Perched on the edge of a boat gliding smoothly out of sunny Northeast Harbor, Maine, Tess Black ’20 commands the attention of the dozens of visitors to Acadia National Park seated around her.

“Today, we are heading out into the great harbor of Mount Desert Island,” Black says. “This is one of thousands of harbors you will find here off of the coast of Maine.”

She is dressed in the muted green uniform emblematic of National Park System rangers, complete with a flat-brimmed hat that she holds securely to her head against the September sea breeze.

It’s Black’s ninth season working as a park ranger and her second in Acadia National Park, where she gives guided boat tours, leads hikes, and greets visitors.

Aboard the Sea Princess boat tour that she leads each Tuesday morning, she’s part naturalist, part tour guide, and part comedian, directing attendees where to look using clock positions.

“Who here has seen an analog clock before?” Black says, fielding laughter (and nods) from the day’s audience of mostly older adults, plus one baby. “Very good. The front of the boat is going to be our 12 o’clock.”

Her passengers likely can’t tell that public speaking is not something that comes naturally to Black, but rather a skill she’s honed while working at parks around the country.

After learning to love the outdoors at summer camp in Michigan, Black, who grew up in Los Angeles, was determined to find a job that allowed her to “spend as much time as possible outside.” She got her start interning in Zion National Park before her junior year at �ֲ���ý, where she majored in environmental studies with a minor in education.

For her internship, which was funded by �ֲ���ý’ Center for Purposeful Work, Black worked in Zion’s interpretation division, comprised of the rangers who greet visitors and offer educational programming. 

“This is a great example of the Purposeful Work model in action,” says Allen Delong, the senior associate dean and director for graduate and professional school advising at the Center for Purposeful Work. “We work with students as they explore their strengths and interests on campus in leadership roles, and off-campus through experiential opportunities like this one, all of which informs their future choices.”

In Zion, Black’s role included giving public talks about geology and park history.

“I was really afraid of public speaking at that time,” Black says. “I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ And then I realized I didn’t have a choice, so I just bit the bullet.” 

With practice, Black overcame her fear and became dedicated to sharing the beauty of the National Park System with visitors. Since graduating from �ֲ���ý in 2020, she has consistently worked seasonal jobs as a ranger, moving about every six months to work in Acadia, Yellowstone, Death Valley, Canyonlands, Denali, and Saguaro National Parks. 

In Canyonlands and Denali, Black was a backcountry park ranger, spending days at a time backpacking alone through the wilderness to advise hikers, issue permits, and occasionally conduct search-and-rescue operations.

“That is truly the job,” Black says. “You get paid to go backpacking.”

Despite its perks, a park ranger’s job is not without the occasional brush with the elements. Severe flooding closed Yellowstone and Death Valley while Black was working at each respective park. She was working in Denali’s Backcountry Information Center during the 2025 Riley Fire, which burned more than 400 acres of land.

“I was blankly staring out the window, and then my eyes adjusted,” Black says. “I realized, ‘That hillside’s on fire.’”

Thankfully, the fires and floods didn’t harm her, and neither did the curious bear who approached her tent as she was camping alone in Canyonlands. From inside her tent, Black heard what she thought was a person creeping suspiciously close and clutched her satellite phone, prepared to contact park headquarters.

“Every step it made, the ground beneath me would reverberate,” Black says. “I was like, ‘Oh, no, this is bigger than a person.’”

She made noise to ward off the bear, and it quickly left, leaving but a few pawprints outside her tent.

After spending four years out west, enmeshed in that landscape, where she might be lugging gallons of water into the desert or floating down the Colorado River, in May, Black returned to her favorite national park: Acadia.

“It felt like it was time to come back,” Black says.

When she decided that she wanted to return, Black reached out to Kathy Grant, a supervisory park ranger in Acadia who had been Black’s supervisor during the summer 2021 season. 

“She taught me kind of everything I know,” Black says. “She is the big reason that I am the employee for the parks and the person I am today.”

Grant quickly saw Black’s potential for leadership and success as a ranger, she says. She welcomed Black back to Acadia with open arms and even promoted her, allowing Black to take more responsibility in planning her park programming and expanding future job opportunities. 

“I continued to follow her career as she took on a variety of roles in parks across the country,” Grant says. “Adapting to a new park every six months is not easy — it demands resilience, initiative, and a strong capacity to learn quickly. Tess consistently demonstrated those qualities.”

Black has spent the majority of this summer season confidently leading large crowds through outdoor programs, like the nearly three-hour boat tour out of Northeast Harbor. As the Sea Princess boat glides between islands, Black shares lessons she wrote herself on park history, lighthouses, geology, and marine life.

The tours are often sold out, and attendees on this late summer day engage closely, peppering Black with questions and comments.

She pauses to point out wildlife, like a perched osprey and a seal peering up through blue waters. Black calls her audience’s attention to a moose statue — telling them it is likely the only moose visitors will see in Acadia, which, to many tourists’ surprise, is not in the animals’ natural range.

Black doesn’t take herself too seriously, especially when she’s working to get the attention of kids onboard. She makes references to beloved animated show SpongeBob SquarePants, which was inspired by writer Stephen Hillenburg’s time as a cook at a restaurant in Islesford, where the boat tour makes a stop.

In fact, a stuffed SpongeBob toy is “trapped” in a lobster trap hanging from the boat’s ceiling. Black uses the trap and a bright red lobster prop — matching her dangle lobster earrings — to demonstrate how lobsters are caught, as real lobster boats idle in the water nearby.

“Being a park ranger is silly in a good way,” Black says. “I’ve become a lot less serious over the years, while still maintaining professionalism.”

The boat navigates between colorful buoys and sailboats to stop at Little Cranberry Island. Visitors walk around and browse through the island’s history museum, giving Black a moment to rest her voice before resuming her program on the ride back.

Black, now with years of public speaking experience, is quick to improvise and read her audience, knowing when to add a joke and when to stick to the facts based on how attendees are responding. Sometimes, however, she sticks her neck out for a laugh with a corny joke, and no one responds. Learning to brush that off is just part of the job, she says.

“I’ve learned that I can do a lot of really uncomfortable things and be okay,” Black says. “It’s really okay to try new things and put yourself on the line. I don’t fear being embarrassed anymore. I have to make myself vulnerable for this job, and I’ve embraced that over the years.”

When she’s not leading a boat tour or hike, Black works at the visitor center information desk. Here, she gets to know some of the youngest visitors through the Junior Ranger program, which rewards kids who take a pledge to keep themselves and the parks safe with a badge denoting Junior Ranger status. 

“Those interactions are some of my favorites because those are the future stewards of these parks,” Black says. “One day, they’re going to be adults, and they’re going to have, hopefully, the same excitement about helping to protect these places.”

In October, Black will leave Acadia for her next adventure in the Virgin Islands National Park. She envisions herself continuing to work in the park system for the foreseeable future, educating visitors on the wonder of America’s natural beauty.

Associate Professor of Economics Sandra Goff has received a National Science Foundation grant award supporting her research on programs that compensate landowners who manage their land for ecological services.

The NSF award will support the research project — for which Goff is the principal investigator and Matt Williamson, an associate professor of human-environment systems at Boise State University School of Environment, is the co-P.I. — to the tune of $369,999 over the next three years. The team learned of the award Aug. 26. 

“I’m so grateful to everybody in Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance at �ֲ���ý because they’re so incredible,” Goff says. “This would not have happened without them.”

Goff and Williamson are investigating how landowners do or do not engage with payment for ecosystem services, or PES, programs. Such programs offer financial compensation to people who choose to opt-in and take on the responsibility of managing their properties specifically to support conservation or ecological goals, such as increasing carbon sequestration or biodiversity. 

“There’s no one thing that ever determines behavior,” Goff says. “It’s really interesting to see the different ways that people are influenced to do good things – or not.”

Legal entities, nonprofit organizations, and other institutions administer PES programs. The , which pays landowners for implementing forest management practices that increase carbon sequestration, is an example of a PES program available to Maine landowners.

Even as PES programs have grown increasingly popular and are now found around the world, economists and ecologists alike do not have a broad understanding of what factors or patterns cause landowners to join PES programs. The programs will not be able to meet their full environmental and economic potential without this deeper understanding of why landowners are engaging. 

To better understand what drives PES participation, Goff and Williams will conduct a two-part study, first with the general public and then with landowners.

“We are coming from two different disciplines, which is fun and exciting,” Goff says. “We had a lot of shared interests and were able to find something that would bring together our two areas of expertise.”

The project in part aims to address how population distribution and clustering across landscapes affect patterns of participation in PES programs and ecological outcomes, Goff says. 

“People are not scattered about the landscape randomly,” Goff says. “People choose to live in the neighborhoods that they live in. They choose to live in the cities that they live in, and people tend to cluster in these homogenous groups.” 

For the first part of the study, Goff and Williamson will field participants from the general public. The online experiment will evaluate participants’ willingness to engage with PES programs through a game in which players act as forest landowners, deciding in each round to either conserve their land or harvest it. 

