COA THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Volume 8 Number 1. . Spring 2012 COA'S TIES TO MDI It Takes an Island to Nurture a College & a College to Nurture an Island The forty-year dance between island and college COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Letter from the President 3 COA News 4 A Modest Proposal The Watson Journey of Blake Davis '11 5 The Alumnus and the Whale Dan Dendanto '91 and Stumpy 8 The Kingfisher Short Fiction by Lucy Atkins '12 12 Poetry Katharine Macko 14 Family Involvement Roc and Helen '80 Caivano 15 Feature Story COA & MDI 16 It Takes an Island to Nurture a College and a College to Nurture an Island A glimpse into the many aspects of the connection between COA and Mount Desert Island Alumni Notes 41 Faculty & Community Notes 44 In Memoriam 47 Ever Wonder ? 48 What Human Ecology Means to Me 49 Willowind Therapeutic Riding Center Story and photograph by Julia De Santis '12 Thirteen years ago, David Folger '81 helped start Willowind Therapeutic Riding Center, Inc., a non- profit dedicated to helping the disabled community through equestrian therapy. While at COA, David was a bird and plant ecologist, a student of Bill Drury, faculty member in biology. With Bill he helped establish COA's island research station on Great Duck Island (as well as an earlier one on Petit Manan). "Willowind evolved through a marriage," says David. "She was an equestrian familiar with therapy; I was a jack-of-all-trades, by then a part-time gymnastics instructor as well - — and a full-time human ecologist. It all just came together. Now we have eight horses and an indoor riding arena." Continued on page 16. III CANADA COA t takes an island to nurture a college, a college to nurture an island, and a designer to nurture a magazine. To celebrate College of the Atlantic's fortieth year, COA's The College of the Atlantic Magazine first alumnus president, and the fifteenth issue (has it really been that many?) of Volume 8 Number 1 Spring 2012 COA, the magazine, we are introducing a new design. Speaking personally, as editor, EDITORIAL | have been gratified by the appreciation with which COA is always greeted - and Editor Donna Gold Editorial Guidance Heather Albert-Knopp '99 frustrated with my inability to get critical feedback. Turns out, I should have been John Anderson Rich Borden asking designers. Since January, designers Rebecca Hope Woods and Danielle Meier Darron Collins '92 Julia De Santis '12 '08, with the help of Darron Collins '92, our president, have come up with numerous Michael Griffith '09 Jennifer Hughes Chris Petersen ideas for enhancing what you are now holding in your hands. Rebecca and Dani have Matt Shaw '11 Scott Swann '86, MPhil '93 the kind of eyes that see beyond what is, to what could be. Bonnie Tai Editorial Consultant Bill Carpenter Alumni Consultants Jill Barlow-Kelley Dianne Clendaniel Of course, this penetrating vision is what launched College of the Atlantic decades DESIGN ago. The vision of our founding trustees, Leslie C. Brewer and Father James Gower, Art Director Rebecca Hope Woods Designer Danielle Meier '08 and the subsequent trustees, presidents, faculty, staff, alumni, and students, is COA ADMINISTRATION celebrated every day at COA. President Darron Collins '92 Dean of Admission Sarah Baker Dean of Development Lynn Boulger Associate Dean for Faculty Ken Cline This issue honors the very real impact that this vision has Administrative Dean Andrew Griffiths Academic Dean Kenneth Hill had on Mount Desert Island - and the nurturing that Dean of Student Life Sarah Luke Associate Dean Sean Todd MDI has in turn given to our students, offering them a for Advanced Studies COA BOARD OF TRUSTEES whole island as a campus, teaching all of us the meaning Ronald E. Beard Jay McNally '84 of community, and making it possible for COA to welcome Leslie C. Brewer Philip S.J. Moriarty Nikhit D'Sa '06 Phyllis Anina Moriarty William G. Foulke, Jr. Hamilton Robinson, Jr. so many passionate, smart, creative students, and then Amy Yeager Geier Walter Robinson to send them off into the world - some to start theaters George B.E. Hambleton Nadia Rosenthal Elizabeth D. Hodder Marthann Lauver Samek Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 Henry L.P. Schmelzer and theater companies on MDI, and some to save whales Anthony Mazlish William N. Thorndike, Jr. Suzanne Folds McCullagh Joan Van der Grift and oceans halfway around the globe. Sarah A. McDaniel '93 Paul Van der Grift Linda McGillicuddy Cody van Heerden Life Trustees Trustee Emeriti Thank you all. James M. Gower David Hackett Fischer Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. Sherry F. Huber John N. Kelly Daniel Pierce Susan Storey Lyman Helen Porter William V.P. Newlin Cathy L. Ramsdell '78 John Reeves John Wilmerding Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. Donna Gold, COA editor Clyde E. Shorey, Jr. The faculty, students, trustees, staff, and alumni of College of the Atlantic envision a world where people value creativity, intellectual achievement, and diversity of nature and human cultures. With respect and compassion, individuals construct meaningful lives for themselves, gain appreciation of the relationships among all forms of life, and safeguard the heritage of future generations. COA is published biannually for the College of the Front and back cover: Atlantic community. Please send ideas, letters, and The cover photographs are the work of Ben Macko '01, submissions (short stories, poetry, and revisits to human ecology essays) to: who also teaches eighth-grade math at Conners Emerson Elementary School. Ben makes small sculptures out of wire COA Magazine, College of the Atlantic 105 Eden St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 and granite. These photographs that Ben took of one of dgold@coa.edu his sculptures reflect much of what COA inspires: campus and island, local and global, artist and educator, heart and WWW.COA.EDU mind, but most of all, the immediacy of the present and the hope of the future. -DG PRINTED WITH MIX CERTIFIED Paper from WIND responsible sources FSC POWER www.fsc.org FSC® C021556 From the President Darron Collins '92, PhD ount Desert Island is an M And that's exactly what's happened on and see our future successes depending extraordinary place. We have this island. on such reciprocity. a fjord and a national park; a smashed-shell beach and two world- Walk through the town of Bar Harbor We live in a highly connected world. class genetics labs; extreme human and you'd be hard pressed not to see It's so much easier to be enchanted population dynamics and a peak that the impact of the college. Travel west by the distant and exotic. When I look affords the continent's first view of the out Eagle Lake Road past the schools, toward the future as COA president, I rising sun. Then there's this college over hill and dale through Acadia, and to see the local - right here on MDI and the "quiet side" and the impact does the coast of Maine - as the perfect No better place for an extraordinary not wane. laboratory for learning, exploring, and college than an extraordinary island, I improving the way humans interact suppose. COA and MDI have coevolved Now, impact might not be the best with the environment. This issue of over the past forty years, reciprocally term, only because it tends to conjure COA celebrates how the island and the bending and shaping one another "economic impact." And, although college have danced in the past and sets to their current form - not like a business and economy are certainly the stage for what the next dance might blacksmith coerces shape from metal, one important shade of what COA look like. but rather like partners in a successful has brought to the island, I prefer to marriage. Of course there are instances emphasize something more holistic: a Enjoy! when the two look at each other and connection that includes art, planning, say, "Where did that come from?" or, in intellectual and cultural fervor, so many words, "That's not the path / conservation, and education. Also, the would have chosen," but through some word "impact" feels very one-sided, very differences a mature, creative and "subject-object." We've been shaped by powerful whole emerges from parts. our presence and interactions on MDI COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 3 NEWS FROM CAMPUS AURORA BALL-EALIS WATER POLO AT THE Y FERMENTATION FAIR NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY Nick Jenei '09 and Lauren Rupp '05 Anjali Appadurai '13 galvanizes the At the 19th Biennial Conference on the join the student life staff. world when she delivers her Youth Biology of Marine Mammals in Tampa, Florida, Statement to the plenary at the United nine presentations come from COA and Students in the class Practicum on Nations Framework Convention on Allied Whale, COA's marine mammal research Solar Energy install a solar array Climate Change in Durban, South Africa. lab. Six are by COA students, with Jacqueline on the pottery studio, funded with The speech, written with the help of Bort MPhil '11, Jessica McCordic '12, a grant from the US Environmental Julian Velez '15 and Nathan Thanki Kathryn Scurci '11, and Chris Spagnoli '12 Protection Agency and an investment '14, goes viral - from Amy Goodman as senior authors. by MDI Clean Energy Partners L3C. ('79) to Andrew Revkin of the New York COA students get gussied up in their Holly Krakowski '12 stages Edward Times, to media outlets around the globe. finest for the Aurora Ball-ealis (see above), Albee's Zoo Story with actors Phinn Naomi Klein tweets "Anjali is a hero." a formal dance under starry lights in Gates Onens '13 and Patrick McGorrill '14. Community Center. INDEPENDENT STUDY JAZZ FESTIVAL MV SPREY BY IVY SIENKIEWYC '13 POSTER DESIGN LAUNCHED FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL Grover's Corners, New Hampshire COA hires two new faculty members COA is one of six pioneering colleges to sign the comes to COA when Gina Sabatini '13 for two-year positions: Jodi Baker, Real Food Campus Commitment - and the only stages Our Town, her debut as performing artist; Sarah Hall, geologist. one to have already exceeded the 20 percent level a director. More than thirty COA folks of organic, fair trade, and local food that other Honors for COA students pour in: get involved, including President colleges are pledging to attain by 2020. Currently, Kathryn Shlepr '13 becomes a Darron Collins '92. nearly 30 percent of COA food is "real" according Goldwater Scholar; Rachel Sullivan-Lord to the standards of the commitment. Calling College of the Atlantic '14 receives honorable mention. Rachel "much more than a university, it's a Briggs '13 becomes a Udall Scholar. COA hosts Food Connections: Reconnecting Hands, preparation for life," the Princeton Kathryn Shlepr and Trudi Zundel '14 Mouth & Mind through Food Systems Education, a Review listed COA as one of the nation's are given honorable mentions. Adrian conference about sustainable food and education. "best value" colleges and universities. Fernandez Jauregui '15 receives a E-van arrives! Thanks to the generosity of the The company's The Best Value Colleges: Kathryn W. Davis Projects for Peace Partridge Foundation, and the research of Alex 2012 Edition, includes only 150 award. He'll help create needed rain Pine '14, COA now has a used electric van, undergraduate schools: 75 public and harvesting systems among the Guarani complete with solar charger, to ferry students to 75 private institutions. communities of his native Bolivia. and from Beech Hill and the Peggy Rockefeller Farms, strengthening student connections to our Images: Julia Walker Thomas '12 took the first two images on top, Katie O'Brien '15 took the photo of bread. farms without warming the atmosphere. Second row: Jeana DeLaire '13, poster design by Khristian Mendez '15, photo by Toby Stephenson '98. CHECK OUT MORE STORIES AND PHOTOS AT NEWSWORTHY.COA.EDU NEWS A MODEST PROPOSAL: WHY THE WORLD NEEDS MORE FLY FISHERS The Watson Journey of Blake Davis '11 Shortly after graduation, Blake Davis '11 set out on a yearlong fellowship from the Watson Foundation. His project: The Culture and Evolution of Fly Fishing Techniques. He visited Australia and Thailand before we caught up with him in Puerto Rico. He has since been to Costa Rica and India. The other night I kayaked into the Laguna de la Torrecilla beneath a cloudless, moonless sky, listening for the swirl of tarpon as I paddled towards the lights of a bayside bridge. After hustling through crowded lanes of Puerto Rican traffic, the solitude was overwhelming - the sounds of the highways hushed by the mangroves and the muddy rush of the outgoing tide. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw the stars emerge, reflecting faintly on the glassy water, rippling with the strokes of my paddle. In the peace of the moment | forgot my fishing rod and the tarpon. | leaned back on my kayak and soaked in the starlit sky. The mosquitos, never much for reflection, descended. Sharp pricks on my arms and legs poked me to attention. Had someone been watching, they would have seen an apparently incapacitated kayaker suddenly begin waving his paddle like a battle axe, swearing madly, unaware of impending reefs and building swells as he drifted into an outgoing current. Absorbed in self-defense, I sped out of the lagoon into open ocean. When I regained my composure | found myself half a mile from shore, riding a riptide into the night. The calm of the water was replaced by the crash of hungry reefs snacking on beefy swells. The mosquitos high-tailed it. I put on my life jacket. The mosquitos high-tailed it. / put on my life jacket. If you have ever read or seen A River Runs Through It and you are considering taking up fly fishing, you probably imagine something considerably more romantic than being tossed against a reef in your modest kayak. More likely you picture yourself along the misty banks of a secluded river, casting long, perfect loops of line. Yet so often that gently flowing river is lined with poison ivy; and the unfurling line of your cast lands to hook, alas, not a spawning salmon, but the back of your neck, the peace of the moment broken by your own curses. The unadvertised truth is that fly fishing is far more diverse than its perception. As fishers have expanded it beyond the banks of rivers to oceans and bays, its traditions have become richer, as have the challenges and the responsibilities of anglers. This year I have been surprised to encounter fly fishers virtually everywhere there is water. I have found them prowling the beaches, swatting flies in lagoons, hunkering along channels, and catching dozens of species of fish. The resulting diversity of approaches in fly fishing is remarkable, as varied and quirky as the individuals COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 5 NEWS who fish. One man | met in Australia lures frequently, often the case elbow grease has temporarily set a used lead-impregnated fly fishing lines with persnickety fish that have seen dysfunctional system into motion and to reach ocean ledges hundreds of extensive pressure from recreational helped fish and fish habitat recover. feet deep. (Traditionally, fly fishing is fishers. Similarly, one does not go to practiced in the upper few feet of the the trouble of fishing hundreds of What we need to ensure the future water column.) In the minute it took for feet deep if there are large and more of fisheries, I have come to believe, his flies to reach the ocean bottom, he readily accessible fish inshore. is the approach of fly fishers. While would sit at the front of his boat on a the world views fly fishers with misty cooler of beer, telling me about his past The more fishers I have met, the eyes, its depiction of us has somehow as a concrete baron and how he spent more familiar I have become with failed to capture the determination of his fortune. decline. Decline is a common thread individuals who choose a pastime that is entangling virtually all of the world's intentionally difficult. Few people see us fisheries today. There is avoiding the reefs in our modest kayaks, nearly universal loss in combatting mosquitos, being irradiated The gods forbid / have children, the abundance of habitat by the sun, all for the simple pleasure would they be able to walk the and the numbers of holding and releasing a squiggly and diversity of piece of nature whose name we can saltwater flats in Exmouth, Australia, fish species. This pronounce in stuttering Latin. and see tuna erupting along reefs? decline is even more worrisome What we need in our approach to among the people and fisheries is a similar balance between A middle school teacher I met in Perth communities that depend on fish for educatedness and doggedness, an netted shrimp and brought them home food and livelihoods. Amidst these ability to make a determination and for observation. His flies imitating these trends, I am aware someone retracing follow through no matter the obstacles, shrimp were so precise they had the my wanderings in a few decades would the complaints, and the inevitable same number of meticulously arranged likely see far fewer fish and fishers. injury to some. While I have seen laws legs as their subjects, the captured The gods forbid I have children, would being put into place to protect fish shrimp. He used these flies to catch brim they be able to walk the saltwater flats and fish habitat, I have seen far fewer beneath concrete overpasses and along in Exmouth, Australia, and see tuna instances where these laws were downtown jetties, sloshing through the erupting along reefs? effectively enforced. Few seem willing streets in his waders. In Puerto Rico I to limit the amount of people who can met an angler so fed up with constantly As I struggle to imagine solutions, I make a living off the water. And yet if changing his lures he designed a knot am often reassured by others that we do not, dwindling stocks will do that that could be loosened and refastened the human capacity for creativity is for us, perhaps eliminating those jobs with a few quick movements. Because our greatest asset and hope. Those altogether. this knot tended to break more easily who study fisheries purport that, if under pressure, he switched to fishing anything, technological innovation We need more than innovation or line twice as heavy. and clever management will prevail further awareness if we want there to against overfishing and development be