Acadia Partners Blog

Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder is an engaging read that speaks to the future health of children and of our National Parks. The book is about the way that young people connect to nature–or, more accurately, connect to it less and less. As Acadia National Park superintendent Sheridan Steele has noted, continued support for conserved places depends on engaging children with nature and getting them into the parks. Louv’s book shows us that we are failing to create that engagement.

Read more...

Yesterday Denny and I met with Robin Alden and Ted Hoskins of the Penobscot East Resource Center, an organization in Stonington focused on community based science and community leadership. As often happens in such meetings, someone asked me, "What does Acadia Partners do?" I gave the usual quick answer: "We support science in the National Park." 

Ted Hoskins is a careful listener–the kind of person who actually thinks about what you say. So, rather than satisfying Ted, my answer had a kind of multiplying effect, resulting in two more questions, each taking off in a different direction. Pursuing those two questions here in the weblog might be useful for others who want to know more about what we do at Acadia Partners.

Read more...

Responding to a blog posting by Jon Udell, Bill Zoellick takes on the question of why we don’t see more businesses and non-profit organizations using blogs as a way to reach customers and supporters. Bill makes some suggestions about what might be the root of the problem, and guarantees you at least one reader.

Read more...

I live in a one species town (it’s a one horse town too, but that’s a different story). The species is lobster and it is estimated to account for about half of all income earned in Winter Harbor and the surrounding community … but it wasn’t always this way

Read more...

Acadia Partner’s mission, when rendered down to its core, might be as simple as “Protect the Park.” But I often find it difficult to reduce our mission to a single, pithy phrase. In part this is because the scientific, resource management, and socio-economic issues related to our mission are dynamic, diverse and complex […]

Read more...

This is the last of a series of three short writings that talk about Acadia Partners’ mission. The first piece focused on the place where Acadia Partners is located, since Acadia Partners’ mission is rooted in the importance of place. The second installment looked at the question of who we have to thank for preserving this place and keeping it available to the public. This final segment looks at Acadia Partners’ role in continuing the work, started over 100 years ago, to protect this place for future generations.

Read more...

This is the second of a series of three short writings that talk about Acadia Partners’ mission. The first piece focused on the place where Acadia Partners is located, since Acadia Partners’ mission is rooted in the importance of place. This second installment looks at the question of who we have to thank for preserving this place and keeping it available to the public.

Read more...

This is the first of a series of three short writings that talk about Acadia Partners’ mission. This first piece focuses on the place where Acadia Partners is located, since Acadia Partners’ mission is rooted in the importance of place.

Read more...

Yesterday I told the story behind the decision that Gouldsboro needs to make about its two bronze bells. Now let’s have a look at how the town is making the decision. The approach grows out of traditions here in Maine. It touches on the values underlying the mission at Acadia Partners.

Read more...

There is new evidence that the currents in the North Atlantic are changing and slowing down, according to research published in Nature last week. The effects of this change on Europe could be dramatic. It also has me wondering about how these changes might affect the Labrador current off the Coast of Maine.

Read more...