This commentary explores the potential for entrepreneurship in Maine’s $3.4 billion outdoor recreation economy as a catalyst for rural development, drawing on an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) assessment conducted in Fall 2024. The article identifies key opportunities and constraints across domains. Findings emphasize rural Maine’s rich natural and cultural capital, but also highlight challenges in workforce development pathways, inadequate infrastructure, and fragmented support systems and low levels of ecosystem coordination. Recommendations focus on strengthening EE governance, promoting a collective sector identity, expanding workforce pathways, and increasing entrepreneurial scaling capacity particularly in growth-based finance and venture acceleration beyond startup. The commentary calls for integrated, place-based strategies and multi-actor collaboration to support sustainable and inclusive growth in rural communities. By aligning the ORec EE with broader natural resource-dependent sectors, Maine can leverage its unique assets to build a resilient, innovation-driven rural economy that enhances economic opportunity, preserves rural character, and supports community vitality.

This research paper will examine how extremely rural Maine communities are adapting conventional development tools to meet their unique circumstances, demonstrating how approaches considered standard elsewhere represent a significant innovation in rural contexts. Using northern Maine's post-Loring Air Force Base experience as a framework, the paper explores five interconnected areas of rural development: housing and land use, broadband connectivity, industry recruitment, downtown revitalization, and adaptive tourism. Transportation challenges and solutions are woven throughout each section, highlighting how mobility (or lack thereof) fundamentally shapes rural development opportunities.

This project sought to engage with rural Maine residents, particularly those experiencing poverty, aging in place, participating in municipal government, or operating small businesses to inform the Maine Climate Plan of 2025. We used a mixed-methods approach, with surveys and focus group interviews with consenting survey respondents. Most participants lived in Washington County, Maine. Results showed widespread interest in energy efficiency and electrification options, but participants faced multiple barriers to implementation due to cost and grid unreliability. Housing and heating insecurity were major problems with many participants living in inefficient or unsafe housing with minimal access to government assistance. Many were concerned that rural parts of Maine would experience undue burdens and insufficient benefits from the Maine Climate Plan, particularly with increased land conservation affecting local property taxes and energy-related programs that may be inaccessible or impractical for rural people.

Maine’s 15 year-round island communities are on the front lines of converging challenges—including climate change, housing shortages, volunteer burnout, and economic fragility. Based on a 2024 learning tour in the aftermath of record-breaking winter storms, this article explores the vulnerabilities and strengths of these unique rural communities. Despite rising sea levels, declining fisheries, and seasonal population pressures, islanders are responding with creativity and collaboration—from community-owned housing and aquaculture diversification to region-wide climate planning. Drawing on firsthand observations and community conversations, the piece highlights both the urgency for place-based policy solutions and the islands as inspiring examples for adaptation in rural and coastal regions nationwide.

In this Margaret Chase Smith essay, author Rhiannon Hampson considers rural prosperity. She believes that when rural America prospers, we all do better. Supporting rural communities and states in making strategic and thoughtful decisions by creating the breathing room for them to do so is imperative.

In January 2024, Presidents Joan Ferrini-Mundy (University of Maine) and Jacqueline Edmondson (University of Southern Maine) proposed an idea for the three coauthors of this commentary to consider: creating a symposium focused on rural issues that would highlight University of Maine System (UMS) research efforts that address Maine’s capacity for resilience and revitalization and that would galvanize opportunities for collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and sectors. This commentary describes the resulting Rural Issues Symposium, which aimed to enhance the long-term sustainability of Maine’s rural communities through its theme, Resilience and Revitalization with/in Maine Communities.

In 2024, the University of Maine’s Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions partnered with the Maine Climate Council to support the update of Maine Won’t Wait, the State’s climate action plan. This project focused on expanding participation to include people not engaged in the original 2020 plan development and people who may experience barriers to engagement: households with low incomes, people of color, older adults, and rural and climate frontline communities. The Mitchell Center team partnered with 21 community-based organizations to conduct 73 engagements in 26 communities, collaborated with Wabanaki partners, and implemented a statewide survey co-designed with partners. Engagement and survey findings highlight the importance of climate solutions that meet basic needs—affordable transportation, housing, heating, and community services—and education, capacity building, and funding that address climate change and the cost of living in coordination. These insights informed the 2024 climate plan update and continue to guide policy development and implementation.

An interview with Jennifer Blossom, a University of Maine faculty member and leader in rural mental health.

Maine’s farmland and the people who steward it are at risk. Rising land costs, the accelerating loss of productive acreage, an aging farming population, and the increasing challenges of turning a profit threaten our rural communities in ways that ripple far beyond the farm gate (USDA NASS 2024a). If we want to keep Maine’s working lands working, we must see farmland protection and farm business viability as two sides of the same coin. This is not just about conserving open space. It is about ensuring that farmers today and in the next generation can afford to farm, build resilient businesses, and create jobs and economic activity that benefit all Mainers.

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.