In an effort to mimic real-life financial incentives, real money is on the line for study participants. If players choose to harvest, they will be paid a nominal amount of money for each acre harvested, after the game is over. If they conserve, the research team will donate money to a conservation organization to fund tree planting. During certain rounds, players will be ranked by their level of conservation.

“You get paid an individual payoff if you harvest your land, but you get a payoff for the greater good if you don’t,” Goff says.

Understanding how and why people are motivated by financial incentives can inform how organizations and institutions invest in PES programs, Goff explains.

“We certainly don’t want to spend public or private dollars on trying to get people to engage in a behavior and have that backfire or be a waste because they were going to do it anyway,” Goff says.

At the conclusion of the general public study, Goff and Williamson will create an agent-based model, which simulates individual entities, agents, who follow simple rules to interact with each other and their environment. The agents will be simulated using the patterns of behaviors observed in the games. In the model, the agents make land management decisions based on things like environmental characteristics, land use rules, and what their neighbors do — a bit like an insular video game world where the players and surroundings are carefully programmed with specific characteristics, then left alone to act as they please. 

Observing how individual behavior plays out in the context of the simulated landscape, the researchers will draw conclusions about PES programs’ uptake and ecological impact. 

“I find it fascinating when things don’t work the way we think they’re supposed to,” Goff says. “That’s more likely to happen in these really complex models where there are these emergent behaviors that you didn’t expect.”

Financial motivation sometimes causes unexpected behavioral results, Goff explains. Someone may already be intrinsically motivated to do a certain behavior when a monetary reward for the behavior is introduced. However, if that monetary reward is later taken away, the person’s motivation to do the behavior may be even lower than it was prior to receiving monetary compensation.

“Anything that interferes with that intrinsic motivation can be a problem,” Goff says. “It’s not always clear whether or not giving somebody a financial incentive is going to increase the behavior that you had hoped it would increase.”

After the general public study, Goff and Williamson will run the same experiment with landowners as the players. They plan to attend the National Conference of Private Forest Landowners next June to connect with possible participants.

“Using participants who aren’t used to making those kinds of decisions can lead to very different results than engaging experts in their fields,” Goff says. “Talking with people who are actually managing a family forest is going to be important.”

Goff, who grew up in central Maine, will also take the experiment and her mobile lab to communities around the state. Her home state is an interesting locale for the study, she explains, because about 92 percent of Maine’s forest land is privately owned, and some PES programs are open to landowners with as few as 30 acres.

“A lot of these programs can affect people who maybe don’t even consider themselves small forest landowners,” Goff says. 

At the study’s conclusion, Goff and Williamson will aggregate findings into a series of briefs and software tools to advise policymakers working with PES programs.

Not unlike a multifaceted landscape, Goff’s own academic career has taken her across various disciplines, from economics to urban planning to ecology. For this project, she plans to hire �ֲ���ý student researchers from varied academic disciplines, furthering the interdisciplinary nature of a project that already combines elements of experimental economics, landscape ecology, and psychology. 

“Research is such a great way to train your mind to be clear and disciplined and to search for answers and help students learn how to work on their own,” Goff says. “I love working with students.”

By addressing unanswered questions surrounding the over 2,400 (and growing) global ecosystem service markets, Goff and Williamson hope to open the door for more effective, cost-friendly, and accessible PES programs.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2447385. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

On a balmy Friday morning in mid-July, a research team of five from �ֲ���ý scrambled across the slippery rocks of Cape Neddick, searching the rockweed-coated landscape for the shiny, dark, blue-purplish shellfish previously so emblematic of Maine’s beaches.

Live mussels once seemed to cling to every rock or wharf. Their shells littered patches of the shoreline and would crunch underfoot. Going barefoot felt risky. 

But for decades, the number of native mussels has been dwindling. Over the past 50 years, Maine’s blue mussel populations have decreased by about 60%, according to a . 

The research team — Justin Baumann, an assistant professor of environmental studies, and his four �ֲ���ý summer interns — had adjusted their expectations accordingly, but still, they found fewer blue mussels in the intertidal zone than anticipated. 

Baumann and students hope their research will offer fresh insight into the cause of this disappearance. Scientists suspect that the decrease in blue mussels is due in part to increased predation from invasive green crab populations, overfishing, ocean acidification from increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and warming waters caused by climate change.

The whether the decline is more of a retreat to colder waters, andto the changing ecosystem. Baumann and the �ֲ���ý students are approaching their research from the hypothesis that the population decline is primarily correlated with rising water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, which is heating up about 97% faster than most ocean waters due to climate change. Ideally, their research might shed light on how the mussels could adapt to rising temperatures.

From Quoddy Head State Park to Cape Neddick, this summer Baumann and interns Amanda Power, Amanda Jenkins, Reuven Frye, and Sophie Leight, all seniors at �ֲ���ý, have collected mussels and data from low and high intertidal areas, which will support the four students’ thesis projects — which Baumann is advising — and a years-long project for Baumann.

In the field, each researcher plays a key role. At Cape Neddick, Power, a biology major from Scottsdale, Ariz., and Leight, an environmental studies and religious studies double major from Easton, Md., began the day in the low intertidal zone — the part of the shoreline only exposed at the lowest point of the tide —  hunting for 50 live organisms for their lab experiments before water obscured the area. Some mussels easily gave way to the collectors; a few hardy mussels, attached to rocks by strong filaments called byssal threads, required a Philips head screwdriver.

“There’s a lot of wave action here,” Power said. “They’ve got to hold on really tight to not get washed away.”

The students placed the mussels into collection containers to take back to �ֲ���ý. Cooled by ocean spray, they scrambled between the water and the rocks, lapping waves filling up their boots.

“Falling and slipping around are just inevitable parts of the job,” Leight said. “But it is also fun, especially when you can make some cool discoveries while you’re searching.”

On the coast, students have found other small sea creatures interspersed between the mussels, including star fishes, sea anemones, and green crabs, the invasive, widespread predators that enjoy munching on mussels and aren’t afraid to snap at humans poking around in their homes, Power said.

“I really have enjoyed my ability to get out in the field at �ֲ���ý,” Power said. “They do that really well — lab experience, field experience. You’re not just always in the classroom.” 

Once they collected 50 mussels, the students covered the animals with handfuls of moist rockweed, a temporary coolant to keep the animals comfortable in the containers before they’re transferred to campus.

“You want to make them feel at home and less stressed,” Leight said. “Having some moisture helps with that, especially on a sunny day.”

Across the rocks, Frye, an environmental studies major from Montclair, N.J., and Jenkins, a biology major from Summit, N.J., gathered data about other organisms. They placed a quadrat, a 1-by-1 meter frame, at 10 different points in the low intertidal zone, photographing and counting the organisms within the quadrat at each step. For his thesis, Frye will be analyzing the data collected from the quadrats to identify differing variables between low and high intertidal zones, aiming to characterize the environments around the blue mussels.

In the low intertidal area, diverse life abounds, from bioluminescent algae to predatory snails that suck blue mussels straight from their shells. 

“It’s such a unique ecosystem,” Frye said. “It changes drastically twice a day, and it’s just so interesting to see these organisms adapt to that.”

Nearby, Baumann trotted around the quadrat, its white stark against the intertidal’s yellow and gray hues, on his way to his next field task.

“Don’t count me in your quadrat,” he joked. 

Between crashing waves, Baumann used a drill to install a sensor in a large rock to measure water temperature. The device is no larger than the size of a plastic water bottle cap and works via a tap-to-pay-like monitoring system: Baumann needs only to touch his phone to the area where the sensor is installed to collect its data. He’s placed these sensors in rocks all along the coast this summer, with full permission from the Department of Marine Resources. 

Ideally, the sensors gather data on temperatures for the next 15 or 20 years. But their success is dependent on the waves’ cooperation; with that morning’s rushing tides, Baumann worried that the epoxy used to hold the sensor in place would wear off.

“The ocean doesn’t really care about what we want,” Baumann said.

He installed two more sensors at the mid- and high- intertidal zones, each marked with a plastic orange tie wrapped around a metal rock-climbing anchor, the latter an idea Baumann got from Philip Dostie, a science resource technician at �ֲ���ý.

Around midday, as waters rose, the students changed roles and repeated the steps to collect the 50 more mussels and data at high tide. Here, the mussels were easier to find, though life within the white squares became more sparse, consisting mainly of barnacles and flat, black algae that a layperson could mistake for discoloration on the rocks.

After four hours in the field, the team returned to Lewiston with data and mussels in hand. The following week, they completed their final field work on Hurricane Island in Penobscot Bay before beginning their laboratory experiments.

In addition to being a staple of Maine’s marine ecosystems and seafood industry, mussels play a key role in maintaining a healthy marine environment. As filter feeders, they filter up to five gallons of seawater a day, and along with it, toxins, metals, and microplastics. Scientists can assess the health of ecosystems by measuring toxin levels in mussels.

Mussels are also foundational organisms. Like the coral in reefs or trees in a forest, mussels’ ecosystems are built around them. Their shells serve as hard substrates for other, smaller organisms to build their own homes on. “A starfish could come through here and have a great bed,” Baumann said.

