Environmental Writer
Sense of Place / Sustainable Practices / Transportation/Travel
by Marina Schauffler · Published June 7, 2019
Traffic congestion at Acadia National Park. Photo courtesy of Friends of Acadia. Overtourism, a new term for a growing global phenomenon, captures how popular destinations can become overrun and degraded, diminishing both visitor...
Climate Change/Energy / Ecological Values / Housing / Sense of Place / Sustainable Practices
by Marina Schauffler · Published May 23, 2019 · Last modified May 31, 2019
On Mother’s Day, I received a surprise gift. In the peach tree just outside our kitchen, an eastern bluebird and Baltimore oriole alighted simultaneously. It was approaching dusk, and the departing sun lit up...
Housing / Pollution/Waste / Sense of Place / Sustainable Practices / Technology
by Marina Schauffler · Published May 9, 2019 · Last modified May 31, 2019
A boundless dome of darkness overhead – lit only by crystalline stars – is one of Maine’s most imperiled natural assets. The Milky Way visible above Acadia National Park cannot be seen with the...
Ecological Values / Education/Family / Sense of Place
by Marina Schauffler · Published September 16, 2018
There’s great comfort to being in a place where – even in solitude – you’re not alone. When no other humans are at my extended family’s rustic camp, I’m still surrounded. The picnic table,...
“The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.”...
Pollution/Waste / Sense of Place / Sustainable Practices / Technology
by Marina Schauffler · Published June 24, 2018
It’s a gorgeous summer morning, fragrant with the scents of lilac and abelia, but my office windows are shut. A swarm of leaf blowers has descended just down the road, generating plumes of dust...
Ecological Values / Sense of Place / Slower Living / Sustainable Practices
by Marina Schauffler · Published June 10, 2018
Shopping didn’t used to require a glossary. But now there’s a profusion of labels like “pasture butter” and “field-grown perennial” that require translation. Consider the latter term: what portion of the plant’s life is...
Ecological Values / Education/Family / Sense of Place / Slower Living
by Marina Schauffler · Published May 14, 2018
With all its fits and starts – unexpected April snows and fierce Nor’easters, spring has finally sprung. For southerly locales, the March equinox may herald the season’s arrival. But here, at least this year,...
