Welcome to Spire’s eighth issue! We are ecstatic to announce Caitlyn Dauphinee as the winner of this year’s cover design contest. Her brightly colored collage, “The Lakeside Local”, is interspersed with whimsical texture and shape and acts as a gentle reminder of the playfulness of the natural world. Whether that be the soft slopes of snow sliding down the mountain side or a certain lakeside local playing hide and seek in the foliage, this year’s cover embodies the joy of nature and its simple pleasures. This issue, whose submissions range across many different fields and forms, highlight this community’s emotional and intellectual appreciation for the wonders of Maine and the flora and fauna within it. Carefully crafted by Mainers new and old, each poem, art, photo, and essay demonstrates a great sentiment for the beauty of Maine and becomes, in its own way, a collective call for its continued conservation and sustainability for years to come.
Alice M. Hotopp, Bailey P. McLaughlin, Hannah N. Mittelstaedt, Melanie B. Prentice Photo by Cora Saddler Scientific writing aims to stand objectively – to distance the ecologist from the ecology. Here we begin with, and then break from, the standard format of a scientific Abstract (the brief summary of a research paper). As students and practitioners of ecology, we shed the norms of scientific writing to more expansively explore what our research teaches us about connections between the natural world and ourselves.
Many market-based climate solutions try to avoid the slow pace of international climate agreements. Unfortunately, market-based solutions often ignore and exacerbate existing social problems (Ciplet & Roberts, 2017, 148). Carbon pricing systems can be an important piece of the puzzle for solving climate change. However, the most popular pricing system, cap and trade, has issues with fairness and impact. Cap and trade is a pricing system where corporations get allowances to pollute, which they can trade. The allowances have value, since polluters are limited to a certain amount of total emissions. The impact of cap and trade could be improved by charging debts rather than giving allowances to polluting corporations. Then, the money could be sent to the communities where the pollution is occurring. This would benefit the communities that are affected by the carbon-intensive industries. This improved system could be less politically feasible since it goes against powerful corporate interests. However, it will be stable since it will create a base of people whose jobs depend on this policy.
Olivia Box Photo by Carly Ralh A few years ago, I was standing in the middle of an 11-acre clearcut, hidden amidst the woods of Vermont. It was a small harvest, but it stretched on like an open wound. A few foresters were leading this tour, discussing the cut—how many trees they took, why, and what will grow back.
Eddie Nachamie Photo by Sean Birkel
It is twilight, and I am huddled in my orange tent. The day is done and my body aches. My feet are sore, blistered, and worn. My body is itchy and dirty and I am covered in forest grime. I notice the outline that mosquitoes and spiders make on the bright background of my yellow rainfly. There is a dull buzzing that underlies the quiet of the woods. Moonlight shines a purple glow across the lake and allows enough light for my favorite activity at this time of day: reading. I am engrossed in a book by Kenzaburō Ōe, and it keeps my mind alight while my body pleads for rest. His fantastical worlds and lurid wordscapes take me on journeys through a bygone era. This quiet time of reading and contemplation is one of the best parts of my day. There is no service around me for miles. I am at least two hours from established civilization. This solitude is a place that is intimidating but unavoidable. I have never spent so much time in such remote places.
Kendra Harmon-Bolding, Abbigail Hreben, and Jason Kuhn Photo by Sean Birkel
Many species of North Atlantic anadromous fish have experienced severe population declines in the past several decades. One major cause of these declines is believed to be reduced access to spawning streams caused by dams and other impoundments. In Maine, efforts are underway to increase migratory species’ access to historic watersheds by removing barriers and improving fish passage, with the goal of revitalizing Atlantic salmon and other anadromous fish populations. The use of environmental DNA can enable researchers to measure species presence in bodies of water, providing a fast and powerful tool to monitor population changes over time. Here, a single-semester undergraduate project is described in which students track select species using environmental DNA analysis. Before applying these methods to natural waterways, students first validated eDNA procedures using water samples from hatchery tanks which contained high levels of eDNA from a target species. The goal of this project is for students to participate in ecological monitoring in order to increase their awareness of local conservation issues.