Humans also take advantage of mussels; not only are the organisms an edible delicacy, but people have modeled adhesives after the super-strong byssal threads that mussels use to attach themselves to surfaces.

The animals’ disappearance would mean losing an entire layer of the intertidal ecosystem, with unknown but potentially disastrous consequences.

“I don’t know that the ecosystem is actually going to change visibly to people, but ecologically in terms of how nutrients cycle and what it looks like, it will change,” Baumann said.

Baumann wants to understand how mussels cope with the latter point and suspects that organisms respond differently to temperature changes based on their home latitudes. He chose to investigate mussels in the intertidal zone specifically because the animals already experience drastic temperature changes each day as the tide comes in and out. Their resilience may offer insight into how mussels can survive changing temperatures.

“It seems like because of the dynamic range of the ecosystem that they should have some flexibility,” Baumann says. “We think that there might be something here to how organisms can manage change really fast.”

The project is investigating this hypothesis by analyzing the temperature and ecological data collected along Maine’s coast, studying genetic differences between mussel populations living at various latitudes (i.e. the chilly waters of Quoddy Head versus the warmer waves at Cape Neddick) and different levels of the intertidal zone, measuring how mussels from different locations respond to changing water temperatures, and assessing how thermal plasticity, or an organism’s ability to adjust its tolerance for changing temperatures, varies between different mussel populations.

Though he led similar research as a visiting professor at Bowdoin, this project is Baumann’s first big foray into the world of blue mussels. His specialty is in tropical coral reef research —  specifically studying how reefs react to changing temperatures from climate change.

When he relocated to Maine, Baumann wanted to pivot his research toward local ecosystems and support longstanding research on the coastline, an area vital to Maine’s economy and culture. 

Maine needs researchers looking to answer questions about how climate change will affect coastal communities and ecosystems, Baumann explained, especially as many of the scientists conducting research on organisms like blue mussels retire. 

“I’m thinking about how ecosystems are changing due to climate change, especially ecosystems that are coastal and close to people and important for communities and livelihoods,” Baumann said. “I think that’s the ethos of the environmental studies program, the interconnectedness of everything.”

Back in Baumann’s Carnegie Hall laboratory, Leight, Power, and Jenkins conducted experiments for their thesis projects, with collaboration from Frye and Baumann. Twelve tanks of mussels line the wall of the lab’s back room, research subjects for Leight’s thermal ramping tests. During the experiments, Leight took seven mussels at a time from the tanks, placing each animal in an air-tight mason jar, all of which are then placed in a water-filled tank lined with a dishwasher rack. 

Leight then slowly decreased or increased the temperature of the water surrounding the mason jars. Sensors in each jar measure the mussels’ vital signs, noting how their oxygen levels respond to the changing temperatures. She analyzed how the mussels’ responses correlate with where they were collected — from low or high intertidal areas and from the cooler waters of Quoddy Head State Park or the warmer Cape Neddick — to determine if mussels from certain areas are more resistant to temperature changes than others and identify the warmest temperatures that mussels can survive in. 

For Power and Jenkins, the focus is mussel genetics. Together, they extracted DNA from the abductor muscles of mussels collected at various sites along the coast. Through an extensive purification process, the students isolated the DNA until they were left with pure genetic material.

For her thesis work, Power will be using the DNA samples to look at the genotype — an organism’s genetic makeup — of each mussel in her sample group. She’ll then analyze how mussel genotypes do or do not vary depending on which site the organisms were collected from.

“Genes can be expressed at different times in a mussel’s lifetime, but which genes they have are set in stone,” Power said. “I’m looking to see if the genetic makeup of the mussels is different across latitudes.”

Jenkins will compare DNA samples to determine if epigenetic changes, or changes in gene expressions, related to temperature regulation vary based on geographic location. She hypothesizes that mussels from warmer waters will have more epigenetic changes, which would allow them to withstand changing temperatures. “I’m seeing if their genome and those DNA processes can keep up with the warming temperatures in Maine, or if there’s an absolute limit where they can’t do anything,” Jenkins said. 

Conducting collaborative research, students learn how to work with others and support each other.

“There’s more flexibility in working together,” Baumann said. “You build a real strong sense of camaraderie, and you also can share knowledge and work on each other’s projects. Each one of them is in charge of their own project, but all four of them are working together toward one common goal.”

Baumann wanted to be a professor at a small liberal arts school like �ֲ���ý largely because of the opportunity to work closely with small groups of students. While guiding students through research, he’s motivated by mentorship and helping the budding scientists carve out their career paths.

“It’s a chance for me to help them really figure out what they’re trying to do next. And that’s the whole reason I’m here,” Baumann said. “It’s about helping students get the training that they need to go on and do whatever it is they want to do with their life. That’s the value.”

The mussel researchers have gotten to know each other well, deepening existing friendships and creating new connections through hours beneath the sun and in the lab. Whether they’re handling live animals, taking measurements, or refilling aquarium tanks, the students step up for each other. 

“I love working with my friends,” Power said.

For these budding scientists, research on the coast is a manifestation of childhood passions, and all four hope to pursue careers in marine science or conservation. 

“I grew up watching Our Planet, and I’ve probably seen every single ocean documentary out there,” Jenkins said. “It was a childlike wonder that has developed and matured into college and actual career paths forward.”

Frye first told his parents that he would become a marine biologist when he was 10 years old and has followed through with his promise to work alongside marine animals: He spent last fall studying in Croatia and working with dolphins and sea turtles. The mysterious allure of the blue depths and the opportunity for discovery keeps him hooked.

“We don’t know much about the ocean,” Frye said. “We know very little, and we’re learning more each day.”

This summer’s research was Leight’s second time working with mussels, if you count waitressing at a hometown restaurant that served an unforgettable mussel dish.

“The bowls that it was in were made to spill,” Leight said. “You would be carrying them and then the broth from the dish would just be all over you. That’s my number one memory of mussels.”

Leight hopes to pursue a career, perhaps in nonprofit or policy work, that combines her dual interests in religious and environmental studies, whose intersection she learned from her parents — one a scientist with NOAA, the other an Episcopal priest.

“I grew up in a household where science and religion were main topics of discussion and very intertwined with each other,” Leight said. “That’s not something I felt like I could let go when I went to �ֲ���ý.”

With the lab work completed, the quartet will split up to write their respective theses over the coming months. And Baumann will settle in for what will hopefully be a couple decades of ocean and mussel measurements, each data point bringing him one step closer to uncovering what is ailing Maine’s iconic blue shellfish.

Each spring, �ֲ���ý greens up, both the campus and its sustainability efforts.

One sign: the annual announcement of Green Innovation Grants, which award up to $10,000 to fund creative solutions proposed by �ֲ���ý students, faculty, and staff to address campus sustainability challenges.

“We crowdsource a lot of good sustainability ideas from people who work on campus and walk around campus every day,” says Assistant Director of Sustainability Tom Twist. “The idea is to really empower students and staff and faculty to have control over the sustainability of their own campus.”

This year’s Green Innovation Grants will fund:

• A paint-waste mitigation system for Schaeffer Theatre, proposed by Associate Professor of Theater Christine McDowell, Costume Director Rebecca Armstrong, Technical Director Justin Moriarty, and Associate Professor of Theater Courtney Smith;
• More tools and bikes for the �ֲ���ý Green Bike bicycle exchange program, proposed by Erik Lindholm ’27 and Sam Child ’25;
• Additional compost bins for campus and educational programming about composting, proposed by Maddie Weinstein ’27, Caroline Mayer ’26, and Sarah Smith ’26;
• The �ֲ���ý Reuse Hub, through which students can easily donate their used items to other students, proposed by Anna Cole ’25 and Vyshu Viju ’26;
• A permanent fence for the �ֲ���ý Garden to keep out woodchucks, deer, and other veggie-eating wildlife, proposed by Nimco Jama ’25 and Deven Thapaliya ’25.

Over the years, projects initially funded as pilot programs under the Green Innovation program have become baked into the college’s sustainability efforts, “which is great,” Twist says.

The student-run �ֲ���ý Garden, affectionately known as the PLOT, and the stainless steel cups that Dining Services distributes to students in lieu of disposable coffee cups both originated as Green Innovation Grant initiatives.

Likewise, staff and faculty from the Department of Theater and Dance hope that their Green Innovation Grant initiative will inspire more sustainable paint practices both within their department and around campus.

“This opportunity really prompted us to examine our practices, and encouraged us to seek out actively responsible solutions to processes we weren’t previously addressing,” McDowell says. “I’m so excited to make these modest, but, I believe, long-ranging changes to our painting systems, and to educate students as to their own uses of latex paint and its environmental impacts.”

As an inherently fleeting art form, theater presents unique sustainability questions. Without careful attention, costumes and props easily become one-hit wonders, stars for a week before being relegated to storage or the waste stream. 

At �ֲ���ý, theater faculty and staff prioritize the reuse of materials. “We produce things with the goal of saving as much as we can possibly save so that we can reuse it mindfully,” says McDowell. 

With their 2025 Green Innovation Grant initiative, �ֲ���ý theater will be able to use latex paint for theater sets more efficiently.

