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In this episode Colin speaks with Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim about the passing of legendary Maine outdoorsman George Smith, a legislative hearing on bills to repeal the ban on single-use plastic bags, and the Secretary of State’s announcement certifying more than enough signatures for the referendum opposing the CMP corridor to move forward. Visit the Take Action Toolkit mentioned in this episode at: https://www.nrcm.org/take-action/take-action-toolkit.

Every two weeks, Advocacy Communications Director Colin Durrant speaks with advocates and experts to bring you a quick, concise summary of the latest news and information you need to know about Maine’s environment. In this episode Colin speaks with Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim about a study in contrasts. On the one hand, there’s General Motors’ bold commitment to a clean energy future with a huge announcement to go all electric with their cars and trucks, and on the other, Maine’s largest utility, Central Maine Power, failing in a colossal way in doing its job of helping solar projects connect to the grid.

Every two weeks, Advocacy Communications Director Colin Durrant speaks with advocates and experts to bring you a quick, concise summary of the latest news and information you need to know about Maine’s environment. In this episode Colin speaks with Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim about the Biden-Harris Administration’s bold climate action plans and efforts to rebuild the nation’s environmental laws, details the Common Agenda bills identified by NRCM and the Environmental Priorities Coalition, and discusses a few significant development regarding the controversial CMP corridor proposal.

NRCM kicks off 2021 with a brand new format for our podcast. Advocacy Communications Director Colin Durrant will speak with advocates and experts to bring you a quick, concise summary of the latest news and information you need to know about Maine’s environment. We’ll post a new episode every two weeks so you can keep up-to-date on breaking news from the Legislature and other places across Maine. In this episode Colin speaks with Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim about what’s ahead in this year’s unique legislative session, a new effort to restore the Kennebec River, and reflects on the seismic changes happening on the federal level.

Maine has some of the wildest landscapes east of the Mississippi, with more than half the state – 10.5 million acres—in our Unorganized Territories, with no municipal governments, very few services, and few permanent dwellings. Maine’s 600,000 acres of State-owned Public Reserved Land includes wild places that for many come as close to wilderness as they will ever experience. But what does the word “wilderness” mean? That’s the question we pose to several people who live in Maine and know the state’s wild places, in some cases like the backs of their hands. • Bill Houston, Maine Guide from Kingfield • Jen Brophy, Owner of Red River Camps • James E. Francis, Sr., Director of Cultural and Historic Preservation for the Penobscot Nation • Kevin Slater, Co-owner of Mahoosuc Guide Service

We're so excited to share the stories of the inaugural group of Brookie Award winners as part of NRCM Rising's new program to recognize & celebrate Maine's young environmental leaders. Hear from Gabrielle Hillyer. Gabby is the co-developer & project coordinator of the Maine Shellfish Learning Network & designed the innovative data-gathering tool—the Bucket Drifter!

We're so excited to share the stories of the inaugural group of Brookie Award winners as part of NRCM Rising's new program to recognize & celebrate Maine's young environmental leaders. Hear from Jordan Kendall Parks, a sustainable materials artist, as well as the developer & curator of interactive outdoor art exhibitions—including 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘛𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘴 𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵 & 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘌𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯!

We're so excited to share the stories of the inaugural group of Brookie Award winners as part of NRCM Rising's new program to recognize & celebrate Maine's young environmental leaders. Meet Riley Stevenson, founder of the Coastal Youth Climate Coalition & outreach director for Maine Youth Climate Strikes!

We're so excited to share the stories of the inaugural group of Brookie Award winners as part of NRCM Rising's new program to recognize & celebrate Maine's young environmental leaders. Hear from Logan Parker — field naturalist, founder of the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project, & organizer of annual conferences for nightjar researchers in North America!

We're so excited to share the stories of the inaugural group of Brookie Award winners as part of NRCM Rising's new program to recognize & celebrate Maine's young environmental leaders. Meet Sirohi Kumar, a climate activist, author, & co-founder of the Climate Emergency Action Coalition.

We're so excited to share the stories of the inaugural group of Brookie Award winners as part of NRCM Rising's new program to recognize & celebrate Maine's young environmental leaders. Meet Ania Wright, a climate organizer, founding member of Maine Youth for Climate Justice, & youth representative on the Maine Climate Council!

The Maine Climate Council is charged with developing a new statewide Climate Action Plan that will grow Maine’s economy by reducing carbon pollution and transitioning to clean energy. In this episode, we speak with Mike Williams, Deputy Director of the BlueGreen Alliance and member of the Climate Council’s Transportation Working Group, about how the Climate Council can support and uplift working people in Maine. The BlueGreen Alliance is a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations.

Aislinn Sarnacki is an outdoor reporter and editor of the Act Out section of the Bangor Daily News, where she writes about outdoor recreation, wildlife, and conservation. She also produces a 1-minute adventure series where she has already documented more than 350 trails and waterways in Maine and is the author of three hiking guidebooks. In this episode, host Carly Peruccio speaks with Aislinn about her extensive experience hiking on Maine trails, reporting on Maine’s outdoors, and reflections on the importance of conserving Maine’s special places.