fish in the future. We need people At first | viewed the adaptations of fly of vital habitat and pollution. But who are going to push for these fishers as interesting but insignificant from what I have seen of fishers, our changes because they have felt those beyond their novelty. After all, it is not creative solutions have only allowed losses slip through their fingers. While altogether surprising that fly fishing is us to desperately pursue fish to all we have been educated to believe that practiced differently than it is advertised. watery corners of the earth. Fly fishers a greater capacity for thought will be However the more time I spend with are as guilty of this as commercial our salvation to so many environmental fishers, the more I realize the impetus fishers. When one area is "fished out," binds, I would add that we also need for these approaches reflect worrying we move on to other more pristine to be far more uncompromising and trends in recreational fishing, including locations and develop more effective compassionate if we are to inspire more fly fishing, trends that are more often methods. By comparison, the steps than awareness. What we need is grit. discussed in the context of commercial taken to protect and restore fisheries What we need is gusto. fishing. One does not make a reusable seem more a matter of persistence, fishing knot unless one has to change instances where a fair amount of 6 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE NEWS Those who fly fish are usually aware that their method of fishing is not the most efficient. Yet among them there is a commonly held sentiment that the more difficult path renders sweeter results. This appreciation is what fly fishers have to offer. This is also why, if you own a copy of A River Runs Through It, you should burn it. Watching it will leave you infatuated but What we need is grit. uninformed, like falling in love after a first date. If you insist on keeping your copy of this movie; or if you cannot find the matches, What we need is gusto. then you may at least want to take away something else from this famous portrayal of fly fishing. That is, fish are worth saving solely for the sake of there being fish. Not for their being caught, not for peoples' continued livelihoods, but so that fish can continue to swim. No one understands this better than fly fishers. Read more about Blake's adventures at fishwithblake.wordpress.com Blake Davis '11 takes a break from restoring the 1987 Sentra he bought to help him get around to fishing grounds in Puerto Rico. Photos courtesy of Blake Davis. Dan Dendanto '91 and Toby Stephenson '98 (top) and Lindsey Nielsen '13 (below) work on installing Stumpy in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. DANGER NEWS THE ALUMNUS AND THE WHALE: STUMPY'S SECOND LIFE by Donna Gold Of all the large whales, right whales are handling them as a craftsman and Having articulated whales for the New the most endangered. And those living artist, from informed curiosity as Bedford Whaling Museum, Harvard nearby, in the North Atlantic, are the a forensic researcher, and from University Museum of Comparative rarest: only about 450 survive. So when a his concern as a conservationist: Zoology, and Nantucket Whaling female named Stumpy was killed off the the epitome of hands-on, Museum in Massachusetts, and for Virginia coast in 2004 - presumably by a interdisciplinary, heartfelt New Hampshire's Phelps Science ship strike - a pall went over the scientific human ecology. Center at Philips Exeter Academy and conservation communities. and the Seacoast Science Center, Stumpy was first sighted in among other institutions, Dan has But the celebration of this whale's life at 1975. While right whales are learned to read a whale through its the just-opened Nature Research Center distinguishable by the markings on bones. This fertile mom was plagued by of the North Carolina Museum of Natural their heads, Stumpy was known by bone deformity. Where there ought to Sciences in Raleigh might possibly help to her broken tail, likely the result of an have been soft cartilage between her conserve more whales even than Stumpy early encounter with a vessel. The vertebrae, there are numerous bone and her future progeny would have strike left her with a stump, hence spurs — much like what happens to engendered. her name, but it didn't stop this humans as they grow stiff with age. "This massive creature, the third-largest animal is fully fused," says Dan. "Each The museum is impressive, a $56 million right whale ever recorded. And one of these vertebrae is turned entirely expansion focused on research methods because she was observed with five into bone" - a condition indicating a - how we know what we know about different calves over thirty years, female of a certain age. Add to that the science. A focal point is the three-ton, fifty- she was also called "the mother of numerous bone crumbs that were found foot skeleton of Stumpy. The creator of right whales." inside her body - presumably from the exhibit is Dan DenDanto '91, who runs what was likely the ship encounter that the business Whales and Nails on Mount There may have been more calves. gave her the name of Stumpy — and this Desert Island, employing a crew of local We can assume Stumpy was at poor mother could have used a daily, alumni and students: COA boat captain least forty years old, since it takes whale-sized dose of Aleve. Toby Stephenson '98, Courtney Vashro a decade for a female to mature to '99, Lindsey Nielsen '13, and Allied Whale the point of spending a year carrying And yet it was likely not her arthritic intern Jennifer Oraze. a calf. She could have been sixty. bones that caused her death. Right Right whales are fertile for a long whales are not afraid of noise. A whale Though Dan is nearing completion of a time, says Dan. While it's possible swimming across the bow of a vessel PhD in marine biology from the University to age a right whale by plumbing may not even know it's in danger. Even of Maine Orono, and is also a research the inner wax core of its ear, where more tragic, the most vulnerable whales associate at Allied Whale, COA's marine an annual ring grows, the core tend to be females. Pregnant females. mammal research lab, his range spans decomposes quickly. And Stumpy's While most northern right whales over- far beyond science. Spend an hour with ears "were snapped clean off during winter near Cape Cod Bay, the pregnant him — especially if you're lucky enough the collision with the ship," Dan ones head to the warmer waters off to be near Stumpy or one of the other says. In fact, her rostrum - or beak Virginia into Georgia and Northern mammals he has articulated - and - was broken and severed. In his Florida. Anyone familiar with the coast you'll feel the power of the whale's life reconstruction, Dan has offset the knows that these preferred calving transmitted through Dan's passion. His rostrum some six inches from her grounds happen to be the same as one comprehension comes from reading the body to show the impact of the of the nation's busiest shipping lanes. individual's bones as a scientist, from ship strike. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 9 NEWS Yes, Stumpy was pregnant. She was close to giving birth when she was hit. Lisa Gatens is the mammals curator at the North Carolina museum. When Stumpy was discovered, floating and dead, it was Lisa who was called to meet the vessel towing her in; some years later, it was her team that contracted Dan to articulate Stumpy. "He knows the anatomy as well as anyone, he knows the animal," says Lisa. "His team was amazing. They were just SO pleasant, smart, and capable — and they produced this wonderful outcome. They were a delight to work with." Dan's journey to whale articulation began while a student at COA. It was 1987, Dan's first year at the college, remains COA's landmark icon. "I've For seven months, Stumpy's skeleton and he was already working at Allied coauthored five scientific papers filled the three-car garage Dan uses as Whale. That winter a fin whale mandible and I think there are fifteen people his studio. Her flippers sat in the central lying on the ground near the Arts and who have read them," he says. 'But hallway of the home off the Tremont Sciences Building was struck by a snow I've done a dozen exhibitions, and Road he shares with his wife, alumna and plow. It galvanized Dan. "We should with this one I'll go over a million teacher Megan Smith '90, and their two do something, turn it into an exhibit," visitors a year who have seen a sons, Gus and Rocco. But before Dan he said at the time. Working on an whale that I have put together. could receive Stumpy's bones, they had independent study guided by former It has been a privilege to have to be separated from her body, a process COA taxidermist Skip Buyers-Basso the opportunity to convey this that's given to nature. Stumpy's remains '83, Dan created the whale skull that conservation message." were buried in a huge manure pile, where 10 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE NEWS Yes, Stumpy was pregnant. Indeed, she was close to giving birth when she was hit. installation act. Says Dan, "it brought a warm feeling of satisfaction to see mother and offspring reunited." Stumpy did not die in vain. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution cross-sectioned her jaw to determine the bone density and level of force it would take to break it. This information led directly to guidelines asking large vessels to slow down to ten knots when patrol flights discover right whales in the area. At that speed, say scientists, a strike should be survivable. While three right whales were killed the same year Stumpy died, since these guidelines were created only one other right whale has been killed by a ship strike. Whether it's the baby floating inside her womb, the mark of heroism revealed by her stump, or her long child-bearing life, Stumpy seems to mean something to all who connect to her. There were times during my visit to Dan's studio when my group had tears in our eyes. We are not worms and other creatures spent about a an inorganic cartilage out of epoxy- alone, says Lisa Gatens - she's finding year cleaning off the muscle and blubber. coated foam and papier maché, that same connection already among the To get the skeleton absolutely clean, threading the bones onto hidden workers in this new museum wing. Dan mimicked the old whalers, trying steel pipes and rebar - and the remaining fat by boiling the oil out of working with the museum on Who knows what inspiration will result the bones in huge vats on a woodstove the logistics of hanging the three- from Stumpy's second life inside a outside his home. Otherwise, he says, the ton exhibit. museum, detailing what we know of oil can leach notoriously unpleasant odors her story from the very bones that are into the museum for years after. And then there was the fetus. hanging - the severed rostrum, the Stumpy's calf, the museum and cross-sectioned jaw, the bone spurs - There are a multitude of challenges in Dan's crew all agreed, ought to as well as the methods used to study accurately reassembling a skeleton. When rest within her womb again. But living whales? Stumpy's bones were delivered, they scientists didn't know what shape he laid out to thirty-nine feet. But Stumpy would have taken. Toothed whales The museum opening was a twenty-four measured fifty-two feet when she was curl like a question mark inside the hour affair. Lisa says she spent six hours found. After subtracting two feet for flesh mother. But since whales emerge of it standing beneath Stumpy, stopping and blubber, Dan used his knowledge of tail first, there's some speculation people, saying, "You need to know about the skeletal frame to get the proportions that the large ones may straighten this whale. You need to know about her right, widening the spaces toward the out well before birth, so Dan left life. She is important!" tail section as they would be in a living the fetus straight. Raising the creature, allowing for more movement. seventeen-foot, full-term whale All photos by Keith Rittmaster of the North Carolina To space out the vertebrae, Dan created back into the mother was the final Maritime Museum. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 11 The Kingfisher Short fiction by Lucy Atkins '12, Illustration by Jordan Chalfant '12 faint blush tinges the A glued together into this finished whole, undersides of the clouds streamlined and seaworthy. Maybe this through the spruce trees. is what it's like to experience a child With each recovery, a cluster of drips growing up. from his paddle spreads into the glassy A black-throated green calls from surface; with each pull, whirlpools thick the shore. That one always gets stuck as his thumb twist in front of the blade in his head - see see see I'm green! momentarily before disappearing. In Another calls in response. Winter this curved shell, he glides. So thin yet lingered and spring had a slow start this strong. The combination of canvas year, but now the warblers are finally and cedar never fails to amaze him. back. Blackburnian, yellow, chestnut- Even paddling solo she's handling sided, parulas, and these black-throated nicely - the empty bow slaps a little greens dashing between the spruce against the water, but the curved sides boughs this morning. Such welcome are balanced. Just enough creaking colors after winter when the only to remind him that she's made out of bright is the tiny splash of red on the trees. Another one set afloat for the woodpeckers' heads. These migrants first time, another winter tacked and are strangely bold, letting him get within 12 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE a yard or so, posing and cocking their Rounding the point he can just see "And what might be the name of heads as he snaps away. As he paddles a figure on the far shore through the this shiny beauty?" D wants to know. slowly along the shore, the buzzing voice fading light. It is later than he realized. "I haven't named it yet." He climbs fades, replaced by the striking song of Back in town M will be expecting him out onto the beach. "Nothing the yellow warbler. Sweet-sweet-sweet, I'm- soon for dinner, to chatter about her seemed right." so-sweet! day and kiss him with As he drifts, he breathes in deeply, wine-stained lips. Might as catching tendrils of mixing aromas in well get this over with. He The harsh rattle of a kingfisher his nostrils. The wet dirt smell of spring realizes he's calmer than punctuates the air, and the is the first to sharpen his senses after he expected. Picking up winter; noticing this nuanced, multi- the pace of his strokes, he three of them look up to see the layered fragrance, he knows summer digs deeper into the velvet dark shape cutting low over the is coming. He wishes there were words surface of the water. to communicate smells - they catch in As he gets closer, the water through the dusk. the net of his memory for an instant as figure takes form and her they blow past, before fading completely familiar features come into view. Her hair The harsh rattle of a kingfisher out of grasp. He aches to somehow hold is loose and pulled over one shoulder, punctuates the air, and the three of onto these memories, some of which bright against her brown flannel shirt. them look up to see the dark shape aren't even his, but stem from books She's wearing a red skirt that ripples cutting low over the water through or stories - like the flowery sweetness around her calves. With her toe she the dusk. drifting over this lake that reminds him nudges rocks on the pebbly beach, V strokes the gunwales, still looking of humid southern nights on wrap- bends, pauses. Crouching, she skims dumbstruck. She turns to D. "What around porches, wicker swings he's a flat one across the water - five-six- about Kingfisher?" she asks in a low voice. never lazed on. Dusty warmth radiates seven-eight-nine-ten. Pretty good. The "Seems appropriate for a blue from the large boulders along the shore rings expand and run into each other vessel," D agrees. - he wants to bask on one and then before slowly vanishing. He crosses the They let the name hang in the air jump in, splashing - and the shiny, fading trail, leaving a tiny wake and his for a moment. It doesn't make him clean smell of the varnished canoe and own string of droplets. She looks up immediately cringe like so many first the liquid freshness of water mingles from her scuffing and pacing. Arcs her attempts at names. He nods slowly. with his skin. We can photograph and arm out. He tips the blade of his paddle "Kingfisher it is," he says. "I'll swing by paint the world we see, but why can't in her direction, nodding. Somehow and paint the lettering tomorrow." we inhale these fragrances and exhale calling out would break the stillness. And our own creative blends based on our his throat is gruff. A fter loading the canoe onto her mood? This evening he would breathe He eases up for the last few Toyota wagon, he congratulates out pure, sweet cedar, spiced with a strokes. Gravel crunches from the road them again. This time the words touch of acid green from the new and another figure appears through slide out easier and he doesn't have to spruce tips. the trees. He concentrates on making tell himself to smile. He bends into his And there's something about being his strokes fluid but does not pull own car. Without the blue boat strapped on the lake after a whole winter on much water, prolonging these last few to the top he feels like he's missing land, a whole winter working this boat moments afloat and separate from something. But now there's space for with his hands and waiting to work the them. The man scurries down the beach. his own canoe. He thinks for a moment water with his paddle. Why is it only now "Sorry I'm late," he hears the man say, about where he'll be in a few days - that he's getting out? All the excuses kissing V on the cheek. His hand winds riding waves on the George with old lose their meaning. His muscles fall round her waist. friends, loaded down with all the food easily into the motions - abdominals "Congratulations," he eases the and gear they'll need for three weeks twisting back and forth, frame steady, bow partway up the beach, telling in the wilderness. Through the open wrists curling fluidly for the quick at the himself to smile. window a few straggling peepers pierce end of each stroke. His thumb