“Latex paint has been around a long time, and there have been lots of innovations on how to mitigate the impact it has on the environment,” Armstrong says. “We know we’re going to be using it. So we want to make sure that we’re using it in the most responsible ways that we can.”

As multiple painters tackle a set-design project, working with disposable paint trays and perhaps pouring more paint than they can use up in one sitting, waste can quickly accumulate.

“We’re an incredibly active department,” Armstrong says. “There’s almost always something going on: student productions, dance productions, guest speakers, guest performance pieces. We need to be just as active in our sustainability efforts.”

With the funds, the theater team will buy a dozen Repaint Studio paint trays to replace disposable paint trays. The trays come with silicone liners and lids that can preserve unused paint for up to two weeks, allowing painters to begin, pause, and resume projects without wasting already-poured paint.

The silicone liners allow users to peel dried paint off the silicone and throw it away, instead of washing it down the drain.

Still, paint brushes need to be cleaned, and here, the department will rework its system for organizing and cleaning brushes to maximize efficiency and limit the amount of paint entering the sink. At the same time, they will install a solids collection unit to divert paint solids from the general water stream.

“Think of it like the garbage disposal in your kitchen,” Armstrong says. “It’s trapping the sediment so that it doesn’t go into the water further down the stream.”

Theater faculty and staff hope that their sustainable changes will inspire similar efforts around campus. While working on shows and taking theater courses — including the Short Term scenic arts course planned for next spring — students will be exposed to sustainable practices and different ways of thinking about waste simply by using new tools and systems, Armstrong says.  

“It’s just about being more mindful about the entire life cycle of the project and the paint and the supplies,” Armstrong says.

Additionally, the changes to sustainable paint management in the theater could influence similar adjustments to departments around campus that use paint, such as Facility Services and the Department of Art and Visual Culture Department, say Armstrong and McDowell.

Every incremental effort to improve sustainability, no matter how small, can make a positive impact and help �ֲ���ý reach its sustainability goals.

“Every time you use something, there’s some environmental trade-off somewhere,” McDowell says. “I do like to think about that.”

When the �ֲ���ý student EcoReps encounter a sustainability problem that needs solving, they don’t sit idle and debate — they get into gear and execute solutions.

In two of their most recent successes, the students helped to secure funding to solve an unexpected problem with the existing electric vehicle chargers on campus and to purchase a slew of new EVs for campus use.

“It’s really cool that as students, I feel like we have a voice,” says Martin Carriere ’25, an EcoRep from Davis, Calif. “I always feel like our ideas are heard. We’re positioned to have bolder ideas and be able to bring those to the table.”

�ֲ���ý is known for its impressive achievements in sustainability, but the existential threat of climate change gives expanding the work great urgency. Carriere, a double major in politics and environmental studies, and fellow EcoRep Cassidy Meyer ’25, an environmental studies major from Carbondale, Colo., are both set to graduate this month — and both are working on sustainability solutions right until the end. 

The pair even squeezed in a meeting with college leaders on local renewable energy during their last week of classes, amid the haze of studying for finals and saying goodbyes.

Carriere, Meyer, and Izzy Larson ’25 of East Aurora, N.Y., comprise the Energy Solutions Group within the EcoRep program, which provides hands-on opportunities for students to work on sustainability and environmental issues on campus.

The three seniors are also members of the college’s Committee on Environmental Responsibility, a working group of faculty, staff, and students charged with enacting �ֲ���ý’ Sustainability Roadmap. The ambitious plan outlines the steps required to meet the college’s goal of becoming climate positive by 2030.

�ֲ���ý is one of about only 15 U.S. colleges and universities that are carbon neutral, meaning they produce net-zero carbon emissions. The college reached this milestone ahead of schedule in 2019 and now aims to become climate positive through sequestering more carbon than it produces.

In alignment with the college’s sustainability goals, �ֲ���ý has incrementally expanded on-campus infrastructure for electric vehicles and currently has 12 publicly-available EV chargers. The EcoReps have long discussed the possibility of adding additional EV chargers or upgrading those already on campus to meet growing interest in EVs.

In 2020, students conducted a campus-wide survey and found that 75 percent of respondents answered that they were considering or planning on the purchase of an electric car. Currently, more than 60 people on campus drive some kind of plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle.

Earlier this fall, Carriere and Meyer hastened the EcoReps’ burgeoning plans to improve charging on campus when a sudden software change disabled several features of �ֲ���ý’ current chargers. The products from Italy-based company Enel X were initially “smart” chargers, equipped with network software that recorded usage data. 

The chargers also connected to a cell phone app that charged drivers money for the electricity they used, a key incentive in encouraging people to move their fully-charged cars off the chargers, making them available to others.

But when Enel X unexpectedly ended its North American operations earlier this fall, chargers installed across North America became “dumb,” no longer able to communicate data with the network or charge EV users for electricity. 

With an eye on fixing the problem while expanding the college’s EV charger offerings, Carriere and Meyer went to work. With an idea prepared and the support of Tom Twist, who is the college’s assistant director of sustainability, Carriere, Martin, and Larson identified a.

The grant program provides funds to public-facing institutions to purchase and install Level 2 EV chargers, the second-fastest level of chargers among three tiers, in community areas where drivers frequently congregate. “�ֲ���ý is nicely positioned to have chargers that are accessible to the community because there are lots of areas to walk around while your EV is charging, and it’s conveniently fairly close to the highway,” Meyer says.

Twist and the EcoReps submitted their grant proposal in October and within just a couple of days heard good news: Efficiency Maine had given preliminary approval to fund four new EV chargers for �ֲ���ý. (Federal approval for the grant arrived early in January.) Additional funding was identified to update the existing 12 chargers.

ReVision Energy will install the new chargers from ChargePoint, the most popular brand for Level 2 chargers in the U.S., by June 2025. The new devices will properly charge users money for electricity use and communicate usage data.

The parking lot behind Merrill Gymnasium will have eight total charging stations, including one at an ADA compliant parking spot, and additional chargers will be located around campus behind Lane Hall, in front of Smith Hall, behind Kalperis Hall, and behind Bonney Science Center.

Improving EV charging is just one facet of Meyer and Carriere’s broader focus on energy efficiency and electrification as viable climate solutions. Pursuing such solutions with the EcoReps has been a successful way to put the serious, sometimes downbeat knowledge gleaned from environmental studies coursework toward actionable change.

“The EcoReps program has been a great opportunity to learn how to move change forward,” Carriere says. “Tom’s been so fantastic in allowing us to take a role where we have some say.”

Both students have been involved in climate action since high school — Carriere researched waterfowl and wildlife conservation, and Meyer started the environmental justice club at her high school — but have found their work in energy to be the most rewarding avenue for making change.

“Working in the energy sector, it feels like you’re making tangible progress,” Meyer says. “The projects that you are engaging in move the needle a little bit more than other things that I’ve done in the environmental sector.”

At �ֲ���ý, Meyer and Carriere are working against the backdrop of a college that has gained recognition for promoting environmental responsibility. In 2024, the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education recognized �ֲ���ý’ sustainability achievements, ranking the college No. 10 in overall sustainability out of 1,200 schools in 52 countries

Meyer and Carriere have helped advance �ֲ���ý’ Sustainability Roadmap from several angles. Last year, they helped identify funding through the Inflation Reduction Act’s federal direct pay incentive, available to nonprofits, and tapped into an Efficiency Maine initiative to successfully add eight new electric vehicles to �ֲ���ý’ fleet.

The students worked closely with the Casco Bay Ford dealership and �ֲ���ý Facility Services to purchase a Ford E-Transit van, a new Ford F-150 Lightning pick-up truck, two Nissan Leafs, a Chevrolet Blazer, and three low-speed vehicles.

After successfully bringing both EVs and their chargers to campus, Carriere and Meyer are now focused on the Sustainability Roadmap’s goal of using 100 percent local and renewable energy by 2045. Currently, about 75 percent of �ֲ���ý’ electricity is powered by the college’s 18,500-panel, 7.13-megawatt solar array northeast of Lewiston in Skowhegan. 

Carriere and Meyer are working with campus leaders to address the final 25 percent needed to meet �ֲ���ý’ goal and are currently interested in the possibility of installing solar panels atop a campus building. Like other sustainability initiatives, implementing solar provides ancillary benefits.

“From our perspective, having solar on campus would be super cool and compelling for admitted students, prospective students, and the students on campus to feel more connected to their energy use,” Meyer says. 

The students’ close working relationship with Facility Services has been enormously helpful in completing their various projects, Carriere and Meyer say. Tim Pratt, director of Facility Services operations, and Jay Phillips, the previous director — both present and past members of the CER, respectively — were both open to bringing EVs on campus and hearing the students’ proposals.

“They’ve been fantastic to work with,” Carriere says. “We’ve had to do no convincing of why EVs are important. As long as we can show them that it’s a strong financial comparison to the internal combustion engine, then they’re like, alright, let’s do it.”

Chris Streifel, director of capital planning and construction, and Jason Hehlo, energy manager, have also worked closely with the students to identify clean energy areas of improvement.

