Learn about our Agroforestry Research and Demonstration Site

We’re happy to share news about the UMaine Agroecology Lab’s Agroforestry Research and Demonstration Site. Supported by the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, the project is led by Dr. Rachel Schattman and graduate student Alaina Ring.

Map of UMaine’s Agroecology Lab’s Agroforestry Research and Demonstration Site

The 1.2 acre site, located at the Wyman's Wild Blueberry Research and Innovation Center, demonstrates an alley cropping agroforestry system. The site includes three rows of bush cherries (Prunus fruticosa x cerasus), two rows of elderberries (Sambucus nigra + ssp canadensis), and two rows of hybrid hazelnuts (Corylus avellana x comuta x americana) alternating with 24’ alleys that will be used for annual crops. The site will provide a space for research, education, and a grower-oriented workshop series.

According to the USDA, agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits. It contributes to climate change mitigation in three ways: (1) Sequestering carbon in biomass and soils, (2) improving soil health, and (3) increasing resilience to extreme weather events such as drought or flooding.

According to Ring, there are not many demonstration areas for agroforestry in the Northeast. This new site will be especially useful for research and education, due to its location on a University of Maine Agriculture and Forestry Experiments Station (MAFES) research farm. The project is a collaboration between the UMaine Agroecology Lab, the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, and the USDA National Agroforestry Center (NAC). 

“Having more resources where people can go and actually see what agroforestry looks like is really important if we want to scale up agroforestry and make it more accessible to growers. We have the wiggle room to make mistakes, try things, and create budgets and economic analyses, which are all important resources to help farmers adopt these practices.”

— Alaina Ring

The team recently finished planting on the site. Educational signs at the site will be useful tools for all visitors to learn about these practices and how to implement them on their own.

Agricultural water management workshop to be held in Orono, Maine, April 29th 2024

The University of Maine Agroecology Lab, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service will co-host a workshop on agricultural water management. The full-day workshop will be held on April 29th, 2024 at the Wells Center in Orono, Maine.

AGENDA

8:30 am Coffee, refreshments

9:00 am Welcome

9:15 am Water management plans in a changing climate (Sean Birkel, Maine State Climate Office)

10:00 am NRCS Water management planning (Adam Cantrell, USDA NRCS)

11:00 am Source development including wells and ponds (Ryan Gordon, Maine USGS, Candi Gilpatrick, USDA NRCS)

12:15 pm Calculating crop water needs (Payton Bledsoe, University of Maine)

12:30 pm Lunch (provided for in-person registrants)

1:30 pm Irrigation delivery options, pros, cons, lessons learned (Jake Pierson, Darin Hammond)

2:15 pm Dealing with drainage (Tony Jenkins & Greg Granger, USDA NRCS)

3:00 pm Funding for implementation: The Farmer Drought Relief Program (Tom Gordon, DACF)

3:45 pm Adjourn

Registration is $35 for in person attendance (lunch, coffee, and snacks are provided). Registration is free for on-line attendance.

New article: Effects of irrigation scheduling approaches on soil moisture and vegetable production in the Northeastern U.S.A.

A multi-year collaboration between the University of Maine Agroecology Lab and University of Vermont Extension has led to a new publication titled “Effects of irrigation scheduling approaches on soil moisture and vegetable production in the Northeastern U.S.A.”, published in Agricultural Water Managment. The research reported upon in this manuscript includes a survey, several focus groups, and three years of field trials in two states. The goal of the research was to better understand when and how diversified vegetable producers in the Northeast can use different soil-water assessment approaches to “dial in” irrigation practices.

In brief, we compared several standard practices that farmers often use to schedule irrigation in diversified vegetable production: feeling the soil, using soil-water assessment technologies (granular matrix sensors and associated software), and timers. First we asked farmers about their preferred approaches, and what questions they had regarding irrigation scheduling technology. We then compared these approaches to plots that received no irrigation (though did receive ambient rainfall). Specifically, we measured yield, crop quality, nitrate concentrations in subsurface leachate, and total water use.

Our primary findings are that soil moisture sensors, which have been cited as the gold standard in water use efficiency for several decades, did not lead to better crop outcomes. However, using these sensors led to consistently desirable soil-water conditions, compared to the variability observed in the other treatments. The sensors would likely reduce environmental degradation due to nitrate leaching in agricultural systems. Conservation programs that support farmer use of soil-water monitoring could expand use of this approach to improve environmental outcomes.