brushes V's eyes are huge. She stands, the still air and another trickle of hermit against the silky gunwale. Good - skin hands dangling, mouth opening. "When thrush melody floats past. He inhales the on wood. He smiles. What a scene for a - wait.. - when you said a surprise - I whiffs of the last crabapple blossoms as new boat - coming on sunset over the had no idea she stammers. Noticing they mix with the cedar dust on his wool flat, flat water, hermit thrush descants him again, she jumps to grab the shirt, and blows out a slow trickle - sun- rippling through the woods. He paddles upturned triangle to stabilize the boat, soaked skin on open water, afternoon without effort, feeling like he could go "Sorry sliding her hands along the thunderstorms, dense spruce forests. at this pace for a long time. He hangs bright wood. Back at the shop, the paddle he'll use on the pause of silence with himself - "My gosh - gorgeous," she on the George is waiting for its final coat so different from the coming months breathes, looking up at him. She sighs, of varnish. guiding and working at camp. shakes her head. "I just can't believe it." COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 13 Poetry By Katharine Macko, Sustainable Business Program Administrator Photograph by Ben Macko '01 When It Rains It Pours Peering In Your eyes tasted salty What if my mouth and throat When I kissed them, Were lined with moss Your pathos crystalized on my lips And you could look And I wanted to kiss them again. Way down in I want to carry away your sorrows by the teaspoon And see ferns To cleanse whatever wounds are buried deep, Growing far below To hold the salted memories you reluctantly share. There are, I have heard, salt mines beneath us With drifts of the stuff piled stories high. But this reservoir is private And it would not be wise to trespass. Instead I will stay here at the surface With my hands full of teaspoons And wait for you. January Moss For now, the ice has relaxed its grip on the ground Revealing an unfathomable moss. These mid-winter thaws always make me ache Like a lover who loves it all too much Though she knows her heart will be broken Once the cold comes back. And yet, seeing moss in winter I want to twine myself around this life like a vine Hug it until my arms get tired Whisper I love you I love you I love you Whisper that after the thaw, Feeling is what comes rushing back. 14 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Family Involvement, Year After Year: Roc and Helen '80 Caivano By Donna Gold T he early 1970s was not a time to walk the straight and narrow, even for an architect. Roc Caivano had just gotten his degree from Yale University; but instead of completing his license, he went on the road: "It was a time when people drifted around the country looking for new meaning and reinventing why we do things," says Roc. "We were a happy, vagabond tribe" - only this tribe was focused on environmental design, including building a Maine home for William Sloane Coffin in Muscongus Bay. Helen, his young wife, was their business manager. "She made it all work," says Roc. Just as Roc and Helen were considering settling down, Roc saw a notice in the New York Times. A tiny, environmentally focused college in Roc and Helen '80 Caivano with Kate in the baby carrier. Photo courtesy of the Caivanos. Bar Harbor was looking for someone to teach architecture. At the interview, Roc found that his But environmental design "literally couldn't get to her, but the students bedside reading - lan McHarg, the was not in the vocabulary of the time," in the front row passed her over their Whole Earth Catalog, Aldo Leopold - says Roc. "COA defined it," adds Helen. heads, diagonally across the whole were books being taught at COA. He Roc's curriculum offered guidelines auditorium to us. She was bawling when showed an animated film featuring that foreshadowed those required for the first students picked her up and pollution-emitting vehicles eating up the Leadership in Energy and Environmental beaming by the time she got to us." smaller creatures of the universe. He Design, or LEED certification: "energy Kate, administrator of COA's Sustainable was hired. efficiency, healthy materials, air quality, Business Program is married to Ben recycled and locally harvested materials. Macko '01, and their daughter Juniper is "We were blown away by the place," There was no such thing as certification COA's first third-generation child. Roc says. "There were some very bright then; this was coming from students and teachers, some very courageous - and other faculty at COA." Each spring, Roc's Helen graduated in 1980, having created some confused - students, and an advanced students, having learned "how a literary and art magazine, Voices amazing bunch of trustees who were to think in an environmentally thoughtful of the Atlantic, for her senior project. pretty powerful people in the larger way," designed a building; come fall, a Then they left SO Roc could obtain his world." Helen remembers a fundraiser new crop of students built it. The pottery license by apprenticing with architect held at the home of founding trustee studio - formerly a greenhouse - is Robert Venturi. When they returned to Elizabeth (Betty) Thorndike. It was one one of those structures. practice in Bar Harbor, Roc designed of those blessed gatherings of music, the Blair/Tyson student residence, an conversation, and beauty. Helen's Meanwhile, Helen was getting a COA environmental milestone in its time. parents were visiting and her father, JR degree and raising Kate - the first child Helen joined the alumni board, taking McGreggor, was SO charmed he wrote born at COA. "Everyone was invested pride in how varied and committed a check. Right away, he received a note in her," says Helen. One memorable All the alumni are. With Helen nodding in of thanks. He kept giving. Both the College Meeting, toddler Kate wandered agreement, Roc concludes. "I love COA Caivanos and the McGreggors are on off from her parents. Says Roc, "she and will forever. There's something good COA's year-after-year donor list. tripped and fell and started crying. We about it and always has been." COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 15 Willowind Therapeutic Riding Center Story and photograph by Julia De Santis '12 Over the years, Willowind has served many. There have been stroke victims, children with Down's syndrome, others with sensory integration and attention deficit disorders, or general learning disabilities, teens at risk, and people with autism and cerebral palsy, to name a few. Riders establish relationships with the horses that can lead to increased self-confidence and personal growth, and the farm is designed to be a safe place full of love and encouragement for riders to take risks and build skills: social, emotional, and physical. "Was there ever a point you weren't sure you could keep going?" I ask owner David Folger '81. Laughing, he answers, "Every day when I wake up and realize I have to take care of eight horses!" And then more seriously, "I am married to it. I raised three kids doing it. Doing this you don't get a break or a vacation. There isn't much money in it; it's a choice of lifestyle, and a busy one." Willowind is supported in part by private benefactors, "fairy godparents who assist tremendously," but funding is an issue. Still, from the beginning, Willowind has been a community effort. "When we put up the first barn, we organized it in the tradition of an old-time barn raising, Shaker- style. Every one of my local COA friends came out, and their families were banging nails right alongside their neighbors. We put that barn up in a week, and it was quite a scene, everyone lifting to raise the walls." 16 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE COA & MDI It Takes an Island to Nurture a College & a College to Nurture an Island Introduction by Donna Gold B y now, many of us know COA's creation myth, how years after they were Bar Harbor High School football teammates, Father Jim Gower ran into businessman Les Brewer on Cottage Street and said, "I'd like to do something to help this island." Immediately, Les responded: "Let's start a college." Concern and action: COA's DNA. A problem exists, what do we need to know to resolve it? And what are the implications of these possible solutions? Four decades ago, the issue was the island economy; COA was the answer. Two decades ago, COA folks wondered whether the peregrine, extinct in the Northeast, could be reintroduced to Acadia National Park. If so, what would be the impact on nearby seabirds? What about park trails? COA students and faculty raised the questions and then supplied the information that determined the best way forward. More recently, Hannaford sought to build a larger supermarket in the center of the island. What would that look like? Using both GIS and planning sawy, COA students, staff, and faculty offered images to help the community decide. Human ecology in action. Could Father Jim and Les Brewer have imagined such a fertile connection between island and college? Did they know a college would also mean alumni launching restaurants, or working in The Jackson Laboratory? For forty years, Mount Desert Island has offered its park and ocean and intertidal zones, its scientific laboratories, its mentors - whether they be lobstermen, potters, teachers, poets, landscapers, plumbers, or scholars - its museums, restaurants, stores, even its tourists to COA students. This island has been so welcoming that many of our alumni have remained. In return, the COA community has seeded the island with architects, art exhibits, builders, designers, gardeners, lectures, mentors, movies, musicians, naturalists, plays, produce, puppeteers, restaurants, teachers, and more. So much, in fact, that the following pages barely scratch the surface of this intricate dance between island and college. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 17 Planning Our Places: The Human Ecology of Land Use Story and illustration by Michael Griffith '09 O in the last day of winter it was many such questions. "The post office After the Second World War, America's already mild in Mt. Desert boxes are from earlier, though - cities and towns sprawled and its villages Island's Salisbury Cove where probably about a hundred years ago. all but disappeared. For a country I had come to experience village Originally they were in the general drunk on victory, rich in land, and long atmosphere, abandoning my car near store." enamored of progress, expansive, auto- the community's tiny post office. It didn't reliant suburbs were irresistible: grass, take long to walk the place, of course, or I leaned back from the Formica counter glass, and gasoline. The strange, squat to understand its charms. Beyond the to see the beautiful, cast mailboxes houses unveiled in Levittown, New York, post office were clapboard cottages, a lodged rather ruthlessly in a wall of in 1949 were an even more decisive simple church, and a quietly repurposed fake wood paneling. Next door, the old rejection of history and urbanity. The one-room schoolhouse. Frenchman Bay general store had not fared much better. optimistic "ranch house" offered a lapped around the edge of every view. "It's two apartments now," said the modern open plan and the illusion of attendant. "Kind of sad." Still, like all the space. Every quarter-acre plot of land Looping back to the post office, I asked older buildings in Salisbury Cove, it was was to become a ranch, every yard a an attendant - only one would fit set near the road, and no matter private realm of sloping lawns, and every behind the service window - about the material, or contemporary use, it horizon a frontier. the building's age. "It must be from the related well to its surroundings. Built sixties or seventies," she said, smiling before the advent of air conditioning, By the late sixties this frontier looked patiently down the tunnel of another electricity, and probably the automobile, like a mirage, but as early as 1961 Jane season, which doubtless held in store how could it not? Jacobs had published The Death and 18 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE swelling cities. "Society seemed blighted," John's experience told him that the said Joanne Carpenter, faculty member technology had real interdisciplinary emerita, in her 2008 commencement potential - perfect for COA. speech, "and many of us longed to begin anew away from urban centers." John wrote a National Science Big, abstract thinking had created Foundation grant and, "we were off urban blight; it was time to return to to the races." What would a human nature, like the transcendentalists ecological GIS lab look like? In 1991 had, to rediscover what it meant to be the Center for Applied Human Ecology human. Following Thoreau, "the first was formed and "gave us an umbrella generation of the college was interested for bridging between the curriculum in environmental design focused on and a more project-based community domestic architecture," says Rich involvement," says Rich. "CAHE really Borden, faculty member in psychology. allowed us to merge ecology, planning, "We were intrigued by the possibility of and policy in our thinking and to expand building a solar home at this latitude." the curriculum to include areas like planning and policy in a very intentional They made that possibility a reality. way," better equipping students and "Dick Davis, COA's first philosopher," faculty to engage real world problems. continues Rich, "built the first solar home in Maine to get a conventional They began with Mount Desert Island. mortgage." The college also began In the eighties there were US Geological holding workshops on solar energy Survey and US Soil Conservation and gardening, sharing the knowledge maps of MDI, but these were drawn to and skills it would take to "begin different scales and did not incorporate anew." As these techniques became information from the island's four towns increasingly common, perspectives - whose zoning maps and plot maps evolved. According to Rich, "there was a were drawn to still different scales. shift in scope from the individual family Creating a unified map of the island unit or group to a broader sense of and its towns would have been an community." enormous - and enormously tedious - job; nobody was doing it. "The maps S oon advances in technology, ideas could not be physically combined," says about community planning, and Isabel Mancinelli, a planner for the park circumstance caught up with service at the time. But at COA's new one another. In 1987, John Anderson GIS lab, Kurt Jacobsen '90 and Gordon was hired by the college as a faculty Longsworth '91 began digitizing maps of member in environmental sciences. Only the island's four towns. Life of Great American Cities, a stunning a year before, he had used Geographic critique of modernist planning policies, Information Systems (GIS) technology to "Island-wide planning was the phrase we and Richard Yates had thoroughly map population distributions of white used," says Gordon, who is now head debunked the myth of suburban pelicans for his doctoral dissertation at of the lab. "It was a way we were trying happiness in his novel Revolutionary the University of Rhode Island. to shift people's thinking to look at the Road. The verdict was in: urban "towers island as a whole, to break down the in parks" and suburban property GIS mapping allows scientists, designers, town line barriers. Watersheds cross setbacks alienated people from each and planners to digitize geographical these boundaries, and so do wildlife, other, even destroyed once-thriving data on layered maps that have the and there are island-wide issues like communities. One decade of poor power to tell complex stories about solid waste and recycling, where if towns planning, however, expressing itself in the land and its populations. Layers partnered up, there were savings." a metastasizing built environment and can be isolated or combined to help politically charged municipal policies, users analyze, manipulate, and display "That's the first time that COA provided takes many decades to undo - and information on everything from something really concrete to the towns," sometimes leads to intractable changes, topography to tax jurisdiction. With GIS says Terry Kelley, executive director and losses. you can underlay a map with geological of the Mount Desert Island Housing data or overlay it with the locations of Trust. "It generated a lot of good will. In the early seventies, at the newly wetlands, property lines, waste collection People saw that COA offers a very established College of the Atlantic, routes, zoning ordinances, and so on, good education; students were doing urbanites sought refuge from rapidly until a complex ecology reveals itself. something the towns wouldn't have COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 19 True to their village setting, older buildings on Salisbury Cove's Old Bar Harbor Road relate to the street — and each other. Sprawl-type development pushes buildings away from property boundaries, increasing privacy at the expense of community. been able to do on their own. So we people the potential of our zoning. It curious about what could be developed. said, 'There's a lot of brainpower there." really kicked people into gear to get We not only looked at the maximum more serious about the comprehensive buildout for the corridor, but also what In 1991, COA partnered with MDI planning effort." types of buildings you could build." The Tomorrow to publish a Bar Harbor Times group found that developers could put special supplement, "MDI Tomorrow: Over the next few years, through a just about anything they wanted along A Look at the Future of Mount Desert series of grants from the Fund for the corridor to Acadia National Park. Island." Included was a buildout analysis Improvement of Post Secondary of the entire island. A "buildout" is a Education (FIPSE), a program of the The Bar Harbor town council "was quite step in the land use planning process US Department of Education, CAHE appalled at the results of the Route 3 that estimates the amount and location recruited first Isabel, by then faculty buildout," according to Isabel, "and real- of potential development for a given member in planning and landscape ized there were a lot of gaps and holes area. In the absence of conservation architecture, and later Gordon, who had in their zoning they