Now in the final days of their undergraduate careers, as Meyer and Carriere wrap up their fervent environmental work at �ֲ���ý, they are looking to their futures. Longterm, both students hope to pursue careers in energy.

“Working in a sustainability role for municipal government is my dream job,” Carriere says. “You can have direct impact on people’s lives.”

Meyer hopes to work on large renewable energy development projects in a corporate position.

“Seeing Tom Twist in his role has inspired me to want to work in the sustainability office of a corporation,” she says. “Being able to choose what projects to take on and moving corporations toward a more sustainable future by making compelling economic arguments is something that I’ve learned through the EcoReps.”

The weekend after finals, both graduating students will leave Maine for California; Carriere is heading home to Davis to spend time with family, while Meyer heads to the mountains around Lake Tahoe to teach adaptive skiing for the winter season. 

Though Carriere and Meyer will be on the other side of the country, they’ll leave behind legacies of their time at �ֲ���ý: brand-new chargers, staff driving around campus in quiet cars, and maybe even prospective Bobcats marveling at solar panels during campus tours.

At the �ֲ���ý Trashion Show, one person’s trash is not just another’s treasure, but perhaps even another’s trend.

The event, held annually after the Harvest Meal in Commons, invites students, faculty, and staff to design and display couture outfits fashioned from campus waste.

�ֲ���ý has been a carbon-neutral institution since 2019 and aims to become climate-positive by 2030. The college leads numerous projects geared toward improving sustainability on campus. The Trashion Show is one such effort, merging fun, fashion, and environmental responsibility to illustrate the volume of waste created at �ֲ���ý.

Awaiting the start of the 19th annual show on Wednesday evening, a wide gathering of campus community members — students plus faculty and staff, some with their children — milled about in the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building, snacking on assorted desserts and dancing to music by student DJ Ethan Rayburn ’25 of Blacklick, Ohio, while folks took photos in front of a fall-themed photo booth. 

Beyond the crowd, the empty Trashion Show stage anticipated its models. Designers snuck backstage, creations in hand, to make final adjustments before displaying their outfits under runway lights.

�ֲ���ý President Garry W. Jenkins arrived and adopted a temporary title of fashion critic as he joined the judges’ panel for the night. 

“This is quintessential �ֲ���ý,” Jenkins said. “It’s fun, but it’s also raising awareness of important issues and people celebrating fellow faculty, staff, students coming together.” 

As the show began, the crowd conveyed this community sentiment with roars of applause and yells for the models. Students were especially enthused for model and designer Cheryl Lacey, a longtime �ֲ���ý staff member and director of Dining Services.

“I know how much our staff care about the students and to see them give the love right back is a beautiful thing,” Jenkins said.

Though the show was held in a space nicknamed the Cage, the participating students, faculty, and staff were certainly not constrained when it came to making statements with their fashionable, trash-laden pieces. Designs included an outfit fashioned in a traditional Nepali style from gift wrapping paper, a lengthy skirt and train made of shopping bags, and a top and skirt composed of food packaging waste.

After deliberation, the judges awarded co-designers Annie Robinson ’26 of Atlanta, Ga., and Grace Thomas ’26 of Bethesda, Md., first place for their elegant white gown made from recycled course readings. Second place went to Lacey, and Professor of French and Francophone Studies Kirk Read received third place.

The �ֲ���ý student EcoReps, �ֲ���ý College Student Government, and Dining, Conferences and Campus Events co-hosted the Trashion Show. EcoReps Julia Neumann ’25 of Park City, Utah, and Aneeza Ahmad ’25 of Sharon, Mass., managed the show. The emcees were BCSG co-presidents Sivani Arvapalli ’26 of South Windsor, Conn., and Ethan Chan ’25 of Westborough, Mass.

Each of the eight designer/model groups presented different interpretations of Trashion, style, and sustainability:

EcoReps Take the Stage

The Team: Isabelle Larson ’25 of East Aurora, N.Y., and Nimco Jama ’25 of Hargeisa, Somaliland

Signature Use of Trash: Grocery bags

As �ֲ���ý EcoReps, both Larson and Jama are eco-minded.

The students chose plastic and paper grocery bags as their design materials because of the items’ ubiquitous presence, and therefore heavy contribution to waste, in daily life.  

“We wanted the simplicity of our costumes to reflect everyday use of these materials,” said Larson, a double major in biology and earth and climate sciences. “They’re so common.”

Jama used plastic bags for her outfit, while Larson used paper. This was intentional, to highlight the small yet powerful choices every person can make, such as simply switching from plastic to paper bags to reduce waste.

“When you’re met with these choices about being sustainable, there is always an option,” Larson said. “Even with grocery bags, you can have an impact and limit your plastic use.”

When the show paused for the judges’ deliberation, student EcoReps Maddie Weinstein ’27 and Caroline Mayer ’26 took the stage to quiz students about recycling facts, such as which �ֲ���ý dorm recycles the least and how to effectively clean different materials before recycling them.

Jama, a biology major, said that the segment was a good opportunity for students to take away messages about how to recycle correctly. “A lot of people usually get confused about very small things that do make a big impact on whether you recycle it or put it in a trash can,” Jama said.

The Trashion Show is far from the EcoReps’ only foray into the world of sustainability. Jama, for example, works at the �ֲ���ý Garden known as the Plot, farming organic produce used in on-campus dining.

“I have been working for the Plot since my freshman year, and I’ve kind of been involved in that way, really wanting to make an impact on campus,” Jama said.

The Trashion Show fits neatly into Larson’s academic work, which centers heavily around sustainability.

“I talk about sustainability and climate change every single day,” Larson said. “It’s just another way to represent activism.”

Read What You Sew

The Team: Annie Robinson ’26 of Atlanta, Ga., and Grace Thomas ’26 of Bethesda, Md.

Signature Use of Trash: Printed academic readings

Co-designers Robinson and Thomas won first prize, a $75 gift card to Forage Market, for their magnificent white gown crafted mainly from paper and accessorized with soda tabs.

Robinson was initially inspired to participate in the Trashion Show when reflecting on a trashion-esque project she made in third grade. She reached out to Thomas, an art major, to make this year’s dress, and the two took inspiration from Pinterest and other online designs.

Robinson and Thomas made the dress, modeled by Thomas, from printed paper readings, both from their own coursework and donated by friends. They made the bouncy skirt from stacks of paper rolled up, then placed into tiered layers, and finally tied and stapled together. Variously colored annotations and even a JSTOR logo peeked out from between layers.

“We print readings all the time,” Thomas said. “This is several hundred pages of readings.”

As with many Trashion looks, the dress was difficult to fully try on until the night of the show, when the designers were able to securely tie everything into place.

“This is the best we’ve ever seen it,” said Robinson, an economics major.

Thomas also sported jewelry and a purse made from soda tabs. The designers collected about 10 percent of the soda tabs themselves, Robinson said, while a friend’s mom collected and donated the other 90 percent.

The two designers completed the look with boots crafted from the same printed readings, accented with soda tabs snaking around the sides and fronts of the shoes.

Third Time’s the Trashionista

The Team: Kirk Read, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, and Kerry O’Brien, retired Assistant Dean in the Dean of the Faculty office

Signature Use of Trash: 25 years of collected The Adventures of Tintin calendars

In his third year of walking in the Trashion Show, Read took home third prize. His tunic, covered in images from the world of Belgian cartoon character Tintin, could be considered a vintage piece, with some of its materials dating back over two decades. Read walked down the runway to the tune of “Love Hate Song” by none other than musician Alisa Amador ’18, who, as a student, was Read’s thesis advisee.

The piece introduced a new style of fashion that Read dubbed “acleisure:” academic leisure clothing.

“I am a fanatic of Tintin,” Read said. “I am both an advertisement and a ‘trashionista.’”

Kerry O’Brien, a retired assistant dean in the Dean of the Faculty office and previous Trashion Show designer, assisted Read with this year’s creation. Their one-of-a-kind work doesn’t come cheap — a tag dangling off of the design proudly touted the name “House of O’Brien-Read” alongside a hefty price of 4,000 euros.

“I love the creativity. I love the students in this,” Read said of the Trashion Show. “I’m not here to win. I’m here just to have fun and to look at what they can do. It’s just amazing.”

Groooooovy!

The Team: Juno Rogers ’28 of Decatur, Ga., Natalie Damer-Salas ’28 of Atlanta, Ga., and Ella Hassler ’28 of Kent, Ohio

Signature Use of Trash: Trash bags, sourced straight from dorm garbage

With this piece, modeled by Hassler, the designers got scrappy and scrounged materials from their dorm garbages. 

“We looked through the trash rooms in our various dorms, and we found these supplies,” Rogers said.

Using paper bags, cardboard boxes, and trash bags, they crafted a dress with a hot pink top and matching colorful skirt adorned with flowers. Angel wings coated in trash feathers completed the look and evoked Victoria’s Secret’s signature design, popularized by the brand’s runway show.

The designers found inspiration for the neon dress in the Finnish brand Marimekko, whose multicolored, flower power-esque designs came to represent women’s freedom in the hippie ‘60s.

