Talk of the Towns – Page 9 – WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives

Talk of the Towns 11/22/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Scallops—Trying to Sustain the Fishery

Key Discussion Points:
a) Share a profile of scallops as much sought after public fisheries resource… their biology, habitat requirements, two methods of catching (dragging and diving), and anything else that distinguishes scallops when compared to other fish, and a sense of the overall market and the value of the scallop fishery in Maine
b) On the broadest scale, how do we “manage” marine fish, including scallops, trying to make sure that we have these public resources into the future?
c) What is different in how we manage lobster fishing, including those conservation measures that fishermen supported long ago and are part of current management?
d) Despite our best attempts to manage fisheries along these lines, what is our track record, including with ground fish, sea urchins, lobster and scallops?
e) How have we managed the scallop fishery in the past, bringing us forward to last year? Include role of Department of Marine Resources, and Scallop Advisory Council?
f) What triggered the desire by the Department of Marine Resources to try new methods of managing the scallop fishery, and how did you work with them to gain input from fishermen?
g) What is new and different about how Maine is managing scallops this coming season, beginning December 2nd? What are results are you hoping for?
h) Dana Morse describes briefly the pilot efforts to grow scallops in cages, as a kind of aquaculture? What are the challenges to be overcome, what would be some of the potential benefits to scallop aquaculture and who might benefit?
i) Hopes for managing the scallop fishery for the long haul

Guests:
A) Dr. Carla Guenther, Penobscot East Resource Center
B) Trisha DeGraff, Resource Management Coordinator, Department of Marine Resources
C) Andy Mays, Scallop Diver, Southwest Harbor,
D) Dr. Erin F. Owen, Husson University
E) Dana Morse, University of Maine Sea Grant

Talk of the Towns 11/8/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Strengthening Rural Transportation Resources

Key Discussion Points
1. Outline of the purpose of November 6 Transportation Summit in Machias and how it was organized to learn more, share successes and identify opportunities for collaboration.
2. An overview of the elements of our current community transportation system, both that we have effective but limited coordination of volunteer drivers, we have a couple of strands of public transportation, including services for medical transport reimbursed by Medicaid, and a fair number of gaps…
3. What is the role of Friends in Action, including its current geographical limits and what forms of support exist for transportation elsewhere
4. What are the particular needs of people getting cancer treatment and the role that Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center and others play
5. What insights were gleaned at the summit… what did you learn… what inspired you?
6. What are the opportunities to strengthen our community transportation system that were identified at the summit for further exploration
7. Beyond the summit, what are your next steps and share resources/contact information

Guests:
a. Elsie Flemings, Healthy Acadia
b. Michael Reisman, Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center
c. Jo Cooper, Friends in Action
d. Jim Fisher, Hancock County Planning Commission

Talk of the Towns 10/25/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Slow Money Maine: Connecting Farmers & Food Entrepreneurs to Financing

Key Discussion Points:
A) a) Describe Slow Money Maine, and its connection to the Slow Money “movement” fostered by Woody Tasch (author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money), and to the broader Slow Foods movement
B) How did Slow Money Maine get started and what are some of the highlights of your story?
C) Your work is guided by some basic principles… some framing questions… describe these and how they are used in setting the direction of the organization and making decisions
D) What is the role of the coordinator, Bonnie Rukin and what is the role of the steering committee?
E) Who are your partners and what are the various ways that partners participate? (MOFGA, Crown of Maine, CEI, Maine Farmland Trust, others?)
F) How does Slow Money Maine connect local entrepreneurs and those
“investors” willing to invest via the principles of slow money?
G) Profiles of MOOMilk (Bill) and Cobscook Bay Resource Center (Will)
•Background, mission, how you are organized and governed, connection with Slow Money Maine, how the investments are helping, and your overall relationship?
•What are the challenges of financing projects like yours, and has Slow Money Maine helped re-set the assumptions about financing for other investors to learn from?
•Imagine that we visit your operations in 3-5 years time… what would you hope to show us?
•What have you learned as a result of your partnership with Slow Money Maine?

