ISSUE #10 • SPRING 2026
From the
Ground Up
Conversations about conservation, climate, and communities in New England.
ARTWORK BY LYNN F. WALKER - "TIDE POOLS" - VIEW THE FULL IMAGEWelcome to the Spring 2026 Issue
Marine & Coastal Systems
Every issue of From the Ground Up offers a chance to examine another dimension of an integrated conservation vision—one that spans natural Wildlands, thoughtfully managed Woodlands, productive farmlands, and the communities of people and other organisms that depend on nature in countless ways.
Coasts, fisheries, and marine ecosystems flow through this issue because they are essential parts of that same connected landscape. In this first exploration of “ecological fisheries,” we bring together many voices to examine the ties between land and sea, the challenges facing coastal communities and working waterfronts, and the opportunities to restore and sustain healthy, productive marine ecosystems for the future. Enjoy!
Our move to a small Downeast Maine fishing village in the 1980s was a major change in our environment and lifestyle. Some had warned that Mainers were cold and difficult to befriend, and good luck with being welcomed to the neighborhood. And yet the very first citizen we met in our new hometown was so helpful and talkative that we could barely break away from the generous stories and helpful hints.
But then, later on, meeting Jean Symonds was the real icing on the cake. Here I was, an artist, a “flatlander from away” with not a single day’s experience as a hard-working, sea-tossed, early-rising fisherman. But poking around the harbor in Corea, Maine, I saw this lovely lobsterwoman, her smiling face lined with years of weathering in the fog and chill of the rugged Maine coast.
Like toast, the old pier I am standing on is saturated in a marmalade glow from the fading afternoon sun. Except for a person hosing down the stern of their boat at the west end of the harbor, it is quiet until a flock of grackles flies overhead, noisily recapping their day. From the rust-colored patina on the shrimp boats and the way their big wooden hulls sit low in the water, it looks like it has been a while since the harbor was as busy as the birds.
In that moment, I am reminded that sometimes seeing a new place makes you see a familiar place more clearly.
According to the Google Maps app on my iPhone, I am standing 1,680 miles from the rural coast of eastern Maine. This is my first time visiting Apalachicola, but being on the Gulf Coast of Florida feels as familiar as having a chance encounter with an old friend. The trip has me thinking about the unique connections that rural coastal communities often forge with their surrounding environments, and how these relationships are so critical to reimagining our approach to sustainable fisheries.
It’s the day after the summer solstice, and the dock at Wells Harbor is vibrating with summer energy. A man in khaki shorts is hosing down a charter fishing boat in much the same motion as a mother is spraying her daughter with sunscreen. Floppy-hatted tourists make their way to the beach.
I meet Rachel Stearns, a biological science technician for the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, at the mouth of the Webhannet River. The refuge runs along fifty miles of Maine’s southern coast, from Kittery to Scarborough, and includes roughly three thousand acres of tidal salt marsh. Rachel is close to my age with a frizz of curly brown hair sticking out from beneath her hat and the unselfconscious authority of someone who has been doing her job well for many a field season. She and an intern, Sam, are both dressed the way I suddenly wish I were: long-sleeve, high-necked shirts for sun and bug protection; fast-drying pants; tall wading boots.
Conversations
Food Farming in the Sea
An Interview with Mussel and Oyster Farmer Carter Newell
by Liz Thompson
Carter Newell, Founder and President of both Pemaquid Mussel Farms and Pemaquid Oyster Company, knows how to raise shellfish in the ocean. He brings his scientist’s mind to the enterprise, always gathering data and looking for ways to improve the process. I sent him a number of questions about his path and his passion, and over an hour-long conversation, we talked in depth about the challenges and rewards of this work.
I asked Newell about his background; about why shellfish farming is important as a replacement for wild harvesting; about the threats to wild and farmed populations of these species; and about the importance of shellfish farming as the climate continues to change.
Whose Shoreline?
Gentrification, Home Rule, and the Working Waterfront
by Monique Coombs
In recent years, Maine’s iconic coastal towns have become emblematic of both the promise and the peril of rural American revitalization. From Kennebunkport to Eastport, towns once sustained by lobster boats, fish houses, and fishing families are now grappling with rising property values, demographic churn, shrinking municipal capacity, and growing uncertainty about whether local governance structures are equipped to manage the pace and scale of change. What should be a story of economic renewal increasingly looks like one of cultural displacement, civic strain, and administrative overload.
Gentrification in Maine’s coastal communities is not simply about affluence moving in. It reflects multiple pressures reshaping the social and economic fabric of towns historically anchored in commercial fishing and working-class family life.
Reflections
Wellfleet
A poem by Angela Patten
In the distance a house on stilts
all its balconies facing the water.
I imagine living there, encircled
by the sea’s perpetual music.
Long grass of salt marshes, tidal flats
shallow pools thrumming.
Fiddler crabs appear and disappear
diving and surfacing in an endless rhythm
Visit to Harpswell
A poem by Scudder Parker
Soft-shell clams have quit the small
tide-flat beside the house only
a crushed-shell layer of evidence.
Mussels have abandoned every
inch—two hundred-sixteen miles—
of shore the township boasts.
Over crab cakes and roasted
root vegetables we discuss green crabs
first brought here in ballast water
in the eighteen hundreds and like us
tough adaptable not much good
to eat invading up the coast.