For many of us, the power of nature serves as an inspiration for art, poetry, and action. To recognize the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and April as National Poetry Month, the Natural Resources Council of Maine created this special series of five podcasts featuring poems by Maine-based poets. In this poetry reading and conversation you’ll hear from award-winning writer and poet Richard Blanco from Bethel, Maine, who was the fifth poet to read at a U.S. presidential inauguration (Barack Obama’s second inauguration). Richard Blanco was born in Madrid and immigrated to the United States as an infant with his Cuban-exile family. He has been a practicing engineer, writer, and poet since 1991. His collections of poetry include City of a Hundred Fires (1998), which won the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize; Directions to the Beach of the Dead (2005), winner of the PEN/American Beyond Margins Award; Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), winner of the Thom Gunn Award, the Maine Literary Award, and the Paterson Prize; One Today (2013); Boston Strong (2013); and How to Love a Country (2019). In 2013, Blanco was chosen to serve as the fifth inaugural poet of the United States. Blanco performed, “One Today,” an original poem he wrote for the occasion, becoming the youngest, first Latino, immigrant, and openly gay writer to hold the honor. He has received numerous honors for his writings and performances, including the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellowship, a Florida Artist Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf Fellowship, as well as honorary doctorates from Macalester College, Colby College, and the University of Rhode Island. Blanco is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at Florida International University.

For many of us, the power of nature serves as an inspiration for art, poetry, and action. To recognize the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and April as National Poetry Month, the Natural Resources Council of Maine created this special series of five podcasts featuring poems by Maine-based poets. In this poetry reading and conversation you’ll hear the owner of Three Sisters Farm, Mary Anne Libby, reading a poem from her late husband, environmental visionary Russell Libby of Mount Vernon, Maine. Russell Libby liked to quote his distant relative, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert P.T. Coffin, when he describes his personal philosophy: "We eat from the earth, the sky, the water." With degrees in resource economics, he launched a lifelong career in food and agricultural policy at the state, regional, and national levels while also working—with his wife Mary Anne and their three daughters—his own "Three Sisters Farm" in Mount Vernon, Maine. As executive director of MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association), Libby oversaw the organization as it became the country's largest state-level organic association.

For many of us, the power of nature serves as an inspiration for art, poetry, and action. To recognize the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and April as National Poetry Month, the Natural Resources Council of Maine created this special series of five podcasts featuring poems by Maine-based poets. In this poetry reading and conversation you’ll hear from poet, bookstore owner, book editor, publisher, and Bates College associate professor of literature Gary Lawless of Nobleboro, Maine. Gary Lawless is a poet, book editor, publisher, and co-owner of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick. He is an associate professor of literature at Bates College in Lewiston and has been poet-in-residence for the town of Sitka, Alaska, and for the National Park Service at Isle Royale National Park at Lake Superior. After graduating from Colby College in 1973, Lawless left Maine to spend a year in California studying with poet Gary Snyder. When Lawless returned to Maine, he brought the idea of the budding bioregional movement with him. In 1987, he organized a Gulf of Maine Bioregional Congress, bringing together a diverse group of back-to-the-land and "green" folks from across northern New England and eastern Canada for a four-day series of workshops and presentations.

Legendary Maine journalist Bill Green was an anchor and reporter for more than four decades at News Center Maine, most recently hosting the popular weekly television series called "Bill Green’s Maine" before retiring in 2019. In this conversation with Bill we explore his love for Maine’s outdoors, why Maine is such a special place to live and explore, and learn about some of his favorite places to visit.

For many of us, the power of nature serves as an inspiration for art, poetry, and action. To recognize the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and April as National Poetry Month, the Natural Resources Council of Maine created this special series of five podcasts featuring poems by Maine-based poets. In this poetry reading and conversation you’ll hear from award-winning poet, avid birder, and daily haiku writer Kirsten Lindquist of Camden, Maine. Kirsten Lindquist’s publications include the chapbook Invocation to the Birds (Oyster River Press, 2001); Transportation (Megunticook Press, 2011), which was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award; and Tourists in the Known World: New & Selected Poems (Megunticook Press, 2017). Her work has received various awards, including the Bread Loaf Poetry Prize, the Red Fox Poetry Prize, the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance's Penobscot Watershed Poetry Prize, and the Maine Postmark Poetry Contest. Garrison Keillor read three of her poems on National Public Radio’s The Writer’s Almanac. Since 2009, Lindquist has maintained a daily haiku blog, Book of Days and she currently serves on the Town of Camden's Budget Committee, as chair of the Maine Community Foundation's Knox County Fund, and as treasurer of West Bay Rotary.

For many of us, the power of nature serves as an inspiration for art, poetry, and action. To recognize the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and April as National Poetry Month, the Natural Resources Council of Maine created this special series of five podcasts featuring poems by Maine-based poets. In this poetry reading and conversation you’ll hear from author and former Belfast, Maine, Poet Laureate Karin Spitfire of Belfast, Maine. Karin Spitfire is the author of a full-length book of poetry, "Standing with Trees," and a chapbook, "Wild Caught." Her poem, "What is to Be Offered," published in The Kerf, was nominated for the Pushcart Award. Spitfire is the author of "Incest: It’s All Relative," a performance/dance poem that toured nationally from 1982–86. She is a past Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine.

For the past 14 years as NRCM’s Climate and Clean Energy Director Dylan Voorhees has quite literally been a voice on the frontlines of the most important climate and clean energy conversations at the Maine State House. Dylan’s moving on to a new and exciting professional opportunity, and in this episode of Frontline Voices, you’ll hear from him about the clean energy solutions he’s been part of and the lessons he’s learned from his decade plus of climate advocacy at NRCM. (Dylan will be a Senior Consultant at VEIC. The nonprofit is headquartered in Vermont but plans to work remotely from Augusta, demonstrating that working from home can sometimes be a choice, too!) A note: We’re posting this episode during an unprecedented time. NRCM hopes that you, your family, and your friends are safe and healthy. We really appreciate that you’re listening to this episode today.