weren't aware of." easements, zoning ordinances usually completed his graduate work in planning determine what the land can hold. A at the University of Pennsylvania. Says Gordon, "Planning is founded culmination of years spent digitizing Influential planner and Design with Nature on good information. We can play out maps, the buildout marked a shift in the author lan McHarg, who received an scenarios - we can say, 'Well what if this land use planning process on the island. honorary MPhil in 1998, visited from happens? What are the consequences?" Penn and gave the interdisciplinary He stresses that COA's role has been to It was the first time the public had seen a lab his stamp of approval. Momentum "provide people who live in and know composite map of the island - including increased. After hearing about a project the area with the best information." lot lines, zoning, and soils. The new view she had done in graduate school, Planning is largely about common sense, of the land was startling; more than students in Isabel's first Land Use according to Gordon, and mistakes 13,800 sprawl-style lots could be created Planning course asked if they could do a are made when people don't have under existing regulations. "We put buildout of the island's Route 3 corridor. the information they need to visualize together all the parcels," says Gordon. or imagine the effects of a proposed "Part of the holistic island mapping "The town was feeling like it was pretty change. Isabel agrees: "Our rule has effort included showing buildout by well protected with the current zoning," been to provide decision-makers with density, and that was published to show says Isabel. "But the students were more information SO they can make 20 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE informed decisions. We aren't pushing they would have to be subdivided, or when the proposal was made, they were them to go one way or the other; we're developed." Members of Isabel's class already working with Town Hill on a just providing good information." worked with the town council to change "mini-plan" for its village-like center. the zoning ordinances. The changes, Projects like this are an invaluable which protected the island's farmlands "They really got that project going," service for communities without the from development, passed a town vote. says Anne Krieg, former planning and resources to invest in full-time planners development director for the island, or GIS technology. Individuals without Sometimes information is "because they did a whole bunch of data access to expensive design and planning uncontroversial; it can easily lead to sets - demographics, natural resource services also benefit. The Route 3 changes. At other times the information work, land use analysis. They did a whole presentation, says Isabel, "eventually can be difficult to swallow. In commercial layer of background data and then resulted in alternative development development, short-term gains are presented it to the residents in the area. plans and a series of conservation emphasized over the long-term losses We had a couple of workshops where easements" on several properties. of ecosystems, viewsheds, and local they came and were able to present and economies. But, says Gordon, "As get feedback it made the project a lot Those plans exchanged sprawl-type ecological planners, we're committed to more approachable." housing for cluster housing. This looking at different time-scales." preserves open land and reduces energy and material expenditure by "Does it make sense in the long term?" S tudents created a series of maps that detailed the locations of placing residential units in neighborly Isabel elaborates. "Most development wetlands, existing land uses, and clusters, such as COA's sustainable is done in the reactionary mode - you the densities of prior development in student housing complex, the Kathryn know, 'That corporation will give me Town Hill. Then they conducted a visual W. Davis Student Residence Village. "The how much for my land?' But how does impact analysis of proposed changes to work COA did with clustering was very a big box retailer change the whole the town's zoning ordinances, showing influential," says Terry Kelley. When the dynamic of a town like Bar Harbor? You what the town would look like if instead Maine Coast Heritage Trust and the really have to try and figure out what of a supermarket, a more village-like Mount Desert Island Housing Authority the unforeseen consequences might atmosphere were sought, with setbacks teamed up to conserve and selectively be of something before you embark on moved closer to the roads and building develop affordable housing on Bar making a big change." heights lowered. Harbor's Northeast Creek, they looked to COA's Davis Village for inspiration. It It is not in the interest of developers When the Belgian corporation called a suited the context of the land and the to consider consequences. When Bar public meeting at MDI High School to residents. Harbor's Hannaford grocery store discuss its proposal, says Isabel, "People - owned by a Belgian corporation - were asking them how big the new Another group of Land Use Planning proposed to move to rural Town Hill, grocery store was going to be, and what students found that in the zoning for Isabel's students were once again ready it would look like. They said, 'Well, we the fertile strip of soil along the Crooked with maps and imagination. In fact, have no real site plans yet, so we can't Road, the island's "bread basket," agriculture was not listed as a permitted The source of this topographic shaded relief model of the Route 3 corridor use. They were investigating the status from Salisbury Cove to beyond Bar Harbor is LiDAR, which stands for Light of the Fogg Farm at the request of its Detection and Ranging. The detailed topographic data shown here is owner. "It had been a dairy farm," Isabel collected from an aircraft using laser beam measurements of the ground surface. Over this layer is placed a land cover dataset says, "but it had lain fallow for more derived from satellite imagery, showing numerous than a year and could not be used as classes of land use and land cover types. The red a farm anymore - farming was only a area is the town of Bar Harbor, the brownish 'grandfathered' permitted use!" area north of town - designated as "developed, open space" - is College of the Atlantic, with "We went to the planning board and Duck Brook a bit beyond. showed them what was going on and Courtesy of Gordon pointed out the error in their zoning Longsworth '91. ordinance. They asked us to take it to the town council, and to look town-wide to see if that same situation occurred in other places. The students found three other zones where there were prime agricultural soils," but farming was not allowed. "Existing farms could remain, but if they lay fallow for a year COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 21 Once again, students used GIS and graphic design software to show residents what their village might look like under revised zoning ordinances. In the initial buildout for the Salisbury Cove mini-plan, says Anne, "they dropped a large building into the area to see what that would look like." It dwarfed the rest of the community. In a buildout based on zoning that protects village character, a modest building hugs the street. It looks right at home. The Salisbury Cove mini-plan was voted down by Bar Harbor residents, who might not have understood the value of protecting the village's character. Much work remains. In Salisbury Cove Town Hill Market, Mount Desert, owned by Richard it is still illegal to situate a building near Simis '88 and Lilea (Stockwell) Simis '90. the street, though that's where the community's old general store and post office sit. This may be disappointing, but it's not the end of the story. According show you anything.' So we said, 'Well, and the elements. In Across the Open to Gordon, the planner's job is not to we can show you." Andrew Louw '10 Field, American landscape architect change minds, it is to provide maps unveiled graphics of what the proposed Laurie Olin reflects on the beauty of and plans that represent reality and grocery store might look like. Based on southern England's human-made possible futures. the existing zoning ordinances, it could environment of hedges, meadows, have dominated the viewshed over and parks. "To me that is the human ecology of Highway 102. planning," he says. "Ecological planners His travels taught him that "things can should be able to see all sides of an Residents of Town Hill "didn't mind change without getting worse. Layers of issue: the environmentalist's point of commercial development," says Anne, new structure and use can be overlaid view, the developer's point of view. We "but most didn't want anything huge. upon earlier ones to produce a greater should try to bring people together, to They were building a playground down complexity and richer environment. At be dynamic and understand why people the road!" The corporation was not the same time, some changes can wreck feel the way they do." interested in negotiating changes; it was the whole fabric and destroy centuries of only trying to capture traffic headed off- incremental improvements. island. It decided to keep its store in Sorting out which is which and how much is critical People saw that COA offers a Bar Harbor. or provides what might be very good education; students "A lot of the students stayed with the seen as a tipping point may were doing something the towns project after their course ended," says depend upon scale or the Anne. "They attended meetings and degree of finesse or craft with wouldn't have been able to do made sure to stay informed, which I which something is done." on their own. thought was really impressive because they didn't have to do that, but they did." Today, "sorting out which are Terry Kelley, executive director of MDI Housing Trust True human ecologists, they understood which and how much" is the that land use planning is about challenge facing every human more than policy. It is, as Anne says, community, including Salisbury Cove. There is always hope in understanding, "deciding how you want to see your During the community's recent planning which means there is hope yet for the community grow." process, Isabel's students "engaged in future of places like Salisbury Cove. workshops - visioning sessions - with Gordon's words are a reminder that Before air conditioning, electricity, residents," says Anne. "It was a good even in an era of grass, glass, and and automobiles, the growth of experience for the residents, I think, gasoline a human plan can be a hope, human communities was governed by because it was local students working and a human ecological plan the best considerations of distance, temperature, with them, not big suits from Portland." hope we have. 22 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE The Human Ecology of Education: COA and the MDI school system Clearly, a school concerned with improving how education happens will generate students interested in innovative educational approaches. COA students have been connecting to local youth and the Mount Desert Island school system since the beginning. In 1987, COA began its Educational Studies program under the direction of Peter Corcoran. His leadership passed on to Etta Kralovec (then Mooser). For a while Ken Hill, our academic dean, ran it, then Judith Cox, and now it has passed on to Bonnie Tai, with Linda Fuller assisting. While not all students in the Ed Studies program become teachers, and not all alumni teachers on the island received their certification through COA, you can be sure that Ed Studies students are connecting with learners throughout MDI - right from the start of their studies in education. The following comments reflect just a few perspectives on the connection between COA and the MDI school system. Bonnie Tai talked with Julia De Santis '12; the other educators spoke with Michael Griffith '09. Photos, courtesy of Ben Macko '01, are of Conners Emerson Elementary School, above, and Ben in his classroom on the following page. BONNIE TAI health, labor advocacy, and sustainable off-campus community organizations - Faculty Member in Educational and food systems. such as Willowind, Beech Hill Farm, Dorr Human Studies, COA Museum, and the YMCA - to observe Our students have been really creative in and offer a range of experiential learn- The greatest strength of COA's connecting Maine curriculum standards ing opportunities to local school-aged education program is that our students with their own interests. Last term, a kids. Beyond coursework, students take apprentice with teachers in classrooms, group of three students - one from the on creative senior projects that bridge or with educators in local museums, or Philippines, one who will be a certified schools and the college, such as Natural at Acadia National Park as early as the secondary English language arts teacher, History Explorations, two week-long first education class that they take. The and another who will be certified in sec- outdoor day camps that Lucy Atkins '12 majority of our students are not planning ondary social studies - connected the ran, featured in the Bangor Daily News. to be state-certified classroom teachers. Occupy movement and the Civics/Gov- Because of this, classroom discussions ernment Learning Results by having kids Building strong relationships with the include very diverse perspectives and think about ways to communicate with local school district and other education- interests. For example, students in the government and about protest as a focused organizations is valuable; it Intercultural Education this past winter means of communication. In Experiential offers our students experience with included those working on global Education, students work with on- and practitioners; it's also an opportunity COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 23 "I'm not sure how to qualify a 'COA perspective,' but my methods courses definitely shaped my teaching practice and I always want students to see the broader view. I want my students to think about things for themselves, to discover the underlying patterns of math by asking questions." Ben Macko '01 for local educators - including COA in our MDI Regional School System faculty member in political science], alumni - to continue to learn and grow. (MDIRSS) Service-Learning Leadership and Craig Greene [late faculty member As some local educators have told us, Team. These folks have made great in botany], that I got excited about COA education students often ask really contributions; they've helped our teaching, started to explore some of great questions that cause them to schools stay connected with events and the education classes, and really got reflect on something they may no longer ideas that the college is bringing to the interested in social studies, political notice about their teaching practice. fore. So there are good partnerships and science, and US history. I took every We have an annual appreciation event we're cross-fertilizing. single course I could possibly take from for our local school and community Don that just sort of drove my interest partners, and it's very well attended, Right now Linda Fuller (COA's associate - and then there were conversations: I think in part because teachers are director of educational studies) is a "Have you ever thought about teaching?" generally so under-appreciated. We, member of our teacher certification - and it took off from there. At the as teachers of education, appreciate committee, where she gets to hear time my focus was on high school school teacher's generous contributions about our teachers' professional social studies, because I was really of time and professional insights. We development plans. And the college has driven by the questions of international also deeply appreciate our students, shown a continued desire to provide studies and history. As soon as I could who are strongly motivated not only to meaningful learning opportunities start working in the schools I did. Etta integrate mind and body, the personal for local teachers through summer presented the idea of working with her with the academic, and humans with programs and seminars. There are also in a high school philosophy class, and their environments, but also to make many student teachers from COA who that was a great experience. Ed Studies connections between self and other, are paired with our teachers over the students had a lot of opportunities to theory and practice, and of course course of any given year. In addition go out and see other schools, from school and community. to their work in the classroom, they southern Maine to New York City. That attend our common study groups and drove everybody's interest in pedagogy JOANNE HARRIMAN professional development activities; and education. Assistant Superintendent they're always ready to participate and Mount Desert Island very enthusiastic. It's great that we're That "life-long learner" spirit is Regional School System here for each other. something I see in the teachers COA has trained. We just conducted the COA has had a positive impact in MICHAEL ZBORAY '95 final review of a student teacher, and our schools and our district. It's our Assistant Principal even though she was through with district's culture to emphasize the Conners Emerson School, Bar Harbor her student teaching, she wanted to importance of connecting our young continue to work at her school. She people to this amazing place where When I went to COA I didn't have didn't want her experience to end, and we're geographically situated. To have education in mind. My interests were that initiative typifies what I think the a college nearby that shares the same more around forestry and science, but program is about - and reflects the beliefs about stewardship is really with a sort of wait and see approach. culture of the college. There's a strong a gift. Over the years several COA It was really through classes with Etta desire to really go out in the world. faculty and students have participated (Mooser) Kralovec, Don Meiklejohn [late These student teachers go beyond the 24 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE fifteen weeks [they] want to maintain Some of the professors' children were with other teachers who are working on that connection and that experience, passing