“Even though Marimekko is a consumerist brand and uses flashy colors, it’s always stood for more progressive values,” Rogers said. “The bold colors on our dress are supposed to represent Bohemianism and the intersection between consumerism and Bohemianism.”

Trash Transformed to Tradition

The Team: Shristi Tamang ’28 of Kathmandu, Nepal, and Mari Nolasco Alcantara ’28 of Tlaxcala, Mexico

Signature Use of Trash: Real flowers in resin

For her bright set of clothing, designer Tamang drew inspiration from her home country of Nepal. 

“It was inspired by a Nepali Tamang Selo,” Tamang said. “It’s about vibrant skirts and a top.”

Tamang’s design, featuring a white blouse and flowing skirt composed of bright blocks of paper, echoes the elegance and vibrance of the dresses often worn by performers during Tamang Selo, a music and dance of the indigenous Tamang people of the Himalayan region of Nepal.

Accompanied by Taman Selo music, Alcantara modeled the outfit, showing off the light, airy skirt and matching white top as she glided down the runway. Tamang created the colorful skirt from gift wrapping paper and accessorized the outfit with a jewelry set handmade from flowers preserved in resin. A purse adorned with the same plastic material as the blouse completed the look.

“These are made from real flowers,” Tamang said, pointing toward a bright purple flower on Alcantara’s necklace. “Even the earrings are made from real flowers.”

Sustainable Material, Girl!

The Team: Vera Song ’27 of Naperville, Ill., Sadie Rooney ’27 of Andover, Mass., and Ellie Millard ’26 of Harrison, N.Y. 

Signature Use of Trash: Red Target shopping bags

Rooney took the stage in this group’s bright red, bullseye-patterned skirt, complete with a matching trail, to prove that being fashionable can be an eco-conscious endeavor.

The designers created the top of the look, a white crop top adorned with paper flowers, from reused academic readings, including articles about the environment, and used cups. 

“We’ve tried to pull in readings that we were assigned in class or had to print out for class because we felt like they should be repurposed in some way,” said Rooney, an economics and environmental studies major.

For the bottom of the outfit, the designers shaped Target shopping bags into a lengthy, elegant skirt. 

The designers are members of Plant Futures, a student organization dedicated to plant-centric food systems and sustainable practices. Both the readings and bags were unused items that the students had sitting around their homes.

In her white and red outfit fit for a billboard, Rooney looked straight out of a Target ad campaign touting sustainability. In the words of their runway script, “you can be fabulous and eco-conscious, no material world required.”

Time and Space Travel

The Team: Sophia Porecca ’28 of Sugar Land, Texas, and Celia Horowitz ’28 of Salt Lake City, Utah

Signature Use of Trash: Discarded chemistry glasses

Porecca and Horowitz turned back the clock with their ’80s space pop-inspired piece.

The designers made this outfit from tissue paper, Monster Energy drink packaging, and an Amazon package.

Gathering the materials made them realize “how much trash we normally use on a day-to-day basis. I think that’s the whole point of the exhibition,” Porecca said. “It was really cool to see how much we could accumulate. We didn’t even end up using more than half of it.”

They completed the look with Horowitz’s discarded chemistry lab glasses, fashioned from a plain academic accessory into out-of-this-world gold reflective goggles. She echoed Porecca’s sentiment about the sheer volume of waste.

“It’s a big pile,” Horowitz said of the trash the two accumulated while making the project. “We didn’t realize.”

Coffee Bags and Milk Machines and Broken CDs, Oh My!

The Team: Cheryl Lacey, Director of Dining Services

Signature Use of Trash: Coffee creamer pump turned antenna

This was Lacey’s third and final Trashion appearance — she retires in January. For her eclectic amalgamation of food packaging made glamorous, the judges awarded Lacey with second prize.

In her role as director of Dining Services, Lacey sees firsthand the amount of waste generated by food packaging.

“One of the things about packaging in food service is a lot of plastic,” Lacey said. “It’s necessary because you’ve got to worry about food safety. You have to worry about freshness and quality so it’s necessary but most of that’s not recyclable.” Someday, she hopes, food packaging will be sustainable and safe.

To craft her quirky, almost extraterrestrial outfit, Lacey incorporated waste from Commons and other locations. Materials included plastic pasta bags, coffee bags, chocolate chip bags, a bag for limes, a bag for clementines, a container for watermelon, milk machine parts, alternative milk item packaging, and broken CDs. The pump from inside a coffee creamer carton perched on her head like an antenna completed the striking outfit.

Lacey’s participation in creative and illuminating events like the Trashion show will be part of her legacy at �ֲ���ý as a lively, dedicated staff member.

“I think it does call attention to the issue of waste and trying to divert waste from the waste stream, but beyond that, it just brings out the creativity in people and you see the most inspiring outfits,” Lacey said. “It’s amazing to see what people can do with trash. Amazing.”

Nearly all living things — fish or fowl, human or humpback whale — encounter industrial chemicals all the time, and whether this contact is harmful, lethal, or harmless largely depends on the amount of exposure.

For example, it’s known that exposure to triphenyl phosphate (TPhP), a chemical used as a , is harmful to humans and aquatic species at relatively high levels, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting a risk evaluation of the chemical in recent years.

Now comes new research from a �ֲ���ý team comprising Associate Professor of Biology Larissa Williams and three recent graduates, who have done the first examination of the effect of TPhP exposure in everyday life, a level known as “environmentally relevant concentrations,” discovering that everyday exposure to TPhP is harmful to zebrafish embryos and larvae — and, potentially, to human beings as well.’

Published as the cover article in the May 2024 issue of the journal Toxics, their paper, “Environmentally Relevant Concentrations of Triphenyl Phosphate (TPhP) Impact Development in Zebrafish,” was for its interest to readers and research importance.

Williams’ coauthors are �ֲ���ý alumni Ben Schmandt ’22, Gabrielle Smart ’23, and Mfon Diduff ’24, each of whom contributed to the research while working in the Williams lab as students.

Spanning three years, the �ֲ���ý research project studied TPhP exposure on zebrafish, a species that shares around 80 to 85 percent of its DNA with humans, making it an effective model for research on the effects of toxicants on both aquatic species and humans.

“With toxicants, if you throw enough at [an organism], there will be an effect. But that doesn’t make it relevant. That’s why this paper is particularly exciting.”

Larissa Williams

In the findings, says Williams, send a clarion call for more research. “We know that TPhP is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant that many organisms, including humans, are exposed to. Now we know that it is likely a developmental toxicant at environmentally relevant levels. That’s worrisome. It’s critical to understand the implications of that exposure.”

The �ֲ���ý research exposed zebrafish to TPhP at everyday levels, which is in parts per billion, rather than parts per million, which most researchers have focused on.

“We were looking at exposure at the nanomolar level, a thousand times less concentrated than other studies had reported,” says Williams. “With toxicants, if you throw enough at [an organism], there will be an effect. But that doesn’t make it relevant. That’s why this paper is particularly exciting.”

The team discovered that parts-per-billion TPhP exposure harmfully affected developing zebrafish through multiple biological pathways, though the exact harmful mechanism is still not fully understood.

They found that TPhP-exposed zebrafish larvae were stunted in size and suffered from heart swelling (pericardial edema), both of which are also seen at higher exposure levels. The fish also suffered from oxidative stress, causing cell damage within hours of exposure.

Like many research endeavors, the �ֲ���ý project got inspiration from how researchers like Williams have long-running and productive collaborations with fellow researchers far from �ֲ���ý.

Years ago, while reviewing a scholarly paper for a journal, Williams came across triphenyl phosphate “as a novel obesogen, which is a chemical that interacts with your endocrine system or your hormonal system.”

That led to conversations with two researcher collaborators who have expertise with toxicants, Kari Sant of Michigan State University and Alicia Timme-Laragy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Williams asked Sant, who is an expert in obesogens, “Do we know much about triphenyl phosphate in zebrafish?” “Not a ton,” Sant replied. “You should go for it.’”

Fast forward to the start of the 2021–22 academic year, the senior year of Ben Schmandt ’22, and a conversation between Williams and Schmandt about their senior thesis project. Williams suggested looking at TPhP. “Ben looked into the literature and found the level at which TPhP is found in surface waters. So that’s where we started, at the nanomolar level, a thousand times less than the micromolar level that everyone else has been working on.”

Williams credits Schmandt for bringing urgency to the project. “Ben was interested then, and continues to be interested now, in environmental contaminants. It was very important that the project be relevant, indicative of concentrations of this chemical that aquatic organisms see — that we get exposed to — versus levels that are already known to have an effect.”

She says the project was “right up Ben’s alley, in terms of interest. Ben really ran with it. And then we further ran with it with Gabby and Mfon.”

“It’s been an amazing labor of love to turn a research project into a scientific publication,” said Schmandt, who is now a research associate in the Claussnitzer Lab at the Broad Institute, working to understand how our genetic backgrounds impact the likelihood of developing heart disease. “I know I wouldn’t be doing this work today without everything I learned from working with Larissa, Mfon, and Gabby on this project.”