Farmers indicated that the cost of cloud-based monitoring systems were a barrier to adopting tensiometer and/or granular matrix sensors, thought hand-held readers were considered a reasonable alternative. Farmers would be willing to subscribe to cloud-based systems if doing so resulted in yield increases. For this reason, these systems may remain useful for farmers of larger-scales, which small scale operations may have difficulty justifying the expense. Supplemental funding for soil-water monitoring systems through conservation grants would likely lead to wider adoption.

This research was supported through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program under Subaward no. LNE19-391R, as well as through Hatch Project no. ME0- 1022424 through the Maine Agricultural & Forest Experiment Station. We are grateful for additional support from the USDA Northeast Climate Hub.

The full manuscript is open-access. From this project, our group also published two fact sheets on soil-water monitoring and different systems and prices.

Graphical abstract created with BioRender.com

New article: Commoning climate change: Peer-to-peer social affinity in a multi-level commons

Sara Delaney, PhD student in the University of Maine agroecology lab, and co-authors have published a new manuscript entitled Commoning climate change: Peer-to-peer social affinity in a muti-level commons in Spire, the Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability.

In their paper, Delaney et al. propose that “the structure of climate governance is centered around effective social relationships.” They examine social dynamics related to climate governance on multiple levels, including individual, state, and multinational, and use compelling case studies to illustrate how these dynamics play out in each context. Peer-to-peer social affinity in a central concept in their analysis, which they define as “interactions based on mutual interest between equal-level actors; individual to individual, group to group, state to state, and nation to nation.”

Read the full article at https://umaine.edu/spire/2023/04/21/delaney-jackson-olsen-torres/

Figure 1 published in Delaney et al. (2023). Representation of a multi-level global commons. Global climate goals and policies are set collaboratively by stakeholders from many collective action groups. Nations follow global initiatives and work to set policies that give direction to their state and local organizations.  Many small collective action organizations made up of individuals manage local CPRs and take action to reduce GHG emissions. Organizations of similar size, power, and ethos collaborate creating accountability and peer-to-peer social affinity. Teal= global level; Light Blue= National/multinational level; Gray=regional/local level; People=individual level. Arrows represent social collaborations within the same levels of governance. Figure 1 is adapted from Beitl (2019).

UMaine researcher serves as expert witness at Congressional hearing on supporting farmers adapting for the future

Rachel Schattman’s testimony about how farmers can mitigate and plan for climate change comes just days after a federal report showed more than half of Maine is currently experiencing moderate drought conditions that may impact this year’s harvest of key crops like wild blueberries.

Washington, D.C. — A University of Maine researcher told a Congressional committee yesterday about successful efforts led by the state’s flagship to understand and support farmers to adopt sustainable practices that will make their small businesses and our nation’s food supply more resilient for the future. 

Rachel E. Schattman, an assistant professor of sustainable agriculture in the School of Food and Agriculture at UMaine, testified July 19 as an expert witness at a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Environment examining the role of farmers and ranchers in solving climate change and increasing food production.  

A former commercial farmer herself, Schattman conducts interdisciplinary research and provides technical assistance to help farms be more resilient in a changing climate while protecting natural resources.

She has studied farmers in the Northeast and Midwest to better understand what support they need to adopt environmentally friendly practices that protect natural resources and their bottom line. Informed by that research, last year she helped pilot a program with regional partners, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), that paired vegetable and small fruit growers and agricultural advisors to learn climate science and develop personalized farm adaptation plans and outreach materials to share with their peers.

 “Though there are many uncertainties associated with what the future holds, because of research that has already been conducted, we know enough right now to support farmers as they adapt to a changing climate, build resilience into their farms and anchor thriving U.S. agricultural industries that can provide essential rural jobs and feed our population and the world,” Schattman said in her prepared testimony. 

She urged Congress to support investment in sustainable agriculture and climate research and region-specific outreach like that happening at UMaine, and to consider incentivizing the transition to proven practices that enhance soil and water quality like nutrient management and rotating cover and cash crops to mitigate farmers’ risk.

“More and more often, farmers are taking note of drought, heat and shifts in seasonal temperatures, and all of these changes are leading these communities to realize that they cannot continue to farm in the same way as their predecessors,” Schattman explained, just days after a federal report showed more than half of Maine is currently experiencing moderate drought conditions.

She highlighted recent investment by Wyman’s, the largest retailer of wild blueberries in the United States, to establish the first-of-its-kind wild blueberry research and innovation center at UMaine to investigate the impact of increasing temperatures and changing precipitation on small fruit crop performance and health.