through then, and it was really energy projects and data analysis in their and they want to learn more. interesting to teach them - to teach classrooms. About a dozen elementary kids whose parents had taught me - teachers from the area spent a week You definitely see that in the way and deepen ties in the community. This with Anna and Dave at COA learning professional teachers from COA is a small place, and even though I'm about sustainable energy - figuring out interact with their own learning, and working in a public system, which means how it all works through hands-on lab also their kids' learning. You see it in there are certain limitations in terms of activities. I was able to incorporate these their openness to trying new things, [teaching to] standards, I am pretty free lessons into my classroom this year and being flexible - all those pieces, you to bring a different kind of perspective make real-world connections between see that in them, and it relates back into my classroom. math, science, and data analysis. Anna to their professional capacity. I think has actually hooked up a monitor to part of the Ed Studies program is a little I can incorporate current events into our computer lab, so we can watch how more scripted than what your normal lessons, encourage students to make much energy we're using and if there are COA track would be - you're sort of up their own projects, and help them any red flags. The kids are watching the shifted into gear, and you have more ask critical questions like, 'Why am I data to see what's going on and using requirements than most COA folks. But being taught this? Why do I have to this information to help make energy for someone who's interested in COA, learn this?' I'm not sure how to qualify use decisions in our own school. to be able to make that shift, it just a "COA perspective," but my methods says something about their desire and courses definitely shaped my teaching I've worked with several COA students their strong interest in teaching - that practice and I always want students to in the last few years on service learning they're going to have to forego some of see the broader view. I can tell them very projects in my classroom. Two of the the COA experience of freedom to go in specifically how they might use algebra projects we worked on were creating a that direction. It says something about someday, but I want them to think about "clean air zone" in front of the school the individual as a learner and their things for themselves, to discover the commitment to education. That "life-long learner" spirit is something / see in the teachers COA BEN MACKO '01 Eighth-Grade Math Teacher has trained. We just conducted the final review of a student teacher, Conners Emerson School, Bar Harbor and even though she was through with her student teaching, she Before I came to COA I had been doing wanted to continue to work at her school that initiative reflects outdoor education in New Jersey, the culture of the college. working with kids and really just playing - telling stories about the life cycles of Michael Zboray '95 monarchs, exploring the natural world, learning and teaching. COA became an underlying patterns of math by asking and increasing recycling in our school extension of that. I liked the focus of questions. So that's what we do. It's the Ed Studies curriculum, which asked important to be able to look up, to look and community. This year my students me to apply the things I was thinking outside, and have that sense of wonder. launched a community energy challenge about within a specific area of thought We live in an amazing place, and math is and created a school energy calendar. It's so nice to have students from COA and prepared me to be a teacher in a all around us. relatively short time. Sometimes I envied join us; it's a great connection to have my friends who were able to take more BONNIE BURNE within our community. My students varied classes, or what I called "fun" Middle School Science Teacher look up to the college students; they classes - art classes, that kind of thing. Pemetic Elementary School, SW Harbor are much closer to their age than I am! In the end, funnily enough, three of my They're all young people who want to good friends who had been taking all Recently I worked with [COA lecturer in be teachers, so they really love the those "fun" classes went back to school physics] Anna Demeo and Dave Feldman kids - which I love. COA students are to become teachers. I was already set to [faculty member in physics and math] wonderful about communicating with teach when | graduated from COA. to help connect COA with elementary me; they really do a fantastic job. It's a teachers. We talked about what teachers great opportunity to have my students I did my student teaching in a fourth- need and possibly would want in a work with members of the community grade classroom at Conners Emerson, sustainable energy workshop that would to discover and investigate problems, which was great, and before I got my focus on teaching elementary students. and then collaborate and work together job here I was substitute teaching Anna and Dave designed and held a to help develop solutions to these throughout the system, which allowed great workshop last summer that offered problems. I'm thankful to be able to me to take on more responsibility. a venue for area teachers to collaborate work with them. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 25 Sweet Pea Farm Drennan Woodworking Bar Harbor Community Farm Sunflower Garden Peggy Rockefeller Farms Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory Four Foot Farm Frenchman Bay Partners Acadia Farmers' Market Little Red Hen Baked Goods Town Hill Market Tammy Packie Photography Cokeweed Kozak Stonework Willowind Theraputic Riding Center Peacock Builders Barxalot, Inc. The Protectorate - Cox Land Healthy Acadia Davis Stone and Garden Alana Beard Personal Cook Heather Murray Jewelry Maine Coast Heritage Trust Clark Stivers General Construction Architecture Robert Collins Steve Demers Drafting & Design Terry Lee Good Custom Woodwork Mount Desert Island High School The Jackson Laboratory Somes Pond Center Wild Gardens of Acadia Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary Acadia National Park New Yankee Builders Beech Hill Farm Burning Tree Restaurant Seal Cove Auto Museum Pamela Parvin Counseling Services Mount Desert Elementary School Andrew Moulton Yoga Jessie Greenbaum, LMT Asticou Azalea Garden Heart Craft Calligraphy Pemetic Elementary School Whales & Nails Wendell Gilley Museum Tremont School COA & MDI Conservation, education, food, art, and more. Yes, COA and COA alumni have enriched life on Mount Desert Island, as reflected in this map. Highlighted here are some of the visible influences COA has had on the community: COA partnerships with island schools, museums, scientific institutions, and other nonprofits (including the public locales right on campus), as well as the many alumni artists, business owners, farmers, performers, and restaurateurs who have made MDI their home. 26 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Allied Whale Ethel H. Blum Gallery Center for Applied Human Ecology Community Garden George B. Dorr Museum Island Research Center Summer Field Studies Thorndike Library ON COA CAMPUS Acadia Senior College Dive-In Theater with Diver Ed Harborside Shakespeare Co. Maine Sea Grant Reel Pizza Cinerama Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company Callege OF the Atlantic Café This Way Lompoc Café 545 & Co. Bar Harbor Tour Company — Ghost Tours Caivano Architecture Courtney Vashro, CMT Bike Revolution Cycle Taxi Morning Glory Bakery Yoga @ Cattitude Acacia House Bar Harbor Jazz Festival Conners Emerson School The Natural History Center Rupununi Destroy Them My Robots rosebyrd designs Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers Abbe Museum Guinness & Porcelli's House Wine Cadillac Family Practice Havana Noreen Hogan Photography Eden Visions Gardens By Design Peter Jeffery Custom Building Barbara Sassaman Residential Design KEY Construction & Architecture Arts & Performance Farms & Gardens Attractions & Tourism Education & Information Technology Food & Restaurants Health & Fitness Science Research & Conservation BAR HARBOR If we've overlooked someone or something, let us know so we can update our records. Data: Donna Gold Design: Danielle Meier '08 Execution: Danielle Meier & Katie O'Brien '15 COLLEGE OF THE ATL ANTIC MAGAZINE 27 The above images are 40x magnifications of water samples taken from Frenchman Bay in October, 2011 and photographed by Marina Garland '12. Generally, the circular forms are living organisms, the ribbons are plastic filaments. Clockwise from top left: Micro-plastic filament and copepod (a type of zooplankton); two different colors of micro-plastic; micro-plastic with phytoplankton (round diatoms); micro-plastic filament with a phytoplankton (round diatom); another micro-plastic filament and phytoplankton (round diatom). 28 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Micro-Plastics: Marina Garland '12 studies the doom beneath our waters By Donna Gold C an a name predict a future for why more micro-plastics around New are attracted to plastic, and SO can a child? Perhaps so. Marina England and maritime Canada? Could it concentrate the toxicity a million-fold. Garland was barely walking when connect to our fisheries, since today's Moreover, she adds, "most plastics her grandparents invited her to share gear is all plastic? contain harmful additives, such as BPA portions of their round-the-world sailing and phthalates that are endocrine voyage. She returned to a family home When Marina returned to COA in the fall disruptors, chemicals that mess with located on an island - and not the of 2009, she began looking for local data hormones in humans and other kind reached by bridge or even ferry. on micro-plastics, but found nothing. animals." These toxin-laden plankton are She and her family would putt their way With the help of Chris Petersen, faculty then consumed by larger creatures, and home in an open aluminum boat. At member in biology, she obtained funds still larger ones. You get the picture. COA, Marina's love of the water led her from the Maine Space Grant Consortium to seek beneath its surface, discovering to launch her own study. Each time Marina travels with a wooden pack to her dismay, the tragedy humans have the college's vessel, the Indigo, headed basket; in it she carries, alongside her suspended within its liquidity. offshore, she'd send along sampling books, a glass jar for cool liquids and bottles. She also tested Frenchman a stainless steel one for tea. When she It began during during a Sea Education Bay. Ninety-eight percent of her 125 shops, she places her onions and apples Association Semester. For her research samples had plastic. This is under a directly inside the supermarket cart. No project, Marina began tracking plastic dissecting scope, with only a 40-power plastic bags, cups, or backpacks. "Even if pollution, focusing on the massive gyres magnification. With more sophisticated you recycle or properly dispose of non- of trash she describes as "hundreds of equipment, she suspects she'll find recyclable plastics, she says, there's no miles of plastic soup mixed in with good that the microplastics she's currently telling where they will actually end up." stuff that you don't want to take out." documenting are only the tip of With plastic, she adds, there's only one There are five such gyres on the globe: the iceberg. solution: "if you don't want it in two in each of the Atlantic and Pacific the environment, don't make it in the oceans, and one in the Indian Ocean. As "oddly photogenic" as these plastics first place." As Marina began her research, she might be, they will never disappear, says started to question beyond the swirl of Marina. To filter feeders such as the So what does the water look like to visible junk. plankton and krill-like organisms that someone who so distressingly plumbs form the basis of our food chain, the its depths? Gazing out at a placid Plastic disintegrates. Colors fade in the suspended particles mimic food - to Frenchman Bay, Marina smiles again, sun, parts break off. But plastic never the creatures' peril. While it's hard to not quite as sadly. "The ocean is still fully biodegrades. What happens when test underwater, "in the lab, it's been beautiful to me," she says. "Mostly the floating bottles, sneakers, and toys shown that plankton can and do eat this work is motivating. It is extremely break up? Could the ocean also be micro-plastics, and it's often fatal," she depressing, but it's motivating." sheltering an equivalent amount of tiny says, smiling one of the saddest plastic bits, what we call micro-plastics? possible smiles. There was no information. And the plastic load keeps increasing, "Most micro-plastics," says Marina, "are she adds. It used to be that the ratio invisible to the naked eye. You can't of macro-plastics to plankton was sail up and take a picture." Less than forty to one in certain Pacific locations. five millimeters, they're smaller than That estimate has increased five-fold the height of a barnacle. At sea, Marina in places. These plastics are not only began sampling the waters, expecting dangerous to larger animals, such as to find most of the micro-plastics in birds, turtles, and marine mammals, the gyres. But the farther north she they're also the progenitors of micro- traveled, the more she found. She began plastics. While we can possibly pluck to realize that it isn't just boaters and sneakers and keyboards from the ocean, coastal communities that contribute to there is no known way of removing the plastic pollution; it's the entire plastic- small stuff. What's worse, says Marina, using population of the world. But is that pollutants like PCBs and DDT COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 29 Conservation Collaborations Reintroducing the Peregrine to Acadia By Donna Gold In this 1984 photo, a peregrine fledgling flies over the park for the first time in decades. It would take seven more years for a breeding pair to settle on the island. At right, a fledgling perches, having just left its hatching box. At far right, Charlie Todd, a wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is in the right foreground, with Jack Barclay facing him in a 1986 photo. Says Charlie, "We are inside a garage at Acadia to band the young peregrines before transport up to the hack site at Jordan Pond. Most of us were reaching for gloves to protect our hands from their needle-sharp talons, but Jack pulled out a pair of ear plugs instead. The wailing noises of the young falcons inside a closed space was amazing!" Photos courtesy of Acadia National Park. of the President's Science Advisory at NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Service C ome spring, the alert is posted: Acadia National Park's Precipice Committee under both John F. Kennedy Center), that he made the reintroduction Trail is closed. A thousand feet and Richard M. Nixon and coauthored plan his senior project. Working with high, the cliffs have become a nursery, the committee's 1963 report "Use Bill and park personnel, he scrutinized guarding nestlings as celebrated as of Pesticides." former eyries (or nesting sites), and any new baby: peregrine falcons, once potential new ones. Jordan Cliffs, some extinct from Maine - and the entire "Bill Drury had brilliant, clear vision, and five hundred feet above Jordan Pond, eastern seaboard - are again nesting in amazing tenacity to pursue it," says Scott offered both a protected spot for the Acadia. What also might be a celebration Swann '86, MPhil '93, now a COA lecturer chicks and a great vantage point for the is that COA faculty, students, and alumni in ecology. Bill wanted to see peregrines observers. The only drawback was the are responsible for bringing them back - the swiftest birds of all - back in long, steep climb for the supply crew. to the island. Acadia. Together with students, he convinced the park and the Town of Bar Just ask Kyle Jones '82, then a park Until the early 1950s some four hundred Harbor to link to the Eastern Peregrine employee. While the Coast Guard peregrine pairs nested east of the Falcon Reintroduction Program. Based helicoptered in initial supplies, Kyle was Mississippi; Acadia included. In 1965 at Cornell University, the program bred charged with carrying frozen feed and there were none. The cause? DDT- a select group of falcons in captivity, buckets of ice to the site. For a good six weakened eggshells. netting about a hundred chicks each weeks during the springs of 1984, 1985, year to reintroduce to carefully and 1986, he would lug up the food Among those lobbying to ban DDT chosen sites. for the chicks, as well as for the pair of was the late William F. Drury, faculty COA students who spent those weeks member in biology and passionate The possibility of seeing peregrines observing and daily feeding a pigeon- ornithologist. Though not innately an soar over Acadia SO caught Peter Duley sized hunk of chicken to each of some activist, he served on several panels '84 (now a marine mammal observer seven peregrine hatchlings. The goal was 30 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE to feed, observe, and release the birds Chidester ('88), David North ('85), and In the wild, peregrines might be fed on while remaining absolutely out of sight Gwyn Peterdi '85 - fascinated by these the wing for as long as six weeks after so that eventually one would imprint on rare falcons. fledging; but once they flew for good, the area and return to breed. That's all. these birds would have to go it alone. As soon as a pair returned, the program Come June, the birds would start The observers remained still, setting would stop. Peregrines are fierce; one flapping, meaning they might soon be out food until not one fledgling might eat another's chicks. ready to fly. On the day the barred front returned to eat for three consecutive of their box was to open, more students days. Then they held their collective Recalls Scott, "Living up on the cliffs and joined the observation force, along with breaths: so much was invested in each feeding chickens to the peregrine chicks a few park officials. little creature. was one of the great jobs you could have when I was a student." But it required Recalls Kyle, now chief of resource In 1987 a falcon returned and the intense, if