Guests:
a) Eleanor Kinney, steering committee member, Slow Money Maine
b) Bill Eldridge, MOO Milk
c) Will Hopkins, Cobscook Fisheries Resource Center, Eastport
d) Harold Clossey, Sunrise County Economic Council, Machias

Talk of the Towns 9/27/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Schoodic Community Fund – Investments in the Future

Key Discussion Points:
a) Describe the assets and the challenges of the Schoodic Peninsula… (history, economy, natural resources, people, organizations, etc)
b)Other examples of community members working to solve problems, take advantage of opportunities?
c)What is the Schoodic Community Fund? What gave rise to the Schoodic Community Fund? What inspired you, who helped translate the underlying concept into reality?
d)Review your most recent round of grants and rationale for those investments How do the mechanics of the fund work… how do you raise money, application process, criteria for funding decisions?
Examples of success/progress from past grants?
What were the early reactions to creation of the fund, how have they changed?
What have you learned so far?
e)Phone interview with Micheal Eastman
Describe the history of the Peninsula School, present opportunities and challenges
What difference has the Schoodic Community Fund made in the life of students and faculty at the Peninsula School?
f)Phone interview with Hope Buckner
What is the focus of the Winter Harbor Library and its programs? How has the Schoodic Community Fund benefitted the library? Why do you donate to the Schoodic Community Fund?
g) Advice for other communities interested in the concept; contact info for Schoodic Community Fund

Guests:
A) Roger Bowen, Chair, Schoodic Community Fund
B)Dick Gilchrist, Vice Chair, Schoodic Community Fund
C)Hope Buckner, board member Winter Harbor Library
D)Micheal Eastman, Principal, Peninsula School

Talk of the Towns 9/13/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Saving Special Community Spaces

Key Discussion Points:
a) What motivates people to save special places (land, buildings, scenic views, trails) in their communities?
b)What benefits stem from “place saving” efforts and campaigns, including the obvious benefit from saving the “place”?
c)All such place saving efforts have differences, but what are the common elements to a successful effort?
d)Who can help with these sorts of efforts, and what kinds of criteria do they ‘apply’? What motivates people to get involved with “place saving”?
e) Are there any trends you see, as communities identify and act to protect or save special places? What are the challenges, and what gives you hope?

Guests:
A)Jim Dow, Executive Director, Blue Hill Heritage Trust
B)Tom Boutureira, Downeast Coastal Conservancy
C)Dylan Howard, Caterpillar Hill Initiative
D)Mary Laury, Schoodic Arts for All

Talk of the Towns 8/23/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Maine as Muse: Inspiration for Science Writers

Key Discussion Points:
a) In response to questions from Ron, each guest shares some background about their work and their writing… then each shares a published piece (saving the second piece to close to the end of the show) and shares “lightly”, any context and source of inspiration for this piece…
b) After this first go-round, we have a broader conversation about Maine as a source of inspiration for you and other writers (feel free here, to turn listeners on to those you admire)…
c) Does Maine have a distinct “sense of place” in terms of science and how would you describe its essence… (e.g. coastal or Gulf of Maine bio-regions , edge between northern clime/ecology/species and what lies to our south, edge between fresh and salt water ecology…) Is Maine a good place to be a science writer (aside from serving as source of inspiration)?
d)Move towards conclusion with the second round of readings, and depending on time available, share any public events, publications you will be involved in later in late summer/ fall.
e) What other science writers inspire you and why?
f) Where do you see science “heading” in Maine… trends, potential breakthroughs?

