Author: Community Radio WERU FM

The Nature of Phenology 10/27/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Peak of Beaver Activity

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

Late October is the peak of beaver activity. Busily they work to put on the final layers of mud and sticks to their lodges and to fill their larders full of fresh branches and twigs to ensure they are warm, secure, and well fed for the long winter ahead of them. All this work must be done before the rivers, ponds, and streams freeze over and lock the beavers into a winter of either swimming in the water beneath the ice or snoozing in their lodges.

Coastal Conversations 10/26/18

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Maine coastal and ocean issues: Tourism and Community Development Downeast

Key Discussion Points:
A) Are tourism and quality of life for locals mutually exclusive?
B) How do initiatives like Heart of Ellsworth contribute to community vitality?
C) Some areas (such as Bar Harbor) seek to balance too much tourism; most other places in the region seek to grow more tourism.
D) How do partnerships like Downeast Acadia Regional Tourism benefit tourism businesses as well as local communities who strive to balance the two.

Guests:
Crystal Hitchings, Downeast Acadia Regional Tourism and Washington County Council of Governments
Alvion Kimball, Downeast Acadia Regional Tourism and former inn owner
Cara Romano, Heart of Ellsworth
Megan Moshier, Schoodic Institute

RadioActive 10/25/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Migrant Caravan from Central America: Root Causes and Human Rights

Key Discussion Points:

a) As thousands of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala travel in a caravan through Mexico towards the US, we speak with Patricia Montes, executive director od the immigrant rights organization Centro Presente, in East Boston.

b) We look at the root causes, and connections to the United States policies, including poverty, unemployment, gang violence and political repression, including following the US backed coup in Honduras in 2009.

c) We also look at human rights impacts, as the Trump Administration seizes on the caravan to inflame knee jerk, anti-immigrant sentiment during the mid-term election, now saying he will “call up the US military and close our southern border.”

Guest: Patricia Montes, executive director, Centro Presente , www.cpresente.org/