Policy Desk
New England Policy Chronicle
Updates from Around the Region
by Alex Redfield
Editor’s Note: Before joining the editorial team at From the Ground Up, I never had much of a reason to pay attention to legislatures outside of my home state of Maine. As I started exploring what other New England states were taking on and how their governments functioned, I found it surprisingly hard to keep the structural differences between each state’s legislature straight—all six states have different calendars, formats, session rules and norms, and more. In this springtime edition of the Policy Chronicle, when all six states in New England are in the midst of their legislative sessions, we present both a brief primer on when and how each state goes about its legislative work, and a glimpse into what conservation advocates and lawmakers have on their upcoming dockets.
Conservation in Action
Nature Leads the Way
Coastal Habitat Restoration in Massachusetts
by Wayne Castonguay
Strengthening the resilience of natural systems is one of the most effective actions we can take in the face of climate change. Nature-based solutions, as these activities are collectively known, provide many co-benefits and offer the most cost-effective way to protect people and nature in our rapidly changing world.
Unfortunately, many of the natural systems upon which we depend have become degraded by human activity and have lost much of their capacity to buffer communities and ecosystems. Coastal habitats are not only among the most degraded, they may also be the most at risk from climate impacts such as sea level rise, warming waters, ocean acidification, invasive species, and more frequent and intense storms.
Want to join the conversation?
We invite your questions, reactions, debates, suggestions, and contributions. Our editorial team is committed to expanding the chorus of voices needed to safeguard the health, resiliency, and vibrancy of New England’s communities—both human and wild.
Read, Watch, Listen
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How a Thumb-Sized Climate Migrant with a Giant Crab Claw is Disrupting the Northeast’s Great Marsh Ecosystem
David S. Johnson, The Conversation, 2023
Read: Fiddler crabs are on the move. In this changing climate, the range of these charming crustaceans is expanding northward in New England. Although they are beneficial to the salt marshes with which they have co-evolved, they can be detrimental to the ecology of marshes that have not yet adapted to their presence.
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Ocean Damage Nearly Doubles the Cost of Climate Change
Inside Climate News, January 2026
Read: This article from Inside Climate News summarizes a study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, published in Nature Climate Change. The study finds that the “social cost of carbon” doubles when damage to the world’s oceans is considered, including coral reef loss, fisheries disruption, and destruction of coastal infrastructure. This loss amounts to $2 trillion a year.
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Jean Symonds, Lobsterwoman
Maine Sound and Story, 2023
Listen: Jean Symonds (1933–2025) was a lobster fisherman in the small coastal village of Corea, Maine, from 1972 to 2018. In this interview, Symonds describes how she began lobstering with a rowboat and a few traps, eventually running a full operation with her own boat, the Finest Kind. She recounts her experiences as the only woman with her own boat in the harbor and reflects on the support and camaraderie she received from fellow lobstermen.
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Slow Down for Mountain Lions
VTDigger, February 9, 2026
Read: In this opinion piece for VTDigger, Vermont Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife Jason Batchelder, with several colleagues, urges caution as advocates are pushing for reintroduction of cougars in Vermont. While cougars may one day be successful in the Northeast, we would need to prepare for their presence, and address how they would interact with humans, livestock, and other wildlife.
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Shrimp Fishery Moratorium Continues
Susie Arnold, The Working Waterfront, January 22, 2026
Read: Warming waters have taken a toll on cool-water species like northern shrimp, and because of this the winter shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Maine has been closed since 2014. This article gives the update: The fishery will remain closed for another three years. But worse, government cuts are denying researchers access to important data that would allow them to monitor deep sea temperatures, and therefore the possibility of a rebound.
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Innovative Fish Farms Aim to Feed the Planet, Save Jobs and Clean Up an Industry’s Dirty Reputation
Ellen Ruppel Shell, Scientific American, May 2022
Read: Carter Newell, featured in this issue, is also featured in this 2022 article about his innovations in mussel farming. The author joined Newell on his boat, Mumbles, to learn more about his techniques and about the importance of aquaculture in a time when “Thanks to overfishing, parasites and rising ocean temperatures, among other threats, nearly all of Maine’s commercial fisheries are in free fall.”
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Methodological Assessment of the Impact and Dependency of Business on Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions to People
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 2026
Read: IPBES’s Business and Biodiversity Assessment investigates how companies depend on nature and how their activities drive biodiversity loss. It outlines practical methods to measure impacts and risks, and options for business leaders and policymakers to align decisions with biodiversity goals. The assessment supports action aligned with global biodiversity goals, including the 2050 Vision and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Bookshelf
Essential reading from our editors and contributors.
NOTE FROM OUR EDITORS
Climate change, environmental degradation, and the global loss of biodiversity aren’t just one-time crises—they’re daily threats to human well-being and to all life on Earth. Tackling them demands a bold, integrated approach to conservation, bridging forests, farms, fisheries, freshwater and marine systems, communities, and industries across New England.
Each season, we share stories, essays, in-depth reporting, interviews, art, photography, and poetry that showcase the diverse voices of individuals who exemplify the promise of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities vision—offering hope and momentum for positive change.
Our goal is to inspire action for policies and practices that safeguard New England’s land and water for all who make their home here.
If you’re new to From the Ground Up, we encourage you to read “An Integrated Approach to New England Conservation and Community” by Brian Donahue.