Guests:
A) Catherine Schmitt, Science writer, UM Sea Grant, author of The Coastal Companion, published by Tilbury House, 2008
B) Tom Groening, editor, Working Waterfront News, Island Institute, formerly with the Republican Journal and Bangor Daily News
C) Murray Carpenter, Freelance Journalist, NPR, New York Times Author of forthcoming book, Caffeinated, How our daily habit helps, hurts and hooks us, Hudson Street Press, due out in March of 2014

Talk of the Towns 8/9/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Maine as Muse for historians

Key Discussion Points:
a) Each guest provides brief background on themselves and what led to their interest in writing about Maine, using historical lenses…
b)Each guest offers a short reading from their own published work, a page or a passage that you are proud of, that invites readers to share your passion for Maine and history
c)What, for you, is so compelling about Maine’s story? How is Maine your muse as a historian?
d)What is your research like… how do you go about it?
e)A recent historical biographer spoke of sources of primary historical data, among them, the public record (official documents), newspaper accounts, and personal archives (letters, diaries, journals) … how have you used these kinds of sources… what surprises have you uncovered?
f)What successful techniques have you found to engage readers in the lives and events of the past? Where are the lines between history and historical fiction… are the lives of real people as compelling as fictional characters?
g)If listeners are interested in Maine history, who else should they be reading… who are your “go to” historians where Maine is concerned?
h)All history is not “formal”… we see interest on the part of local historical groups and others to collect “oral histories” … what do you see in this trend?
i)What other trends do you see ahead (digital archives, family history/geneology…?)

Guests:
A) Tim Garrity, Executive Director, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
B) Nancy Alexander, Isleboro, UM doctoral thesis “’Keeping House’”: the Hidden Economy of Maine Coastal Women 1850-1900”.

Talk of the Towns 7/26/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Conversation with Roxana Robinson about her new novel Sparta, telling the story of a young Iraq War marine veteran and his “homecoming”
Key Discussion Points (list at least 3):
a) Your new novel reflects on both the sending forth and the homecoming we provide for our young soldiers, invoking parallels to the historical Sparta… what inspired you to take up this story?
b) Sparta is told through the experience of Conrad Farrell, and his family—his mother, Lydia, Marshall, his father, his younger siblings, Jenny and Oliver… introduce us to this middle class, white, college-educated family, and the community where they live.
c)When Conrad is a senior in college, he comes home one weekend in the Spring of 2001 and announces he is joining the Marines… his mother, who grew up during the Vietnam War, has assumed that our national memory would prevent us from future entanglements…
d)Conrad serves two tours of duty in Iraq, as an officer. He unit is deployed in Ramadi and Haditha. His training serves him well. He looks out for his men… he writes to the parents of those who are killed… one of his men, Anderson, saves his life… in April 2004, while traveling the east west road in Ramadi, an IED explodes under their HUMVEE… Conrad cradles Olivera in his arms but can’t save him. As members of a Quick Reaction Force, he and his men search a roadside house and encounter a family killed by another Marine patrol, in retaliation for an exploded IED on the passing road.
What in his training allows him to cope, relatively well, as a Marine, and as an officer?
e)Conrad reflects on the importance of mail
f)He is discharged, and lives in a new, bifurcated world: Conrad is living on two planes, the world of blood and sand, in Iraq, and the green normalcy of his home… it proves very difficult to keep these from spinning out of control… how did these various worlds and planes reveal themselves in the interviews you did with Marines and others?
g)Through Conrad’s experiences and thoughts, we discover some of what all soldiers encounter when they return home. As you researched the book, what did you discover about how unprepared soldiers are for their homecoming and how unprepared we are to welcome them home…
h)What other parallels struck you between historic Sparta and our own world, both the culture Marines and the culture that sends them in to battle?
i)What happens to our national memory about going to war? The echos of our national memory about World War II seem to be different than for Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan… what might account for these differences?
j)Sparta tracks the arc of the war in Iraq… what did you learn ( as historian) about our execution of that war that wasn’t obvious from encountering it in nightly headlines?
k) Sparta opens with an epigraph from Simone Weil… would you describe how you came across that line, why it resonates, …The man who does not wear the armour of the lie cannot
experience force without being touched by it to the very soul.

Guest: Roxana Robinson, author of Sparta, published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2013 ISBN 978-0-374-26770-4