remote, observation, staring management at the Marsh-Billings- program was suspended. It took a few through peepholes day after day. As the Rockefeller National Historical Park in years longer for a breeding pair to guidelines admonished: "Your work will Vermont, "We had to be quiet, but we establish itself, though. In 1991, one involve long hours of observation, which were quietly excited. Especially when the did, preferring however, the ocean views at times becomes tedious, but your front of the box came off. Sometimes the over the Precipice Trail. For Scott, the dedication is what will make this project bird would immediately fly; that was too change is next to miraculous. "I was a success." early. Stretch and flap and hop, stretch nineteen when I saw my first peregrine, and flap and hop - that's a better and people came from thousands of Though Scott was not an official release." Usually, they'd only fly a short miles around to see it. Now I can take my observer, like Kyle he was a frequent distance the first day, returning to their class out and see a peregrine whenever visitor. Every week or so he'd take a six- ledge to feed. I want during breeding season." pack up to his friends - Peter, Stephen COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 31 Conservation Collaborations Since its founding, COA has worked with Acadia National Park and other island nonprofits to address conservation challenges and - together with these partners - help the public understand our collective role in safeguarding the natural world. Marine Conservation Chris Petersen, faculty member in biology, and chair, since 2008, of Bar Harbor's Marine Resource Committee, has spent a lot of time looking into the state of Frenchman Bay. He has overseen clam flats, researched anadromous (migratory) fish, and mentored students assisting Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory scientist Jane Disney's efforts to restore the essential coastal habitat of eelgrass. This work convinced Chris that the bay could use some focused attention. Last year, he co-founded Frenchman Bay Partners, bringing together organizations and private enterprises invested in the health of the bay. Partners include Acadia National Park, MDIBL, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, COA, commercial fishermen, and members of the local tourism industry, in addition to Photograph by Julia De Santis 12. a host of other concerned individuals. Currently, the group is involved in a conservation action plan for the bay, policy and law. Having ruled out nearby will be able to see what's happening, identifying potential threats, along with sources, students are now looking into and also let us know whether our strategies to deal with those threats. The possible contaminants farther upstream, information is correct." aim, Chris emphasizes, isn't to create such as beavers, or even ducks. legislation. "It's to discover what the Moving forward, the partnership is concerns are of individual communities. To assist the partnership in its planning, looking into creative funding possibilities. The mission is pretty broad: to ensure Alex Brett '11, working with Chris and "The old model is to write grants," says that Frenchman Bay is ecologically, Gordon Longsworth '91 (COA's GIS Jane. "But might there be more unique economically, and socially resilient." Adds lab director), is creating a baseline and creative ways to move forward Jane Disney, "We're walking that line Frenchman Bay atlas. The information with work that is large-scale, such as between environmental conservation they're compiling ranges from geology reseeding clam flats?" and sustaining local marine livelihoods." to species, to overboard discharge, to coastline tax maps - building a GIS "Students do the work," notes Chris. For instance, students currently map to see, for instance, how red tide "We help support them with framing are searching for the source of the occurrences overlap with mussel questions and techniques, then give contaminant that has forced the closing and oyster aquaculture, and clam them equipment and supplies, often of the Northeast Creek clam flat. They harvesting; or how current from my grants and sometimes from began the work in last fall's Marine Policy anadromous fish distribution the Marine Resource Committee; the class, team-taught by Chris and Ken compares with historical records. students write up the work, and present Cline, faculty member in environmental it." The committee has gotten quite used The map, says Chris, "allows us to begin to hearing presentations from student the conversation; the entire community researchers, he adds. 32 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Before the late Bill Drury could propose reintroducing peregrines to Acadia National Park, he reviewed a number of potential nesting sites. This sketch of the Precipice Trail was discovered in one of Bill's journals from the early 1980s. Though Jordan Cliffs was ultimately chosen for the reintroduction, the peregrines themselves chose the Precipice Trail. Thanks to Scott Swann '86, MPhil '93 and Bic Wheeler '09, who discovered the journal in the process of cataloging Bill's papers in the Drury Reading Room in Witchcliff. Forty Years with Acadia National Park The peregrine reintroduction may have COA, however, is doing just that. Steve Numerous surveys of park species, been the most dramatic collaboration Ressel and John Anderson, both faculty including the park's first bird list. between College of the Atlantic and members in biology, are working with Acadia National Park, but it is just one students to conduct essential analyses Bibliography of all park research, of many. The very proximity of park of local impacts of global trends. John "a huge collaborative effort that and college is unusual, says David and students are studying the impact resulted in a working research and Manski, the park's chief of resource of sea-level rise on nesting seabirds on management reference database, management. Few colleges have a Acadia's islands. Steve's work is a local which Glen [Mittelhauser '89] national park literally in their backyards, look at the global decline of amphibians, continues to update with support allowing students, faculty, and staff such nature's "coal mine canaries." Before from the park." easy access to a natural preserve. And they can even assess the status of few national parks have the resources of these animals on MDI, Steve and Mammal survey of Isle au Haut, and a college to draw upon, expanding the students must first create a census - a the reassessment of the island's park's capacity for research and analysis. painstaking process. river otter population. From the very beginning it's been a fluid, Students doing park research frequently The Acadia herbarium collection, rewarding friendship, even, adds David, connect with Bruce Connery, Acadia which is housed and maintained "a godsend." Most colleges, he says, "are National Park's wildlife biologist. He is at COA (allowing specimens to be not training natural historians anymore, effusive about the careful, extensive used as part of classes, resulting in people able to observe and record their work of COA students and faculty, and The Plants of Acadia National Park, a surroundings - and know what they're would like to be sure to highlight these guide written in part by COA alumni looking at." additional efforts: (featured in last spring's COA). COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 33 Gardens By Design: Landscape Architect Dennis Bracale '88 One of the hallmarks of Dennis Bracale's work is his sense of history, encompassing the culture and philosophy behind great garden design. His expansive knowledge has been gathered from years of study, helped along early by receiving a Watson Fellowship upon graduating from COA. His project, In Search of the Garden, beliefs about nature, took him through eighteen nations, studying the philosophy, history, and artistry behind the world's iconic garden traditions. This spread: Dennis Bracale designed this garden to reflect the Tudor heritage of the house and other structures on the estate. Its lush romantic plantings welcome visitors to the private home known as Blueberry Haven, bordering on Little Long Pond. Photos courtesy of Dennis Bracale '88. 00 75 ennis Bracale '88 came to COA in his late twenties, having spent a decade working in the building trades and a lifetime studying plants. Self-directed and largely self-taught, he says COA, "was the perfect place to take my independent work and push it further," moving ahead on the multidisciplinary skills he continues to draw upon as a landscape architect: architecture, art, botany, culture, natural history, and philosophy. Dennis is one of Mount Desert Island's most sought-after landscape architects, refusing many more jobs than he can possibly handle. Early on, Dennis took to heart the advice the great horticulturalist Charles Sprague Sargent, founder of Boston's Arnold Arboretum, gave to renowned landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand when she was just starting out: "Observe and analyze nature and Natural Beauty. See and study as many gardens and great landscapes of the world as you are able, and learn from all of the arts, as all art is akin." In reflecting upon his work, Dennis speaks about creating spaces, not gardens. He talks of a place set apart, a place that - while it still has boundaries - is made to appear limitless. "For me," he says, "a garden is nothing more than a dream, it has little physical materiality. Idealized places are important; they're a refuge, a way we can live in our small places in a big world. It would be wonderful if all of us could create such spaces around ourselves." Left: A view of the waterfall and stream courtyard created for the Northeast Harbor garden of COA trustee Philip S.J. Moriarty and his wife Meredith. Above: A view of the sunken flower garden completed for the Rose family in Northeast Harbor. The urn in the foreground was created by COA faculty member Ernie McMullen. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 37 Reel Ideals: Lisa Burton and Chris Vincenty's Reel Pizza By Joanna Weaver '15 Photos by Julia De Santis '12 deals. Everybody has something they would go to great lengths to uphold and promote. For Lisa Burton '86 and Chris Vincenty ('83) of Reel Pizza Cinerama, Mount Desert Island's only year-round cinema, wealth is not terribly important; contributing to the happi- ness of others is. At COA both Lisa and Chris found a place where, says Chris, "success is how well you express your ideals," in contrast to the more money- driven society they had known. Success - measured not by income but by how many people one positively influences - is the driving ideal behind Reel Pizza. "We started with the idea of giving Bar Harbor a year-round community center," Chris says. They wanted to provide a place where people could relax after a hard day, a place to make friends, a place to take a first date. They wanted to encourage an interest in film, and they wanted to feed folks yummy pizza. easy decision. They wanted an evening at movie or working the pizza, popcorn, their theater to be like sitting in a living and beer counter. The pizzas, made on Film was not Chris' original passion. room, so a comfort food was essential. the premises, have names like Zorba Learning how mechanical things worked Conveniently, both Lisa and Chris had the Greek, featuring olives and feta, and fixing them was. In 1982 he got a previously worked at pizzerias. and Some Like it Hot, with hot peppers job at Bar Harbor's Criterion Theater and chilies. Then you might settle on a working with 1932-vintage carbon The two scraped together what they couch or behind a counter in the cozy arc projectors. After spending hours had, searched classified ads, bought red and purple auditorium, chatting with projecting film, his appreciation grew. pizza equipment from a parlor going neighbors until the show begins and "Film can be a window that opens up out of business, scoured Uncle Henry's the bingo board blinks with your pizza's the world," he says. "You can experience - Maine's twentieth-century Craigslist number. humanity at all levels." predecessor - for couches, recliners, and a bingo board, and became The commitment, sincerity, and hard When he left The Criterion, Chris still inventive: the illuminated strips along the work have paid off. Chris and Lisa can wanted to be a projectionist. At the time auditorium floors are altered Christmas define their own success: seeing their Anna Durand '86 and Ralph McDonnell lights; the bingo board summons viewers customers made happy by a diverse had an idea of merging their bakery for their pizza orders. range of films, food, and community (they had already launched Morning while they enjoy some of the best flicks Glory) with a cinema. Their plans Today, after purchasing tickets at the available. And when needed, they can changed, but Lisa and Chris went ahead. vintage-style ticket booth - often from offer their screen to fundraisers for Reel Pizza opened for the first time in Chris himself - you walk into a cozy the Bar Harbor Food Pantry, Project 1995 with sixty chairs at tables, a 1930s lobby featuring local art and frequently a Graduation, or a struggling friend. This projector, and pizza, playing Priscilla host of COA students, faculty, staff, and is their work - it pays the bills; more Queen of the Desert. The pizza was an alumni who are either waiting to see the importantly, it expresses their ideals. 38 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE District 35 Representative: Elspeth (Elsie) Flemings '07 Interview and photo by Julia De Santis '12 JDS: What does it take to represent a community? EF: Fundamentally what it takes to represent a community well is listening very well, having an open mind about issues, working very hard to hear different perspectives and to understand the many layers of perspectives in a community. And then, you take that as best you can and translate it into action. JDS: How do you cope with disappointing days as a representative? EF: Things happen that are out of my control, there are times that I feel disappointed or sorrowful. But I try not to allow this to overcome me. It is not always easy, but it's a practice. I have a lot of driving time, and I run, try to rest, and meditate. JDS: What could politics most use now? EF: The more we can do to get big ulia De Santis: How did you get involved It's an incredible experience. I am so money out of politics, the better. It's one in politics? grateful for the opportunity to serve the of the most crucial paths to a system Elsie Flemings: Early on during my communities and work with constituents where more people participate and time at COA, I volunteered at the Bar on everything from family issues to really community members' voices are heard. Harbor Food Pantry and got involved broad policy work with organizations in local candidate races. I became statewide. Both of my jobs have enabled JDS: Any advice to a graduating senior? increasingly interested in policy work. I me to be deeply rooted and connected EF: Do what you love to do, what you're really like thinking of things holistically: to the community. passionate about, and what brings you how do you promote strong economies, joy. This is really critical, even to make strong environments, and strong JDS: Can you explain constituent work? change happen at a global level. We communities? That question underlies EF: Ah - for example, if someone calls need joy, positive energy, and passion, my passion and drive. and says, "I'm trying to get a license as well as the petitions and negotiations for this kind of business, can you help and policy work. Be responsive to where JDS: What does your job entail? connect me to the right person?" Or, you are at any moment and support EF: For the past four years I've been "I'm trying to figure out whether or not I people who are doing things at all levels: serving as the state representative for qualify for I answer questions and help everything is needed. Take the time for four communities: the Cranberry Isles, constituents get the support they need. self-care: try to find quiet moments of Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, and But in Augusta, a lot of my time is spent contemplation and reflection. It's easy to part of Mount Desert. And for the past on policy. We all serve on committees get upset and discouraged, but it doesn't three years I've also been working at that delve into specific initiatives and help to be frustrated. It ends up limiting Healthy Acadia, a community health I work on the Taxation Committee. I my ability to work and be effective. organization serving Hancock County. engage with a broad variety of initiatives: So the more we can cultivate positive My work with the legislature is part- forestry, fishing, affordable housing, energy, the more positive difference we time, but with a full-time commitment. business development. will make in the world. