Spire 2022 Issue

Storytelling Our Way In and Through Resilience

By Michelle de Leon This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1828466.   With my car packed full in 2020, I drove over 2,000 miles to start graduate school in Maine. Orono would be my 10th address in five years, and picking up and moving to a […]

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Art Series: Wild Bees on Flowering Plants

Photography by Johnny Sanchez   Artist Statement Due to the challenges of traveling during a global pandemic, many people have decided to forgo adventures that would have taken them to vast landscapes –  places like seaside cliffs or mountain valleys, where scale is a difficult thing to fathom. This photo series presents another portrayal of […]

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Dear Readers, Am I Doing Enough?

A letter from a researcher “from away” grappling with questions around meaningful environmental action   By Erin Victor   Dear Readers, First and foremost, thank you. I am imagining you curled up with a nice hot cup of coffee or tea as you take the time to leisurely read this issue of Spire: The Maine […]

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“A Trail is a Trail, and Land is Land”

How a Natural Gas Pipeline Reorganized Jurisdiction of Land Under Federal Administration   By Dominic Piacentini  Introduction On July 5, 2020, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 42-inch diameter, 604-mile-long natural gas pipeline was canceled by its leading partners, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and Southern Company Gas (Dominion Energy 2020). Among its many […]

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The Harrier

By Jennifer Lynn Craig   When I spotted a bobolink in the wetlands, I pulled over and got out of the car. Sedge and tall reeds spread out through the marsh with Musquash Stream shining here and there in the spring sunshine. The bobolink swayed on a stalk. Then he flew, and I turned to […]

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