Schattman’s written testimony is available here and the full hearing can be viewed here. 

This is the second time in as many months that experts from Maine’s R1 research university have been invited to inform the work of Congress as expert hearing witnesses. In May, the university’s liaison to the forest products industry, Shane O’Neill, testified about workforce development and innovation in that sector at the invitation of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee’s Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee. 

“The University of Maine is a world-class, R1 research university where faculty and students work together to create new knowledge and innovations to solve our state’s and the world’s most pressing problems — including adapting to and mitigating climate change,” said President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, who is also vice chancellor for research and innovation for the University of Maine System. 

“UMaine researchers are called upon by policymakers from the State House to the U.S. Capitol and by communities and companies in between, and that is a testament to their terrific work and decades of public and private partnership and investment. We are proud that our university is such a vital public asset, and look forward to only increasing our impact on Maine and beyond in the years to come.”

Contact: Margaret Nagle, nagle@maine.edu

National Food Access and COVID Research Team publishes two Maine research briefs

University of Maine researchers, Rachel Schattman and Kate Yerxa, have released initial findings from research conducted as part of the National Food Access and COVID Research Team (NFACT). NFACT is a national collaboration of researchers committed to rigorous, comparative, and timely food access research during the time of COVID-19. We do this through collaborative, open access research that prioritizes communication to key decision-makers while building our scientific understanding of food system behaviors and policies.

Through surveying Maine residents in the months after COVID-19 emerged in Maine (March 2020), Schattman and Yerxa found that COVID-19 has increased the incidence of food insecurity for survey respondents of all ages, but that younger respondents (ages 18-24) were more likely than older adults to skip meals, eat less, or go hungry. Meanwhile, adults ages 35-54 were more likely to report traveling to food pantries or federal food assistance program offices to deal with food insecurity. Respondents reported dietary changes following the onset of COVID-19, including a reduction in consumption of red and processed meats.

These findings and more have been summarized in two research briefs, which are now available:

• Shopping, Eating, and Dietary Behaviors of Maine Adults as a Result of COVID-19

• Food Insecurity and Use of Food Assistance Programs and Food Pantries of Maine Adults as a Result of COVID-19

The Maine NFACT survey was repeated in spring 2021, and will be reissued in coming months. This will allow Schattman, Yerxa, and their collaborators to examine changes in food insecurity throughout the pandemic.

Funding for this project was provided by the University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture, the George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, the Maine Food and Agriculture Center Integrated Research Extension Program, and the University of Vermont Gund Institute for the Environment.

To learn more visit https://www.nfactresearch.org/

Delaney is awarded NE-SARE graduate student grant for her research in climate-related social network learning

Sara Delaney, Ph.D. student in the University of Maine Agroecology Lab

Sara Delaney, incoming PhD student in the University of Maine Agroecology Lab, was recently awarded a NE-SARE Graduate Student Grant. Her project is titled How does climate adaptation knowledge spread in advisor-farmer networks? Tracking the long-term impacts of the Northeast Climate Adaptation Fellowship. The core research Delaney will explore is how peer-to-peer programming influences agricultural growers and advisors over time. 

It is widely accepted that farmers learn well from other farmers. Because of this, farmer-focused professional development training often leverages peer-to-peer learning. The short- and medium-term effects of this mode of education, including changes in knowledge and intention to act, are typically documented through short-term program evaluation. However, efforts to document long-term effects, such as behavior change and collaborative innovation, are more sparse. The purpose of Delaney’s project is to understand how peer-to-peer programming and Communities of Practice (CoP) influence growers and agricultural advisors over time. 

To answer her research questions, Delaney will use the Climate Adaptation Fellowship (CAF) as a study group. The CAF program is a one-year pilot program composed of 37 farmers and agricultural advisors from across the northeastern United States. One of the central objectives of the program is to enhance participant confidence and skill with climate adaptation, mitigation, and communication. 

The program started with a remote workshop in January 2021, which included presentations, discussions and interactive activities. Next, “Fellows'' were charged with creating individualized work plans, which include on-farm risk assessments, adaptation budgets, and outreach to other farmers and/or agricultural advisors. The CAF program will conclude with a second workshop in January of 2022, where the emphasis will be on the Fellows sharing their experiences and what they’ve learned with each other. 