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 39 COA's Underwater Superhero: Diver Ed By Michael Griffith '09 t sixteen, Ed Monat '88 moved Soon Ed was doing independent on deck into a vicarious diver: live feeds A into his car. It was the early studies on research and technical send video and sound up to an on-board leighties and lobster fishing, diving, quantitative hydrodynamics, screen of Ed's underwater adventures. the "family business," was suffering. and the computational modeling of When he surfaces, Ed is accompanied Ed's future seemed bleak. Then an invertebrates. He began cold water by sea critters - and his new ship, the enterprising guidance counselor diving with Eric Roos '87 and Scott Starfish Enterprise, becomes a gigantic suggested college. "She hunted down a Swann '86, MPhil '93, learning about touch tank. couple of schools for me. COA was one Frenchman Bay and the island he would of them," he says. "I got my acceptance come to call home. Ed was "wicked "It's really just an evolution of one of letter and stashed it in the glove box." excited" about learning, and kept on the first classes I took at COA," he says. But the summer after graduation proved learning - and doing - until he could It certainly didn't come all at once. The particularly rough, so Ed left Manomet, get others learning and doing. He character of Diver Ed is complemented Massachusetts, and drove up to Mount outfitted the Turrets basement with a by Captain Evil, Ed's wife Edna Martin; Desert Island. He says, laughing, "They marine lab. For an outreach education together they commandeer a set of weren't expecting me at all!" Ed dug class he created a traveling touch tank, allusions to popular culture that are out his letter, handed it over to former which he hauled all over the state. mostly irrelevant to them. Comic book admissions director Ted Koffman, and Though nearly kicked out in his first year, references are just one more way to became a student. "at the end of my last year," he says, "I get others "wicked excited" about the was chosen as one of two students to marine world. His transition wasn't easy. "I grew up in give presentations to trustees." a different world," says Ed. He was in the Of course, nothing could make Ed first iteration of the Human Ecology Core After graduation, Ed spent a year in more excited than he is today. After Course, a trial-and-error experience Florida constructing the Marsh Biome for years of working for others - doing for all, writing was difficult, and he had The Smithsonian Institute's Biosphere seal strandings from Canada to to work full time. Ed leaned heavily on 2 project. Back in Maine, he eventually Massachusetts, running charters - drink, raced his car - he did what he became Bar Harbor's harbormaster. he created a global club, the "League had always done. By his third term he Meanwhile, schools and libraries were of Underwater Superheroes," that was asked to show cause. That's when clamoring for his traveling touch tank. celebrates his passions for diving and he grew close to former faculty member "But I wanted people to see more life giving back. Ed now takes people on in biology Butch Rommel. "After I met a sea cucumber in a touch tank is just dive adventures all over the world. Back Butch that third term at COA, | would a big round slimy blob, but underwater at home, the League stages community meet him at four-thirty in the morning they've got their feeding fronds out events and conducts a yearly harbor every day at Jordan's Restaurant. We eating, and you can watch their suction cleanup. would hash over the whole day - what cups holding on." Yearning to provide both of us were up to. He made me think a more hands-on experience, he He may be used to living in cars and about everything." And everything led dreamed up Diver Ed's Dive-In Theater, boats, but the island is Ed's home now back to the sea. an interactive cruise that turns everyone - the island and its sea. 40 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE ALUMNI NOTES 1986 Margaret Hoffman joined the staff of on her next novel. Check out the artwork: the Maine Office of Tourism in December. holbrookacademy.com/sketchbook. Teny Bannick is now living in Athens, She is responsible for consumer travel Ohio, and has a new job as live-in manag- and trade shows, motorcoach and group 2001 er at Heritage Commons, a 44-unit public travel (including meetings and destina- housing complex. tion weddings), and the office's getaways Becca Melius was recently promoted to and packaging programs. Margaret is also senior curator of collections at the Mu- 1993 responsible for industry outreach, so she seum of Science, Boston. She writes, "I'm is often on the road visiting chambers of hosting Meg Trau '12 as an intern for the Expanding on her work for tolerance, commerce and trade associations to de- summer. It's a full-circle moment, because Heather Martin has begun a master's de- liver educational sessions. Her new work my first museum job after graduation was gree in mediation and applied conflict res- email is Margaret.hoffman@maine.gov interning at the Peabody Essex Museum olution at Champlain College. A grassroots and she's happy to hear from anyone under Janey Winchell '82." organizer for the ACLU of Maine, marriage working in Maine's tourism industry. equality, and several other progressive is- Justin Mortensen married Laura Cacho sues, she continues to live in Surry, Maine, 1998 on October 9 in Waitsfield, Vermont. Six where she walks the dog, feeds the horse, days later, he left for two months of work watches the foxes, and reads loads of Kate (Francis) Gatski is launching a new in Uganda. Now in a new position with good books with Eilon, 11, and Tobiah, 8, project; the digital guide All Craft: A Recipe Save the Children Australia, he and Laura both of whom wish she would buy a TV for Making it Pay. She calls this a simple, have moved to Melbourne for at least two already. methodical way to make creative passions years. As program manager for Southeast profitable enough to pay one's bills and Asia, Justin will have primary responsibil- Jen Mazer had planned to attend the Bos- benefits, and offer future business op- ity for grants implemented in Cambodia, ton COA gathering last December, but was portunities, travel, and college funds for Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, engrossed in the local Occupy movement. children. Kate has steered a full-time craft and Myanmar. Their new adventures can It seemed that the police were ready to business for nearly ten years and was be followed on smugglingbudgies.com. evict the occupiers that evening, so she raised by a full-time crafter of thirty years. "Should be a wild ride!" writes Justin. spent the night with thousands of other Visit kategatski.com for the guide, or gats- supporters on Atlantic Avenue. Jen can be kimetal.com for the metal sculptures and While working for the Arkansas Field Office found at mazer_flymeaway@yahoo.com. furniture she and her husband create. of the Nature Conservancy as a GIS spe- 2000 cialist, Rachel Worthen is also keeping up Jude Lamb is traveling with a first person with her artistic side with the Blue-Eyed dramatic presentation of her great-great- Knocker Photo Club. She recently par- great-great grandmother, Eunice Lake- ticipated in the largest photography show man Hoar. She tells of the family's journey, ever in central Arkansas. She writes, "I in 1817, walking over the snow-covered continue to love elasmobranch - sharks, hills of western Maine with nine young rays, and skates - but conservation can 1996 children to become the first white settlers be found anywhere - even on land!" On March 16, 2012, Mary Harney, COA on what is now Rangeley Lake. painter, became a United States citizen. 2002 In anticipation of the release of her young 1997 adult novel Harbinger, set in a Turrets-like Anselm Bradford now has permanent building, Sara Wilson Etienne enlisted the residency in New Zealand. He recently Melissa Hirsch Skinner moved to Raleigh talents of twenty-five artists to create Har- co-authored his first book with Friends from Boston in December. Now also li- binger-inspired artwork. A new piece was of ED, now Apress: The HTML5 Mastery: censed in North Carolina as a professional revealed each week on her website, culmi- Semantics, Standards, and Styling. In addi- counselor, she joined a group psychother- nating in a gallery show at The Hive Gallery tion to teaching, Anselm serves as a tech- apy practice in North Raleigh, changefor- in Los Angeles. The show included work by nical editor for books by O'Reilly Press and livingcounseling.org. She writes that life is Kelice Penney and David Fass '01. Cur- PeachpitPress and recently contributed good and busy with three children, ages 7, rently, Sara is happily signing books, speak- infographics to a book by Lonely Planet, 4, and eight months. ing at libraries and schools, and working How to Land a Jumbo Jet. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 41 2003 Inspired by Fish: Artificial Life with Robots From Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach DARWIN'S us About the Evolution of Life and the Future of Technology. Basic Andy and Julia Davis McLeod are having Books, April, 2012. DEVICES a wonderful time cuddling with Sophie, By John Long '86 born March 21, 2012. | know this is going to sound Cait Unites moved to Kigali, Rwanda, last crazy, but hear me out - | use fall as the health services technical advi- robots to study biology. What's sor for the Rwanda office of Population driven me to the edge, to the Services International. She says, "I'm en- boundary between biology and joying getting settled and learning more artificial intelligence, is curiosity. about this country that will be my home | want to understand how for the next three years. It is nice to have the first fish-like vertebrates Dave Feldman [faculty member in phys- evolved 500 million years ago. ics and math] as a neighbor while he is here on his Fulbright. Visitors are always If you are interested in the welcome; I have many empty bedrooms evolution of anything, you've (and a full bar and dance floor) in my got a big problem. Dead fossils enormous Rwandan villa." tell no tales about behavior and ecology. Without those in-the-flesh interactions, we simply don't know how natural selection might've acted. The best that we can 2004 do, then, is to recreate and model the animals as biorobots. Dustin Eirdosh is finishing his gradu- Biorobots are specially designed to mimic animals, from the sensory and ate thesis at University of Kassel as part locomotor systems to the nervous system that helps orchestrate behavior. Most of the Trans-Atlantic Partnership with importantly, we build biorobots to be physically embodied and fully autonomous: COA. In April, he presented his work with they operate on their own in the world without a human pulling the strings via Genio Bertin '97 and Sarah Faull '98 remote control. from Mandala Farm at the COA sustain- able foods conference, Food Connec- Once we have autonomous biorobots, we use them to populate a simplified tions, as part of the panel discussion, world where they must compete to survive and reproduce. Each biorobot has an "Can We Have Sustainable Meat?" Dustin artificial genome that codes the genes that allow it to pass on its distinctive traits will be moving to Madagascar to pursue to its children. Under selection for improved feeding and escaping behavior, for field-based journalism on various agricul- example, our population of biorobotic fish, designed to mimic early vertebrates, tural development issues. Stories will be changed its skeleton and sensory system from one generation to the next. We on his blog, MythicMeats.com. evolve robots to study the evolution of animals. 2005 Evolving robots recreate the game of life. This is what Darwin's Devices is all about: how we conceive, design, engineer, and then use biorobots to model Aaron Lewis was back in the US tour- evolutionary processes. We collaborate: biologists, engineers, computer scientists, ing with Thomas Dolby this spring. For and mathematicians. Together, we are developing the new field of evolutionary updates on performances check out the biorobotics. news tab at aaronjonahlewis.com. Evolutionary biorobotics has interesting things to say about how humans design 2007 and innovate. Since evolution is a hands-off process, we don't know what we'll get when we sit back and watch robots play the game of life. Even simple biorobots Laura Briscoe spent five weeks in Tierra produce complex behaviors that surprise us. As a result, the direction that del Fuego, Chile, on a National Science evolution takes is often unpredictable. We can put evolution to work to create Foundation-funded grant in conjunction surprising designs. with her work at Chicago's Field Museum, writing a flora of the liverworts of south- ern South America. It is a region of amaz- 42 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE While visiting friends in New York City, pollinators in industrial agriculture to Sarah Neilson met up with Becky increase biological diversity within their Wartell '10 at Zuccotti Park on Novem- cropping systems. ber 14, hours before the park was raided. 2008 Becky had been occupying Wall Street since the very first day, traveling back to Maine every week to work for two days Wyatt Mathews, MPhil, is teaching elev- and then returning to the park. ing bryophyte diversity, she writes; her enth graders in the Bronx, New York, team worked on small islands where col- where, he says, "Three of my brightest lections have never before been made. Elena Piekut writes, "I managed to students were too busy with science beat out a pool of eighty to become the new assistant city planner for the City Isaac Fer writes, "I finished and published of Ellsworth. I love it. Planning really is a book on my grandfather and mother's interdisciplinary, I learn all the time, and life and work at the National Geographic." I help make the rules about development The book, Traveling the World for National in Ellsworth - perfect! Geographic, contains stories and photos from around the globe, tying together sixty years of their lives, "including the 2011 four decades during which my grandfa- ther, Thomas J. Abercrombie, was a staff Kaija Klauder believes she may be the photographer and journalist for the Geo- classes during the day to take a tradi- first alumna to give a sworn definition of graphic. His travels took him to the South tional phys-ed credit." And so, the Bronx human ecology. While fulfilling her call Pole, Venezuelan jungles, and the des- Guild HS Longboarding Team was born. to jury duty, she was asked, under oath, erts of the Middle East, where he was the It's a distance team, skateboarding five "What is human ecology?" Kaija wonders first Western journalist to complete the to ten miles at a stretch. You can follow if this has happened to others, as it could pilgrimage to Mecca. Work on the book them at bronxconx.tumblr.com. be a great collection of stories! Currently began shortly after his death in 2006 living in Alaska, she is working on an or- and remained a part-time project for my 2009 ganic vegetable farm. family until 2009, when it became a full- time endeavor." Michael Griffith shares, "After teaching Luka Negoita has been awarded a for two years at the UWC in India, and five-year National Science Foundation Awarded a five-year fellowship to pur- spending a lovely 'gap year' back in the Graduate Research Fellowship to sue his PhD in plant ecology at Univer- COA community, I'm headed to King's pursue his PhD in plant ecology at sity of Texas at Austin, Nate Pope will College London to complete my graduate Syracuse University. focus on the conservation of native studies in English and philosophy." ALUMNIRESOURCES Wanted: Class Notes for COA Stay Connected Black Fly Society Do you have notes for the next issue of Update your contact information three The Black Fly Society is the eco-friendly COA? Send them to Dianne Clendaniel, different ways: way to give to COA. alumni relations and development Phone: 207-801-5624 coordinator, at dclendaniel@coa.edu. Email: alumni@coa.edu To join this monthly giving society, go to Website: www.coa.edu/alumni www.coa.edu/support and click "Give A Letters, Ideas, and Writers Gift Online" on the left-hand side. Then We would love to hear what you have COA Alumni Career Services under the "Gift Frequency" drop-down to say about COA, its recent makeover, Career & Resumé Guidance menu, choose "Monthly," submit your and the stories we bring to you twice a Graduate School Information gift, and you're done! Have questions? year. Do you have ideas for the upcoming Networking Opportunities Call 207-801-5622. issues? Would like to be considered as a Searchable Employment Databases FLY writer for COA? Please send your letters BLACK to the editor, poems, short stories, art Contact Jill Barlow-Kelley, director of work, and article ideas to Donna Gold at internships and career services, dgold@coa.edu. jbk@coa.edu or 207-801-5633. OF THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 43 COMMUNITY NOTES At the Community Food Security Coali- Wheel, Buffalo Media Resources in April tion's national conference in Oakland last (with a Skype question and answer period November, Molly Anderson, Partridge after). In May, a showing of her films at Chair in Food and Sustainable Agricul- the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massa- ture Systems, was honored as an outgo- chusetts, was accompanied by a discus- ing board member. She also participated sion with Nancy, Dr. Micheal Belkin, chief in the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture of vascular surgery at Brigham and Wom- Working Group's annual conference, a en's Hospital, and Dr. Samata Sharma, panel for the National Conference on clinical fellow in psychiatry at Beth Israel Science and the Environment's meeting Deaconess Medical Center. member in literature, offering a program in Washington, DC, the National Climate for thirteen students in French literature, Assessment's advisory meeting on rural philosophy, and culture, along with an issues, and a roundtable and panel in immersion language program at London on the International Assessment CAVILAM University. of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. Addition- Dave Feldman, faculty member in phys- ally, Molly was part of a group awarded a ics and math, is a planning grant from the John Merck Fund visiting professor of for a Food Knowledge Ecosystem and applied physics as a organized the conference "Food Con- In February, Rich Borden, Rachel Carson Fulbright Fellow at nections: Reconnecting Hands, Mouth & Chair in Human Ecology, gave an invited the Kigali Institute of Mind through Food Systems Education" talk at the New Forest Institute in Brooks, Science and Tech- at COA in April. Maine, titled "Human Ecology: Reflections nology in Rwanda. on Meaningful Livelihood and a Livable While at KIST Dave The current project of Nancy Andrews, Future". He is co-author of the article is teaching five classes over two se- faculty member in film, in collaboration "Human Behavior and Sustainability," in mesters and supervising three with Artists in Context, is Delirious, explor- the April issue of Frontiers in Ecology and senior theses. ing the medical critical care experience the Environment, published by the Ecolog- and aftermath from her perspective as an ical Society of America. This winter Jay Friedlander, the Sharpe- intensive care unit (ICU) survivor. Watch a McNally Chair of Green and Socially Re- video of Nancy discussing her new work: A peer-reviewed article, "The Gover- sponsible Business, presented at sev- artistsincontext.org, or read about the nance of Things: Documenting Limbo in project at nancyandrews.net. She has the Greek Asylum Procedure," by Heath been working with Robin Owings '13 on