Laura Sitterly

New York, Portland

Coastal Reporter at Maine Trust for Local News

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Articles

Dedicated divers ensure Maine’s seafloor thrives

Mar 25, 2025 | oceanswide.org | Laura Sitterly

By Laura SitterlyDiving into the cold waters of Maine, OceansWide staff have been enjoying exploring the seafloor and retrieving derelict fishing gear. Zach Talmadge has spent his life wondering what lies beneath the surface. Having spent his childhood in New Jersey and Maine, he often looked at the coast and wondered, “What’s down there?” It wasn't until he joined the non-profit decades later that he finally found an answer.
Protecting Maine’s unsung underwater hero - algae

Mar 20, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

Within weeks of the presidential inauguration, the federal scientific enterprise, which funds academic research, has been reshaped, sparking uncertainty in the scientific community. With colleges pausing hiring, reassessing graduate student admissions, and eliminating jobs as grant applications languish, the question emerges: How will Maine, a state with labs like the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and university systems, be impacted?
Brunswick café pairs food with fine art

Mar 18, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

When Walter’s Café opened in downtown Brunswick last September, Dede Wilder was chosen to organize exhibitions that would benefit local artists and the restaurant. Over the past few months, she has proven that culinary passion and art-making can flourish together in the right hands. The menu features farm-to-table food, but freshness is just a taste of what the dishes serve — the goal is to offer the whole sensory experience, including visual pleasure.
Freeport residents unite to tackle climate change

Mar 17, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

On March 12 at Meetinghouse Arts, Freeport Climate Action Now (FreeportCAN) held a climate forum exploring solutions to climate change at individual, local, state and federal levels. From policies to grassroots efforts in neighborhoods, climate action is happening, and it’s working — or so the event sought to prove.
Native seeds preserved, protected to counter surging invasives

Mar 17, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

The sun radiated overhead as Tyler Everett surveyed the green hills of the Mi’kmaq Nation in Presque Isle. Ash trees, mainly brown ash, are cultural keystone species for Wabanaki communities and wetland ecosystems in the Northeast. However, they’re under threat due to the spread of the emerald ash borer.
Diving into Maine’s eelgrass restoration push

Mar 13, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

Seagrass is an unsung hero. It breaks the force of crashing waves, serves as a home for fish and juvenile lobsters, stores carbon dioxide, and pumps oxygen into the ocean. It’s also in danger. Scientists are working to restore what has been lost — roughly half of the native eelgrass cover. If not to its original glory, then at least to something more expansive than the mucky bottoms left behind.
Georgetown’s Reid State Park leads new era of coastal management

Mar 13, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

Climatologists anticipate more frequent and intense storms in a warming world. That leaves Maine’s coastlines vulnerable to erosion and floods, “a double threat,” according to Haylee Parsons, manager of Georgetown’s Reid Sate Park. In response, parks have shifted from recovery to proactive resilience, weighing options from detachable boardwalks to teaming up with nonprofits. “The good news is that there’s a lot we can do to position ourselves better,” Parsons said.
Freeport’s working waterfront goes electric

Mar 10, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

The Island Institute recently launched a electric boat toolkit, a free online resource designed to help marine businesses and municipalities transition away from traditional diesel boat motors toward electric propulsion. For years, the Rockland-based nonprofit has promoted electric boats in waterfront communities to advance a cleaner, more sustainable marine economy with less reliance on fossil fuels. Its new toolkit helps guide fishermen and aquaculture companies through the transition.
New leader of embattled Brunswick Landing authority outlines priorities

Mar 6, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

Daniel Stevenson was appointed the new executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA) on Monday, taking the reins from Steve Levesque, who had served in an interim role in the wake of the resignation of former Director Kristine Logan after the Aug. 19 toxic firefighting foam spill. He’ll be overseeing the cleanup of one of the worst environmental disasters in the state’s history.
Midcoast fishermen warn of ‘destructive’ end to Maine Sea Grant

Mar 5, 2025 | pressherald.com | Laura Sitterly

Last Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) notified the University of Maine that it would immediately end its funding for the Maine Sea Grant — a key program that has bolstered coastal communities and created thousands of marine jobs over the past 50 years.