Delaney will follow Fellows for two years post-program, tracking: (a) how they develop climate adaptation knowledge, confidence, and outreach skills; (b) outcomes of CAF-inspired practices trialed on farms, and (c) the spread of concepts through farmer-advisor networks using social network analysis (SNA). She will conduct farm visits and in-depth interviews, and two surveys, generating rich and long(er)-term data that will enable her to see if peer-to-peer learning leads to sustainable practice adoption. Additionally, she will explore how climate knowledge and innovation generated through CAF ‘ripples-out’ over time. 

Delaney’s findings will allow agricultural outreach and service providers to better understand the long-term effects of their programing, specifically whether or not the peer-to-peer modality is as powerful as assumed. Advisors on the project include Dr. Rachel E. Schattman (University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture), Erin Lane (USDA Northeast Climate Hub), and Dr. Marjorie Kaplan (Rutgers Climate Institute).

Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NE-SARE) offers grants and education to farmers, educators, service providers, researchers and others to address key issues affecting the sustainability of agriculture throughout the Northeast region. Delaney’s project is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number GNE21-253. The Climate Adaptation Fellowship is also supported by SARE ‘s Professional Development Program through subaward number ENE20-164-34268, with additional support provided by the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, the Rutgers Climate Institute, and USDA NIFA through the Maine Agricultural and Forestry Research Station (MAFES), Hatch project #1022424.

Maine drought and agriculture report released

Widespread drought in 2020 affected agriculture across the state of Maine. In response, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) activated permissions for emergency haying and grazing of acres normally set aside through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In September, FSA additionally designated Aroostook County (home to Maine’s potato industry) as a primary national disaster area, opening the door for producers in Aroostook, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, and Washington Counties who were negatively impacted by the drought to access federal emergency loans. 

This week, the University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture, in cooperation with University of Maine Extensions and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), released a report documenting the effects of the 2020 drought on Maine agriculture. This report documents the experiences of agricultural producers from a variety of sectors, specifically their experiences with drought and its effects in 2020 and the five years prior.

Key findings

1. The majority of survey respondents reported that, in most years, they typically have enough water to meet their farm’s needs. However, only one-third reported that this was true in 2020. In fact, over half reported that they did not have sufficient water to meet their farms’ needs during the 2020 drought.

2. All producer groups who responded to this survey reported higher than normal losses in 2020. Lowbush blueberry producers were hardest hit, both in terms of percentage of producers reporting losses, and the percentage of crop yield lost.

3. Following the 2020 drought, a notable proportion of respondents indicated an interest in expanding their water use for various purposes, including for irrigation, milk processing, and livestock watering. Other drought adaptation approaches reported by farmers include mulching, cover cropping, changing the timing of key management activities, using high tunnels, greenhouses, or other covered structures, and changing crop or variety types in response to drier conditions. 

4. There are many respondents who use one water source for both household and farm purposes. Reduced water supply during times of drought not only affects farm operations, but also basic household functions.

5. To improve water access, respondents are interested in investing in soil health, irrigation, building additional ponds, expanding electrical access for pumps, and drilling additional wells. There is a need for additional information, technical assistance, and financial assistance for practices such as water quality assessments, soil moisture monitoring, navigating surface and groundwater regulations, measuring the volume of water needed for agricultural purposes, and ensuring sufficient water access to meet production needs. There is an opportunity to connect more farmers with Extension, other services providers, and USDA-NRCS and FSA programs to further develop on-farm practices that support soil health and efficient water use on farms, and make financial support available to farmers when needed (i.e., disaster assistance, crop insurance).

6. Changing weather patterns associated with climate change are having negative effects on Maine agriculture. Respondents report concern about reduced crop quality, poor crop and cover crop germination, and increased labor needs associated with irrigation. Respondents also noted that extreme weather events make it more difficult to access their fields, increases erosion and soil loss, and have negative effects on crew health and wellbeing. An overwhelming majority of respondents reported concern about climate change in general and changing weather patterns. 

Find the full report here.

Haley Jean awarded University of Maine's Boucher Scholarship

Haley Jean, second year MS student in the Agroecology Lab, was recently recognized for excellence in academic and research performance. Jean was awarded the 2021-2022 University of Maine Samuel L. Boucher Horticultural Education Fund for her work in the School of Food and Agriculture.

As part of her Master’s research, Jean is looking at the effects of different irrigation approaches on yield, crop quality, and leachate in diversified vegetable systems. She is also a key team member in two additional projects. First, Jean is working with collaborators in the U.S. Geological Survey and Environmental Protection Agency to test a novel shallow well design for irrigation use. Second, Jean is working with faculty in the School of Food and Agriculture, Biology and Ecology, and Extension to construct and test a small-scale precipitation simulator.