Cabot, faculty member in anthropology, this project, and has received research is in the current issue of Political and Legal and development support from COA's Anthropology Review (PoLAR) 35:1 11-29. Rothschild Fund. Currently some of her writings and drawings are being used by "Approaching Haystack" an essay by Bill medical clinicians and researchers from Carpenter, faculty member in literature Vanderbilt University Medical Center and and creative writing, was published as the University of Nebraska in presenta- #26 in the Haystack Mountain School of eral conferences, including the annual tions about ICU delirium. Crafts monograph series. meeting of the American Association of Nancy has Colleges and Universities, the AshokaU had showings of The Irish band Maclir, in which Gray Cox, Exchange, Babson College Social Innova- her work at the faculty member in political philosophy, tion Forum, and the Maine Farmer's Mar- Robert Flaherty sings and plays bones and guitar, per- ket Convention, speaking about sustain- Film Seminars in formed at benefits at the Grand Audito- able business, social entrepreneurship, New York City, rium in Ellsworth and at the Bar Harbor and marketing innovations. In addition, and at the Film Baptist Church, raising funds for heating Jay and Anna Demeo, lecturer in phys- on the Rocks in fuel. Gray joins the band when it plays ics, were accepted to the 2012 Electricite Phuket, Thailand Wednesday nights at Finn's in Ellsworth de France Sustainable Design Challenge in March; and - except this term, when he's in Vichy, for COA's work in sustainable energy at the Squeaky France with Karen Waldron, faculty and business. Jay, Kate Macko, sustain- 44 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE able business program administrator, NOXL Rally & World Water Forum and Anna will be working with a team of students to prepare COA's presentation. In March, a record eleven students and seven ventures were selected for the Hatchery, an incubator for projects in the arts, business, furniture making, alterna- tive energy, and policy. Having visited the Lester B. Pearson Unit- ed World College of the Pacific in Victoria, BC, where nearly a quarter of COA's in- ternational students have studied, Kylee Gies, Coordinator of International Stu- dent Services, writes, "I found the institu- tion, along with its vibrant staff, faculty, and students, to be friendly, innovative, community-driven, eclectically cross-cul- NOXI tural, and educationally progressive. I felt right at home on their campus nestled Ken Cline, the David Rockefeller Family Chair in Ecosystem Management and between the Pacific temperate rainforest Protection, joined twenty-five students at the rally to prevent the extension of the and water's edge." Keystone XL pipeline in Washington, DC, last November. Meeting them were COA alumni Lauren Nutter '10, Juan Soriano '10, Nat Keller '04, Ivy Huo '05, and Ken Hill, academic dean, is the execu- John Deans '07. tive director of the Society for Human Ecology. Barbara Carter, assistant to the faculty, is secretary. Also on the board is Mihnea Tanasescu '04, studying at the Free University of Brussels, and Erik Bond, MPhil '12. Past president Rich Borden continues to remain active. Todd Little-Siebold took ten students to England to study the history of apples, orchards, and cider. Using funds from the Trans-Atlantic Partnership, the group traveled around England for just over two weeks, visiting orchards, cidermakers, and other sites. Also joining them were Maine apple expert John Bunker, Beech Hill Farm manager Alisha Strater, and Rhode Island cidermaker Cassie Tharinger. Nishanta Rajakaruna '94, faculty mem- ber in botany, received a $16,100 grant In March, Ken attended the World Water Forum in from the National Park Service to contin- Marseilles, France, along with (directly above, left to right) ue work on cataloging COA's herbarium Lisa Bjerke '13, Rachel Briggs '13, Barbara Beblowski specimens and offering access to oth- '14, and in front Janoah Bailin '14 and Robin Owings '13. ers for research and education, and a Ken and students posted reports from the forum at www. $12,477 grant from the National Science earthinbrackets.org. Keep following the site for reflections Foundation as principal investigator on on the United Nations Conference for Sustainable the macrofungi collection consortium: Development, or Rio+20, this June. unlocking a biodiversity resource for COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 45 understanding biotic interactions, nutri- Community Connections ent cycling, and human affairs. For part of this winter, Nishi held two visiting scientist COA staff and faculty are thoroughly connected to the MDI community. Here's a list of positions in South Africa: at the School of just some of the local involvement we've discovered. Because we know that some staff Environmental Sciences and Develop- and faculty are too modest - or busy - to add to the list, this is just a sampling: ment, North-West University, Potchesft- Abbe Museum exhibition design room Campus, and in the Materials Re- Athletic coach search Department, iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences, National Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce Sustainable Tourism committee member Research Foundation. Bar Harbor Food Pantry board Nishi also coauthored the follow- Bar Harbor Marine Resource Committee chair ing recent papers: with alumna Sarah Book Club facilitator Neilson '09, he wrote "Roles of rhizo- spheric processes and plant physiol- Business of Reading participant ogy in phytoremediation of contaminated Down East Educational Partnership for Hancock County sites using oilseed Brassicas," in The Plant Food Bank board member Family Brassicaceae: Contribution Towards Frenchman Bay Conservancy board Phytoremediation, edited by N.A. Anjum, I. Ahmad, M.E. Pereira, A.C. Duarte, S. Frenchman Bay Partners steering committee Umar, and N. A. Khan. 2011. This is part Island Connections driver of the Environmental Pollution Book Se- Healthy Acadia Advisory Committee ries published by Springer in Dordrecht, Maine Businesses for Sustainability board The Netherlands. With alumnus Tanner Harris '06, former faculty member Fred Maine Science Fair judge Olday, as well as S. Clayden and A. Dib- MDI Historical Society assistance ble, he wrote, "Lichens of Callahan Mine, MDI Regional School System Certification Committee a copper and zinc-enriched Superfund MDI Regional School System Crisis Team site in Brooksville, Maine, USA," Rhodora 113: 1-31, 2011. With B.L. Anacker, D.D. MDI Regional School System presentations Ackerly, S.P. Harrison, J.E. Keeley, and MDI Regional School System Service Learning Leadership Team M.C. Vasey, Nishi wrote "Ecological strate- MDI Toastmasters International (VP of Education) gies in California chaparral: Interacting ef- MDI YMCA board fects of soils, climate, and fire on specific Senior Exhibition panel for MDI High School's senior degree requirement leaf area," in Plant Ecology and Diversity. 2011. With S.P. Harrison and S.C. Gon- Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary board calves, editors, he is co-editing "Serpen- Women's Health Center Advisory Committee tine Ecosystems: A Global Perspective. Proceedings of the Seventh International Humpback Whale Catalog in the South- More than thirty people attended Conference on Serpentine Ecology," a ern Ocean and Antarctic Peninsula. To- the Allied Whale reunion organized at the special issue of the journal Plant Ecology gether with students, alumni, and fellow event. Sean also co-authored a recently and Diversity. 2012. Allied Whale researchers, Sean attended accepted paper, "Hierarchical and rhyth- the 19th Biennial Conference on the Biol- mic organization in the songs of hump- In January, Davis Taylor, faculty member ogy of Marine Mammals. COA and Allied back whales (Megaptera novaeangliae)" in in economics, was the keynote speaker the journal Bioacoustics, with colleagues at the conference By Land and By Sea: Stephen Handel and Annie Zoidis. Leveraging the Co-op Model for Busi- ness Success at the Maine Organic Farm- Before heading to France, Karen ers and Gardeners Association in Unity, Waldron presented a paper on medical Maine. The conference brought together authority in Sarah Orne farmers, fishers, cooperative businesses, Jewett's fiction at the 2012 organizations that help foster coopera- Whale had nine accepted presentations, Northeast Modern Lan- tives, and those interested in starting of which Sean co-authored five. Six of guage Association meet- producer or consumer cooperatives. the presentations had COA student ings in Rochester, New authors. Jacqueline Bort, MPhil '11, York. She also chaired a Sean Todd, Steven K. Katona Chair in Ma- Jessica McCordic '12, Kathryn Scurci successful panel on The rine Sciences, recently completed a sab- '11, and Chris Spagnoli '12 were each Questions of Voice in Nineteenth-Centu- batical collecting data for the Antarctic senior authors. ry American Women's Literature. 46 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE IN MEMORIAM MARION FULLER BROWN wanted to know more, and always COA Board Member inquired with a smile, and a word of May 14, 1917-June 3, 2011 encouragement. 'Keep at it,' he would say, convinced that what we were up to Marion Fuller Brown was a COA trustee was the most important effort on the from 1972 to 1973. As a Maine legislator island, at the college, in the world even. from 1966 to 1972, she sponsored His legacy is full of good cheer." the legislation banning billboards from - Natalie Springuel '91 Maine roads. Writes her son, Henry W. Fuller, "Her solid obituary details "Very sad to hear. Lou helped put her focused personal involvement COA on a trajectory for success without in local, state, and federal political many of us ever knowing that it was roles that embrace that of a dedicated even happening. Thank you, Lou. By conservationist, a stalwart middle-of-the- the way, who else remembers the road Republican, and a giver of her time "LOUUUUUUUU" chorus at graduation? and money to causes she believed in. Adulation from the students in the She died as she had ordained in her highest form." bed looking out over the fields sprinkled - Josh Winer '91 with a full fresh crop of daisies down to Louis Rabineau in front of The Turrets. Courtesy of the York River." the College of the Atlantic Archives. CHRISTINE RIDENOUR '75 August 25, 1952-November 13, 2011 JAMES C. MACLEOD being in Twelfth Night - him playing the COA Board Member priest who married Lady Olivia (me) to Christine Ridenour was one of COA's June 6, 1924-January 21, 2012 Sebastian (Clark Lawrence '92). We had a first students, and our third graduate, blast in rehearsal! He will be missed." standing alone in 1975, as then- As Mount Desert Island's - Bonnie Giacovelli '93 Congressman William S. Cohen gave the representative to the Maine legislature commencement address. Chrissy was for three sessions, Bar Harbor native James MacLeod was quite helpful to "Really sorry to hear the news. I knew devoted to art and architecture, working closely with JoAnne Carpenter, faculty COA's early years. Founding trustee Lou well, served on the board during Leslie Brewer credits James with most of his presidency. He was a terrific emerita. With JoAnne, she was crucial in helping the college obtain accreditation, and important president of COA. I have launching COA's first art gallery, serving legitimizing our students and their said many times that Lou saved the as her gallery assistant for two years college. The fire could have easily wiped while also devoting herself to working diplomas. James and his wife Jane were the owners of the original Bluenose COA from the map and the following with children through her internship and Motel; he also worked as vice president years were some tough sledding for the senior project. of marketing and public relations at Bar college. Lou brought tremendous skill as a leader and passion for COA's mission HELEN DEMETRA "BECKY" Harbor Bank and Trust Company, and to his work. I admired him greatly. And KOULOURIS was a member of its board of directors for nearly four decades. Lou was the officiant at our wedding in January 1, 1953-December 1, 2011 1997 when Laura and I were married in the Beatrix Farrand garden. He was the Becky was part of the group of thirteen LOUIS RABINEAU perfect man for the job." guinea pig students in the summer COA President from 1984 to 1993 - Michael B. Kaiser '85 of 1970. Gray Cox, faculty member in April 30, 1924-November 21, 2011 political economics, who was a student The fall issue of COA included a tribute "I loved Lou. I still have a couple ties he in that group, remembers her as to Lou Rabineau, published just days gave me, right from around his bringing "great maturity and strength before he died. Hearing the news, alumni own neck." to the group." She remained involved who knew Lou responded with their own - CedarBough T. Saeji '93 with the college in its early years, memories. Here are just a few: then went on to teach in the Freeport "I remember Lou as always being elementary schools and later became "Lou was an amazing, warm, intelligent genuinely interested in what students Bowdoin College's environmental studies man with a great sense of humor. I loved were up to. He always had a question, coordinator. COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 47 EVER WONDER WHY GATES IS CALLED GATES? Centered on the western wall of the Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Community Center - and witness to objections and ovations, dances and discussions from numerous All College Meetings, job talks, plays, and other community events - hangs a portrait of a man of such piercing intelligence that his gaze borders on skepticism. The portrait is striking for another reason: that man is just so very elegant. This is Thomas S. Gates, Jr., who had been US Secretary of Defense under President Dwight Eisenhower, and had become chairman of the board of Morgan Guaranty Trust (now JP Morgan Chase) when COA was starting up. So why is Gates named for him? For that, we went to Ed Kaelber, founding COA president, who reminded us that at its beginning COA needed financial support, yes, but it also needed respect. Much of the work of drumming up both fell to Ed. He went around to many people, but few had the international stature of Northeast Harbor summer resident Tom Gates. Tom even had academic credentials. His father had been president of the University of Pennsylvania; Tom, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the institution, served on its board. Says Ed, "So, I went to Tom and I told him we were thinking of starting a college on the island. 'That's a lousy idea," Tom responded. Ed sent him a prospectus. And visited him again. "Well, it's not a bad idea," Tom allowed. "But you'll need at least a million This Thomas S. Gates print (detail) dollars to finance it.' We'll need some money," Ed agreed. "Not quite a million. Let me by Albert Murray, 1971, hangs send you a financial prospectus." At Ed's next visit, Tom thought COA had enough in COA's Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Community Center. merit to write a check for $5,000. But Ed stopped him. "A check is nice," he told the bank chair, "but I'd rather have you join our board of trustees." By now Ed is laughing at himself as he continues: "He told me, 'I'll think about it, but I have a word of advice: if someone offers you $5,000, take it!" And so began a long and close friendship, with Tom joining COA's board in 1972 (thanks to encouragement also from founding trustee Les Brewer), retiring in 1976 to become the equivalent of ambassador to China (his title was chief of US liaison mission). When Tom returned in 1978, Ed thought he would make a great board chair. So did the University of Pennsylvania. But Ed told Tom, "Sure, it would be a great honor for you to chair the board of the University of Pennsylvania, but here at COA - we really need you!" Tom Gates served as COA board chair from 1979 to 1981. Concludes Ed: "Tom knew what the right questions were, he didn't get bogged down in trivia. He was interested in the substance of the college, and he opened a lot of doors." How fitting that Gates Community Center, one of COA's prime community portals, would honor a man who opened many doors early on. 48 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE WHAT IS HUMAN ECOLOGY TO ME? Essay and image by Julia De Santis '12 | have two weeks left as a student before I graduate and venture out into the world, and SO the obvious question arises: what's next? For me, yes - - but I'm also curious about you and everyone else. Because I want the world. For you and for me, bien sur! But mostly, I just don't want to be responsible for destroying it. Or for sitting around talking, deconstructing, and reconstructing ideas until it's too late. We are living through a war, a war waged against the planet by the dominant culture of consumption, against that which supports all life. And | know we must fight back, but how? Especially when the problems are so complex. Again and again, I come to this conclusion: we connect. We work to break down barriers without destroying our differences. We overcome self-consciousness, language, race, gender, and socioeconomics. We destroy every possible barrier that keeps you away from me, because if your hand isn't in mine as we step toward the future, we are too far apart. We refuse to do anything less than love. Because what is love if it is not that which propels us - transforms us - to act from our anger and sorrow to use our power and knowledge to live a life in pursuit of something better for ourselves, our children, and our community? When | refer to love, it is this force and this desire to live and let live. Maybe there's a better word for it. Justice, perhaps? Truth? Julia This war may be stupid and complicated and | don't know which side will win, but | live with the hope that well, at least that there is still hope. And if it is too late? I live believing that fighting on the side of life, light, and love is more fun than giving up. So, what's next for this human ecologist? Well, whatever | do, wherever I am, | will dance and smile and LOVE my way to the future, and I will try my darn hardest to make it a beautiful one. NON-PROFIT COA U.S. POSTAGE PAID AUGUSTA, ME PERMIT NO. 121 The College of the Atlantic Magazine 105 Eden Street Bar Harbor, ME 04609