As an undergraduate at �ֲ���ý, Schmandt “felt torn for a long time between a love for the environment and a passion for laboratory work.” The TPhP project united those two adversaries. “I found a passion for the specific ways the environment and genetics interact. Across contexts of pollution and disease, these interactions highlight just how little we still understand about how our surroundings impact us through our genes — that’s the mystery that brings purpose to my research.”

The research, conducted in Williams’ lab at the Bonney Science Center, involved exposing zebrafish larvae to TPhP over five days, a sufficient span to measure the chemical’s effects on this fast-growing species. That’s another reason that zebrafish are a magically effective research model. They grow from larva to adult in just 90 days, and are transparent. “At the age of 48 hours, zebrafish have produced hemoglobin, so we can see the heart,” Williams says.

The �ֲ���ý researchers photographed and measured the size of the larvae by looking at them under a stereoscope in Williams lab. The team then measured heart rates manually, observing each beat. Using a stopwatch, the researcher counts the number of heartbeats within a 30-second interval. The researchers also checked for swelling around the heart and scored it on a scale from 1 (severe swelling) to 5 (normal). And, to see if the chemical affected blood circulation, they used another microscope to capture heart movement and blood flow in the larvae.

Among other takeaways, the �ֲ���ý research success shines light on the college’s innovative and successful STEM Scholars program — which, along with other initiatives at �ֲ���ý — has opened pathways and removed barriers for students interested in science, including coauthor and recent graduate Mfon Diduff, who majored in biochemistry.

She is now a research technician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center with eyes on a medical career. “I had always loved science but never saw myself doing scientific research in the lab,” she says.

Contributing to the research paper, specifically how TPhP in the environment negatively impacts overall organ development, has inspired her to learn “more about the factors that contribute to our health, specifically maternal health, as I intend on becoming an OB-GYN.”

She now has a vision of her future self. “I absolutely see being that physician who tends to the needs of her patients while also being a researcher who goes above and beyond to know why we see such occurrences that pose imminent danger in medicine and public health.”

Each of the coauthors, said Williams, used the project to further their path toward purposeful work. Schmandt was inspired by the environmental science side, Diduff by the public health aspect, and Gabby Smart ’23, now in veterinary school at Washington State, “was really excited to be working with animals, which we find with a lot of our pre-vet students prior to vet school.”

Smart notes that “animals may even be more affected by some of the chemicals we researched. Being in the veterinary field gives me a front row seat on how exposure to such chemicals affect animal health and longevity. I hope to continue to be an advocate for both environmental and animal health, which in turn will have a positive impact on human health.”

For the Williams lab, the next chapter in the research is to zero in on how and when TPhP does what it does to developing animals.

All developing animals, whether zebrafish larvae or human fetuses, “are exposed to a lot of different chemicals,” she explains. “It’s really the timing of that exposure that really matters, what we call the window of susceptibility.”

Alcohol is a familiar example. “Alcohol in a human fetus is highly toxic very early in pregnancy, but becomes less toxic as the fetus develops. If there is exposure early on, it has a much larger impact than later on. Many chemicals work that way. Part of what we do in our lab is to figure out that window.”

With a new grant from Maine INBRE, the lab will do more precise toxicant testing at different stages of zebrafish development. “We were able to show that chronic exposure over the entire developmental period impacted them. Now what we want to know is, as the heart’s developing and you add a toxicant, how does that change the trajectory of development?”

That knowledge “will help us unpack the biological mechanisms behind the phenotypes that we’re seeing. That will be data used by my thesis students this coming year.”

A new paper in Nature identifying lists five co-authors, including Professor Emeritus of Geology Mike Retelle.

But ask Retelle about his own contribution, and he’ll point to the long line of talented �ֲ���ý students who’ve supported his and other researchers’ climate-focused work in Svalbard, Norway, over the last two decades.

“Over the years, about 20 �ֲ���ý students have gone to Svalbard for summer work or have stayed at the University Centre in Svalbard for a semester,” he says. “Mitchel Soederberg ’25 just returned from doing the winter semester, and Jamie Hollander ’24 was in our program last summer.” 

Funded by a , the new research by Retelle and his fellow scientists used paleoclimatic data from the last 2,000 years, powerful computer modeling, and in-the-field research on lake sediments and tree rings to determine that certain types of weather over the last 2,000 years have often been due to a meteorological phenomenon known as “atmospheric blocking.”

Atmospheric blocking is what it sounds like: A large, stable weather pattern that blocks the usual movement of weather systems through an area. And in the Scandinavian Arctic, the researchers found that blocking patterns contribute to weather extremes, specifically periods of warm and very wet weather, which are becoming more frequent as the climate warms.

Retelle, who retired from the �ֲ���ý faculty in 2022, remains active in his research in Svalbard, a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean. A popular research site, the Svalbard archipelago is located halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole.

When atmospheric blocking events lead to heavy rainfall, the runoff, among other things, causes sediment particles and high levels of calcium to wash into Linnévatnet, a lake in southwest Svalbard. The coarsest sediments, which were consistently deposited during very heavy rainfall, were linked with atmospheric blocking events.

The sediment record from Linnévatnet shows that this pattern has been consistent for the past 2,000 years. The data also indicate that a long-term decrease in precipitation ended in the mid-1800s, and in recent years, as periods of blocking increased, the area experienced an uptick in extreme weather events. 

“As warming continues and sea ice recedes, future Svalbard floods will become more intense during episodes of….blocking,” the paper reports.

Retelle’s contributions to the paper include doing field surveys and gathering sediment cores from the bottom of Linnévatnet, which offer scientists a historical record of environmental changes. This work, he says, wasn’t done alone.

“Wes Farnsworth ’11 was part of the project when we recovered the lake sediment cores described in the paper,” Retelle says. “He’s now with and was a , supported by the NSF grant.”

In this video, researcher Wes Farnsworth ’11 retrieves a core sample from the lakebed of Linnévatnet, located on the west coast of Svalbard. Since 2012, Mike Retelle, seen wearing the red parka, has deployed such instrumentation, which provides crucial and precise data about the timing of sediment pouring into the lake during increasingly frequent rainstorms.

The work is ongoing. In fact, Retelle was on his way back to Svalbard for more research the day after the paper was published, practically passing �ֲ���ý student researchers in the air, including Soederberg, an earth and climate sciences major from Bedford, N.H. (The name of the �ֲ���ý major changed from geology to earth and climate sciences in 2020.)

The Svalbard work has created a real pipeline for �ֲ���ý students. Hollander, an earth and climate sciences major who graduated in June with honors, is now headed back to Svalbard. “She was just awarded a Fulbright Student grant to study the release of methane, a greenhouse gas, as glaciers retreat,” Retelle says.

Based at UiT–The Arctic University of Norway, Hollander will be affiliated with researchers Dimitri Kalenitchenko and Andrew Hodson (one of Retelle’s longtime collaborators). She will contribute to their exploration of the complex relationship between glacier melt, hydrological controls, and methane emissions. “She’s a rock star,” says Retelle.

As for Retelle, he will be in residence at the University Centre (UNIS) in Svalbard until late September. He is presently contributing lectures and field excursions to a doctoral and postdoc summer school for the Norwegian Academy for Polar Sciences, plus leading his regular summer teaching program for UNIS. 

“We got a new grant from the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund to go back for two years to keep up the hydroclimate monitoring, and I’m helping out in another UNIS glacier course,” he said. “This is my semi-retirement!”

Lake Andrews and its environs are lush and teeming with life these spring days. So whether you’re an alum here for Reunion weekend or a daily Puddle walker, here are 16 animals we’ve seen both recently and over the years — and that you might see whenever you swing by the popular �ֲ���ý pond.

With a perimeter of a third of a mile, Lake Andrews features about 3 acres of habitat. For the purpose of our accounting, we offer animals within the perimeter of the Burgoyne Lakeside Walkway, which is about a quarter of a mile.

Name: Painted turtle, Chrysemys picta

The following is a sequence of events that created a hay-bale haven for painted turtles at Lake Andrews this spring:

First, Facility Services placed bales of hay over storm drains around the pond to prevent ducklings from tumbling in (which they do, all the time). Then, students (we assume) tossed a few bales into the pond (just…because). The bales floated, and painted turtles discovered the little rafts, and turned them into sunning spots. This gathering was seen on May 20, 2024.

Name: Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus

Puddle walkers are accustomed to being dive-bombed by noisy red-winged blackbirds that nest around the pond.

They’re very territorial, behaving like someone who moves into a college town and then gets really annoyed when students appear.

Name: Muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus

A semi-aquatic rodent, muskrats are good for the Puddle because their feeding habits prevent shoreline overgrowth. This guy was seen swimming (and ultimately diving) on April 11, 2024.

Name: Bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalu

These two above Lake Andrews on Nov. 16, 2023. They’re also seen by �ֲ���ý rowers on the Androscoggin River.