In all of her efforts, Jean looks at how water use can be optimized in Northeast agriculture. Her work is of increasing importance as climate change poses increasing challenges for agriculture, in the Northeast and around the world.

Food insecurity before and since COVID-19

The University of Maine has partnered with the National Food Access and COVID Research Team (NFACT) to document the effects of COVID-19 on food insecurity in Maine and across the United States. Project collaborators include Dr. Rachel Schattman (lead of the UMaine Agroecology Lab) and Kate Yerxa (Associate Extension Professor and EFNEP Coordinator with UMaine Extension).

The NFACT coalition has conducted common surveys across 18-study sites in more than 15-states and nationally. Today, the coalition is releasing the first collective policy brief, summarizing data from more than 26,000 respondents, across 22 separate surveys in these sites over the past year.  Despite different geographic and social contexts, the coalition finds very similar results in nearly all sites. These findings included higher prevalence of food insecurity since COVID-19, and higher prevalence of food insecurity than the general population for BIPOC respondents, households with children, and those experiencing a job disruption (furlough, job loss, or reduced hours). The new brief is now available here.

In coming months, Schattman and Yerxa will release a series of research briefs detailing the results of the Maine NFACT study. Initial results show that food insecurity in Maine has increased since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, 25.2% of survey respondents report experiencing food insecurity before the pandemic began, and 34.1% reported experiencing food insecurity since. Among BIPOC Maine residents, this trend was even more concerning: 46.2% of BIPOC respondents reported food insecurity before and 56.4% reported food insecurity since the pandemic started. Households with children under the age of 18 years also reported food insecurity at higher rates than the general population: 44.3% of respondents with children in the household reported food insecurity before and 52.6% since the beginning of COVID-19. Forty-five percent of respondents who reported job disruptions also reported being food insecure in 2020, with those who experienced job lost being most affected.

Schattman and Yerxa are partnering with colleagues at the University of Vermont to repeat the NFACT survey in both Maine and Vermont, allowing the team to track the effects of COVID-19 on food insecurity over time. This work is being supported by an award from the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for the Environment Catalyst Program, and is led by Dr. Meredith Niles. Collaborators include Drs. Jennifer Laurent, Emily Belarmino, Farryl Bertmann, Scott Merrill, Eric Clark, and Ph.D. student Sam Bliss.

2020 Outstanding Student Contribution to Sustainability Research awarded to Sara Kelemen

Sara Kelemen has been awarded the “2020 Outstanding Student Contribution to Sustainability Research” by the George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. In 2020, Sara worked with the Mitchell Center to advise the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future on equity outcomes of the Maine Climate Action Plan. With her collaborators, Ms. Kelemen reviewed efforts undertaken in other states and municipalities, and applied these lessons to recommendations submitted to the Maine Climate Council. Her work detailed how vulnerable communities bear a disproportionate burden because of climate change, and how State programs should be adjusted to be more inclusive. Sara and her collaborators presented the final report to multiple audiences, including the Maine Climate Council, and as part of the fall Mitchell Center Sustainability Solutions series.

Additionally, Sara is conducting research on two innovative sustainability topics: (1) corporate education programs’ influence on regenerative agriculture practices in the U.S. Southern Plains, and (2) novel payment for ecosystem service marketplaces change agricultural/rangeland practices across the United States. Through these projects, she has demonstrated her considerable capacity to work across stakeholder groups in pursuit of sustainability solutions.

Photo by A. Kuykendall for the Mitchell Center

USDA awards $149,000 to climate change adaptation fellowship program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NE-SARE) program has awarded $149,000 to the University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture. The award will support a yearlong fellowship program for agricultural advisers and farmers working in vegetable and small fruit industries to adapt to challenges related to climate change. 

The vegetable and small fruit growers module is one of four modules that make up the Climate Adaptation Fellowship (CAF) program, which also includes modules geared toward dairy producers, tree fruit producers and foresters. 

The project is led by Rachel Schattman, an assistant professor of sustainable agriculture and an associate with the Climate Change Institute at UMaine. Co-principal investigators on the award are Erin Lane of the USDA Northeast Climate Hub and Marjorie Kaplan of the Rutgers University Climate Institute.

Climate change will lead to many challenges for vegetable and small fruit growers in the northeastern United States in the near future, including extreme rainfall, floods, droughts, and increasing pest problems. 

