Maine's old apple trees are living reminders of a past when most Mainers worked at home, cultivated a garden, planted small orchards, and ate what they grew. Those days are gone, but the apple trees remain, patiently waiting for our arrival. They call out to whoever will listen that there used to be a different way of living and that there could be other ways to envision the future.

What if Maine offered a literal out-of-the-box (or out-of-the-office) solution to youth mental wellness? What if conversations around mental health shifted away from the individual and toward community solutions? For nearly 700 kids annually in rural midcoast Maine, this innovative approach to mental wellness is the new normal. Young people find a third space with Hearty Roots, a youth organization that offers an immersive, therapeutic pathway for youth to engage, unplug from devices, and return to simple restorative time in nature. In rural Lincoln County, young people connect with land stewardship, personal wellness, peer connection, and community commitment.

Looking toward the future, Maine faces many wicked problems that will require innovative, human-centered solutions. Without such a response, climate change, an aging workforce, housing shortages, widening geographic opportunity divides, growing economic inequality, and other pressing challenges threaten the state’s long-term economic prosperity. Education informed by and linked to rural community development will be an essential strategy for creating the adaptive, transformative change required to turn the challenges of the future into the opportunities of tomorrow. In this article, we contextualize the idea of education as a public good specifically for Maine’s rural communities. We then propose a framework for understanding the role of the universities in supporting rural communities as they try to balance global educational priorities, leverage local assets, and address regional challenges.

Issues surrounding drinking water quality and inadequate monitoring of metal contaminants are particularly relevant in Maine, where 55 percent of residents rely on private wells for drinking water, yet only half of those wells test for arsenic. The public health impacts of contaminated water can be compounded by limited access to healthcare in rural areas. To better inform state and local policy, we assessed the potential public health risks that arise from the intersection of environmental and structural vulnerabilities. We used a dataset of 2,664 private drinking water samples collected between 2016 and 2025 by Maine students involved in a secondary school-based citizen science project called All About Arsenic. To evaluate the dual burden of exposure to heavy metal contaminants in areas with limited access to healthcare, we analyzed the distribution of metal contaminants in the subset of private well samples relative to health professional shortage areas across Maine.

When policymakers consider reform of Maine’s healthcare system to reduce costs for Maine residents, it is important for them to compare those residents’ total costs in the reform proposed with their current total costs. The latter include both hidden costs, which I addressed in a previous commentary, and apparent costs, which I address here. Using the same example of a hypothetical 30-year-old Maine resident, I examine the total apparent costs that individual might bear for a range of healthcare expenses in six different healthcare coverage options: no insurance (self-pay), commercial insurance obtained through the Maine Health Insurance Marketplace, two instances of a workplace health benefit, and two of a state-based, publicly funded, universal healthcare plan (single payer). I conclude that Mainers’ healthcare costs vary greatly with the type of coverage they have and that when these costs exceed $1,500 to $2,000 a year, the single-payer model would cost this hypothetical Maine resident, and presumably many other Mainers, less than they pay now regardless of their current type of coverage.

This research describes environmental health governance in response to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination in Maine. PFAS are a class of 14,700 human-made chemicals that are persistent, ubiquitous, and mobile in the environment, exposure to which is associated with adverse health outcomes. Governance actions that address PFAS contamination are complex, existing between scales of governance, types of governance actions, and across stakeholder groups. Through legislative history research and interviews with stakeholders, I describe Maine’s national leadership in widespread testing, broad regulation, and advocacy on farmland contamination.

The Wabanaki Nations’ homelands have been whittled down to a tiny fraction of their original size. Only one tract, Indian Township (Motahkomikuk) in eastern Maine, has been in continuous tribal ownership since before statehood in 1820. Much Wabanaki forest land was in industrial ownership and managed for timber as recently as 30–40 years ago. This article sets forestry issues into the context of larger debates over tribal sovereignty and provides a short historical introduction and overview of the forest management issues. The timing is significant because of the release of the Indian Forest Management Assessment Team IV report and a new Secretary of Interior who will pursue priorities different from his predecessor.

In the Margaret Chase Smith Essay, William Harwood, former Maine Public Advocate, describes a roadmap for increasing renewable energy while keeping electricity costs affordable.

"This paper presents an analysis of the accessibility of town meeting government to caregivers of babies and young children. The article examines prior research on who typically attends town meetings and explores challenges to caregivers’ attendance. Findings suggest that due to existing challenges, caregivers for young children are less likely to attend town meetings than noncaregivers. The author looks at best practices for inclusive public meetings and generate a model for accessible meeting design with a goal of engaging and supporting caregivers."

Over the last decade, landings from one of Maine’s most valuable marine resources, soft-shell clams, have declined due to environmental and social stressors. To address this challenge, some municipal shellfish committees have encouraged or required harvesters to participate in conservation activities, which are intended to help protect and grow the resource. However, harvester involvement varies, leaving resource managers wondering how they can increase participation. This study draws on interviews and a survey in four focal communities to examine harvester participation in conservation activities, their internal and external motivation to participate, and the factors that may influence those motivations. Findings indicate that conservation requirements and committees composed of harvesters are positively correlated to harvesters’ intrinsic motivation to participate in formal conservation activities. These insights may help municipal and state agencies refine future shellfish conservation policies and recommendations.