The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability

By Tovin Gordesky-Hooper   When a market economy is introduced into an area, the local population is incentivized to stop contributing to the commons because this economy predominantly rewards the production of goods for sale: “Under this fundamentally new economic order goods are bought and sold, not shared” (Johannes 1978, p. 356). The free-market economy […]

By Cora Saddler   Artist Statement October 15, 2022 3:45 p.m. Home is a walk through the woods. It’s mud-caked boots off the beaten path and overcast October afternoons with slivers of sunlight seeping through the dusky and dim blanket of cloud coverage. It gets dark early here, nothing like where I’m from, and yet, […]

By Vi Nelson   Artist Statement The piece starts as a topographic map of Bustins Island, one of the many islands in Casco Bay. Bustins Island is special to me and my family. Growing up in Massachusetts, I would come to Maine to spend my summers on the island living carefree, running around with my […]

By Sara Delaney1, Beth Jackson2, Anna Olsen3 , and Paulina Torres4 1University of Maine, School of Food and Agriculture Ph.D. Student 2University of Maine, Climate Change Institute, Graduate Certificate, Miami University, Project Dragonfly MA Student 3University of Maine, Anthropology and Environmental Policy MA Student 4University of Maine, Anthropology and Environmental Policy Ph.D. Student   I. […]

By Tamra Benson   Introduction We are here to heal each other. We are here to honor our relationship and responsibility to the land and each other, to minimize suffering and maximize joy, and to work for the collective healing and liberation of the planet and its people. The way our economies currently function is […]

By Jenna Davenport    Artist Statement 2022 Acrylic paint, wood, artificial moss 17”x16”x1.5” Beyond the Riverbed explores the unseen displacement that occurred in Maine’s natural history. Maine was once the lumber capital of the world, but with that came detrimental effects on the natural environment. Log drives were essential to the transportation of trees to […]

By Sass Borodkin    The Cold Stretch Winter: the slow blink of light returning. The lid opening so sluggishly we hunker into the darkness, praying toward the thaw, aching to tell the sun how grateful we are for the whiff of returned peach blossoms and the echo of kids giggle-jumping through the sprinkler. The hunker […]

By Kathleen Spear   I was made to smile. I have big, soft eyes and a neatly sewn smile that covers my whole face. I have floppy ears. I have limp arms and a flimsy body with a long, fluffy tail. Cheap, faux fur covers me from head to toe. I am a myriad of […]

By Tanja Kunz   Stellar field 1 Stellar field 1, oil on canvas, 36″x36″   Night Back in the beginning, when the world exploded, the winged, the two and four legged, the rooted and the swimming, we were all specks, suspended in the galaxy. Tiny lights, they say. Around then, or not long afterwards, gravity […]

By Christopher Gardner   I went to the zoo today to see the first wooly mammoth born in the 21st century.    They had him in a special, too-small  Enclosure away from the other elephants because they had tried to kill him.   He didn’t understand why.    Sitting in the palm-frond shade,  oversize ears […]