For farmers to minimize risk to themselves and their businesses, adaptive management measures are necessary. Farmers must improve their knowledge of climate change adaptation practices relevant to their specific geographic settings and business models. These practices include growing crops better suited to new conditions, using different insurance, and exploring new business ownership structures and revenue sources, such as agrotourism or consulting.

“Farmers are already seeing the effects of climate change,” says Schattman. “In coming decades, it will become increasingly important that both commercial growers and those that advise them are equipped to assess and adapt to climate-related risks. Successful adaptation will be different for every farm, and this program will help participants take an individualized approach.”

Participants in the CAF program will enhance their knowledge of climate change, experiment with or evaluate adaptation management practices, and encourage other farmers to explore farm-specific climate change adaptation measures through a peer-to-peer curriculum. 

Thirty fellows will be selected to work in pairs to develop 15 individual, personalized farm adaptation plans, as well as outreach projects such as newsletters, blog posts, fact sheets, or presentations. Some fellows also will integrate information about climate change adaptation into new or ongoing programming. 

UMaine is collaborating with the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, Rutgers University, the University of Vermont, and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) on the program. The curriculum, completed in 2019, is the result of a multiyear collaboration between multiple land grant universities, USDA agencies, nonprofit organizations and land managers. This work is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number #ENE20-164-34268.

To apply to the Climate Adaptation Fellowship program or to find out more, visit the CAF website. 

This press release was written by Cleo Barker, cleo.barker@maine.edu

UPDATE: A webinar explaining the CAF application process has now been posted, as has a living FAQ page. FAQs will continue to be updated until the application due date (October 1, 2020).

Sara Kelemen works with the UMaine Mitchell Center to assess equity of Maine’s climate strategies

Sustainability experts from the University of Maine will advise a governor’s council on how efforts to combat climate change could support historically underrepresented populations in the state.

The Maine Climate Council tapped the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions to assist with its efforts to improve equity outcomes of the state Climate Action Plan. 

The center will provide expertise to the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future to help determine how the Climate Council’s strategies for reducing carbon emissions and adapting to climate change can benefit under served residents and communities. 

The Mitchell Center’s work complements the Climate Council’s establishment of a new equity advisory group, which will offer ongoing guidance and input on the creation of the four-year Climate Action Plan. 

Climate change affects the various populations in Maine in different and unequal ways, says Linda Silka, a Mitchell Center senior fellow. To help all Mainers, officials can focus on reducing the disproportionate effects of climate change on lower-income and rural populations, older adults, tribal communities, persons of color and other underrepresented groups.  

“Our responsibility is to look at equity issues in a clear, systematic and well-informed way,” Silka says. “It’s a wonderful way to say, ‘We’re not the kind of state that’s good for some people. We want it to be good for everyone.’”

Silka will join David Hart, director of the Mitchell Center; Sara Kelemen, a graduate student of plant, soil, and environmental science; and other partners to evaluate climate action proposals from the Climate Council’s working groups for their ability to achieve equity and foster diversity and inclusion. They also will recommend ways to improve how any particular strategy can support the various underserved populations in Maine. 

As state officials solicit citizen feedback on climate action strategies, the Mitchell Center also will advise them on how to connect with underrepresented communities across the state, including groups that may be unaware of the Climate Council’s work, residents without internet access and others. 

“We want the process to be as inclusive as possible,” Hart says. “But that’s not easy — especially during a pandemic — so we’ll be looking for creative ways to ensure that the Climate Council’s work benefits from diverse voices and expertise.” 

In late August, the Mitchell Center will provide a report summarizing its findings and recommendations to the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.

“Addressing the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis on Maine people is a priority of the Maine Climate Council,” says Hannah Pingree, co-chair of the Climate Council and director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. “We are excited to work with the Mitchell Center to ensure historically underrepresented populations have a voice in determining Maine’s climate future.”

The center’s ability to bring together diverse expertise from inside and outside of UMaine, dedication to public service, and long-standing partnerships with historically underserved populations suit it for the task of advancing the equity goals of the Climate Action Plan, says Hart. 

“Developing solutions to climate change problems will take many different kinds of knowledge and know-how,” Hart says. “We have to find ways to work together when we’re trying to address a challenge that has so many moving parts.” 

UMaine professor Ivan Fernandez serves on the Maine Climate Council, and is co-chair of the Science and Technical Subcommittee. Numerous other experts from UMaine and University of Maine at Machias serve on the Science and Technical Subcommittee, as well as working groups.

Press release written by Marcus Wolf, marcus.wolf@maine.edu

Sara Kelemen is an incoming graduate student in the UMaine Agroecology Lab.