited to share. Thank you also to Dan Dixon for his unwavering support and enthusiasm for Spire and its people. Please enjoy the ninth issue of Spire: The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability.
Cheers,
Olivia Olson
Editor-in-Chief, Spire