Name: Ouachita map turtle, Graptemys ouachitensis

When this story was published on June 6, we initially identified this as a small snapping turtle. Then James Dowling-Healey ’12 clued us in: It is likely a map turtle, perhaps an , which is not native to Maine but common in the pet trade. “It’s something rare and out of place, likely a released pet,” Dowling-Healey said.

Name: Snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina

This underwater apparition is a snapping turtle, seen lounging in about 4 inches of water near the inlet on June 3. Last spring, one was seen laying its eggs just off the Burgoyne Walk.

Brace yourself: snapping turtles eat ducklings. And lots of other stuff. Which means they help keep the ecosystem in balance.

Name: Common whitetail dragonfly, Plathemis lydia

Dragonflies are great flyers. They can move and rotate each of their four wings independently, and fly in six directions—up, down, forward, backward, sideways. And hover.

Name: Eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis

The real �ֲ���ý motto: Amore ac Studio…ac Sciurus.

Gray squirrels have been part of the campus ecosystem and campus culture since the beginning.
The �ֲ���ý Student reported in 1881 that Albert Millet, Class of 1883, had a “go-as-you-please race” — a form of race where you can walk, jog, or run — with a gray squirrel.

“The first quarter of a mile he gained on the quadruped, but the latter won the race by taking a bee line for the top of a tree,” the Student reported.

Name: Copepod, Skistodiaptomus (genus)

True, you can’t actually see a copepod (the name means “oar-feet”) without a powerful microscope. They are a group of small crustaceans found in most freshwater and saltwater habitats. This example was photographed around 15 years ago by biology major Hannah Schultz ’12.

Collecting specimens by tossing a plankton net into the Puddle, she used the college’s scanning electron microscope to create images of the pond’s tiniest creatures, including fish and insect larvae, itty-bitty copepods, and ittier-bittier algae.

Schultz has since earned a medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and is now completing a residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Name: Goldfish, Carassius auratus

There are a couple hundred breeds of goldfish, and all of them are apparently represented in the Puddle. The assumption is that they were introduced by students, and have been referenced since the early 1990s. In the spring, they exhibit this splashing and wriggling spawning behavior. (The fish do, that is.)

James Dowling-Healey ’12, who has degrees in law and biology, suggests that the goldfish “are likely all common goldfish, maybe with a comet (the long, swishy tailed goldfish) or a shubunkin or two. Orange goldfish are picked off by predators like ospreys and herons, so you are more likely to see wild-type goldfish.” 

Name: Ducks, Anatidae (family)

One can find 34 species of ducks in Maine, 15 are residents during the breeding season, 18 species winter in the state, and all migrate through Maine. That number includes 11 dabbling ducks, 13 diving ducks, six sea ducks, and four geese.

By the way, fictional fear that a duck is watching you, anatidaephobia, was coined by Garry Larson in a Far Side cartoon.

Name: Double-crested cormorant, Phalacrocoracidae (family)

Cormorants forage for fish underwater, and are capable of holding their breath for two minutes and diving nearly 150 feet deep. “If you watch them for long enough, you’ll see them emerge from the water with wiggling fish,” said Carly Philpott ’27 of Centennial, Colo., who photographed this cormorant speeding over the water on Sept. 23, 2023.

Name: Crayfish, Faxonius (genus)

Maine is home to several species of crayfish, both native and non-native/invasive, such as the rusty crayfish and red swamp crayfish. We’re not sure what species this one is, being eaten by a hooded merganser on Oct. 22, 2019.

Name: Osprey, Pandion haliaetus

In the warm months, ospreys are frequent visitors to campus. They circle Lake Andrews, searching for their next meal, then dive into the Puddle to scoop a fish.

An osprey is the Greg Louganis of the avian world. Capable of diving head-first into the water from high in the sky, this raptor repositions its body along the way, snagging a fish with a feet-first splash and grab.

Name: Great blue heron, Ardea horodias

Another predator that helps to maintain a semblance of ecological balance in the Puddle, dining on fish, amphibians, reptiles (including small turtles), and small mammals.

Name: �ֲ���ý Bobcat, �ֲ���ýina lynx

And finally we have….the �ֲ���ý Bobcat, first identified as the college mascot in 1924, which means the Bobcat turns 100 this year.

Jack Williams, Class of 1911, was among the first to suggest the bobcat as a mascot; he had sent a letter to the �ֲ���ý Alumnus in 1922 suggesting the bobcat: “It is small — but Oh! how it can fight.” In December 1924, the student body gathered in the Chapel and, with a near-unanimous vote, decided on the feisty feline.

The �ֲ���ý Bobcat, curiously gregarious for a species typically considered elusive, is guaranteed to be out and about during Reunion weekend!

When Alan Wang ’24 studied abroad in Kyoto, Japan, as a junior, he relished the seamless transportation options — bicycle, bus, train — that delivered him to classes at Doshisha University. 

But when Wang worked for the Maine Secretary of State’s Office last summer, he had to drive from Lewiston to Augusta, and it was a different experience. “Exhausting,” he said.

The following semester, Wang read Better Buses, Better Cities. “One of the takeaways is people don’t use buses because buses don’t make themselves known to people,” said Wang. “A lot of students don’t even know the bus stop at �ֲ���ý exists. Building a bus shelter is the best way to remind them.”

Those experiences sparked an interest in public transportation advocacy, so he went to work, doing research and turning to the college’s Green Innovation Grant program, which awards funds to �ֲ���ý community members for projects that make �ֲ���ý and the community more environmentally sustainable.

In the spring, Wang received a $2,000 Green Grant — one of four grants totalling $8,000 dispersed from the program this year — to help fund the construction of a more prominent and welcoming bus stop for the new Portland–Lewiston commuter bus line . The project was one of four Green Grant projects funded this year.

The enclosed bus stop will be built near Gomes Chapel by the Maine Department of Transportation in conjunction with the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee. While the $2,000 grant will pay for a fraction of the final cost — around $40,000 to $50,000 — of the new �ֲ���ý bus stop, the private funding from the college also will help secure other matching state or federal transportation funds.  

Wang has met with community leaders in Lewiston and Auburn in his effort to bring an attractive public bus stop to campus, one of several new enclosed bus shelters in the two cities. 

”His advocacy for transit is strong,” said Larry Allen, the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee director. “Alan espoused the benefits of consolidating transit activities between the two lines at one location on campus. This eliminates confusion and allows for the bundling of resources, such as infrastructure and capital resources.”

With a �ֲ���ý politics degree now in hand, Wang, who is from Jiaozuo, China, will test his new interest in urban planning this summer in the Lincoln (Maine) County Regional Planning Department as a transportation planning assistant. “This internship will give me a great lens on if I actually want to pursue this as my career,” he said.

A second funded proposal from Gianluca Yornet de Rosas ’24 of Mendoza, Argentina, who used his Green Grant to team up with Facility Services to add the first bird-safe window treatment at �ֲ���ý. The idea came after he witnessed bird fatalities from strikes on the windows of his residence. 

Yornet, who hopes to go into environmental conservation work, grew up in the South American region around the Andes Mountains, where he was fascinated by the Andean Condor, the largest raptor in the world. The environmental studies major also knew that bird strikes on windows are a leading cause of avian mortality — resulting in up to an estimated 1 billion bird fatalities annually, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Because of the reflective and mirror qualities of window panes, birds often can’t detect the glass barrier. Yornet’s $2,000 grant funded the purchase and installation of several adhesive bird-safe window treatments that use tiny patterns to alert birds to the window.

He hopes it’s a good start. “Maybe if it stops the birds from colliding with the windows and dying, other students might continue the project, or this will be adopted into other buildings. I wanted to make sure it got done, even if it doesn’t solve the whole issue.”

Another Green Grant grant will fund the installation of signage aimed at lessening contamination in recycling in residences. The idea was the brainchild of Caroline Mayer ’26 of Wolfeboro, N.H., and Sarah Smith ’26 of Severna Park, Md., two EcoReps who worked the past year on improving recycling habits around campus.

The signage will be placed right where students live: their rooms. “We have good signage in all of the trash and recycling rooms, but the sorting is happening in the dorm room, not once you’re down in the trash room,” said Tom Twist, assistant director of sustainability at �ֲ���ý. “By then, it’s already done.”

The signs, affixed to the back doors of rooms, spell out the recyclable material — cardboard, plastic, paper containers, glass, and metal — and that all other items should go to the landfill. “When in doubt, throw it out,” say the signs designed by Smith and Mayer, who plan to target first-year residences to instill good recycling practices at the start of their time at �ֲ���ý.

Liza Bell ’26 of Putney, Vt., won a GIG to resupply tools for the �ֲ���ý bike shop, a much needed purchase after a theft last summer depleted the supply.

The grant helped fund 30 new tools as well as a new lock system for the nine loaner bikes available to students. In addition, Bell said the grant helped keep those loaners in the Ladd Library gear library in good working order. As a result, usage increased this spring, with all nine bikes checked out much of the time.

“This project will contribute to the school’s green bike share program which makes biking on campus more accessible. By having the necessary tools and locks we will be able to continue to expand and improve the program,” Bell explained in her proposal.

This story was updated on November 3, 2025 to reflect more recent information on the number of birds killed each year from window strikes.