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Philip Conkling
Joined09.09.21
Articles20
Philip Conkling is a Camden-based environmental consultant and the author of Islands in Time: A Natural and Cultural History of the Islands of the Gulf of Maine. Photographer Peter Ralston lives in Rockport and operates The Ralston Gallery. In 1983, the pair co-founded the Island Institute and its keynote publication, The Island Journal.
blue flag irises
Land, Water & Wildlife

Natives and Transplants

In nature, not all flowers are created equal.
wetland muck from a spring thaw
Land, Water & Wildlife

A Wander in the Wetlands

Should protections afforded to U.S. waters by the Clean Water Act extend to wetlands?
Land, Water & Wildlife

Keeping It Working

Maine’s working waterfronts are a national treasure — and an economic lifeline to the rest of New England and the world.
a red oak and white pine in a mixed-wood forest
Land, Water & Wildlife

The Forest for the Trees

In a northern mixed-wood forest, each tree species finds its most favorable micro-topography to thrive.
An eagle eating a striped bass
Land, Water & Wildlife

Summer of the Striper

Last year there was an abundance of pogies, earlier years were laden with silver-sided herring, but this year was all about striped bass.
Lobsterboats and a purse seiner, photographed from Spruce Head Harbor, looking out over the Muscle Ridge Channel.
Land, Water & Wildlife

Just Say No?

For decades, Maine lobstermen and fishermen have had the same simple strategy to almost every proposed regulation.
a coyote standing on the edge of Kimball Island, in Penobscot Bay
Land, Water & Wildlife

Wolves Are Still With Us

Although extirpated from Maine by the 1890s, wolf DNA survives in the state’s thriving coyote population.
sheep in snowy yard of a white home
Land, Water & Wildlife

Cellarhole Melancholy

Though parts of Maine may feel increasingly crowded today, the shadow of loss still haunts our islands, woodlands, and memories.
Ralston never misses a year of shooting Rockport’s Holiday on the Harbor celebration — one of scores of Maine community events made possible by philanthropic support.
Our Towns

At Year’s End, It’s About People

How people decide which causes to support can be summed up in a short sentence: people give to people.
Land, Water & Wildlife

A Climate of Sun and Fun?

The Maine coast has always been at the center of a vortex of fog during the summer, but not this year.
Land, Water & Wildlife

Fanfare for the Common Bird

Familiarity does not breed contempt, but the reverse.
Ralston captured the Native Son hauling traps off North Haven in 2007, a grand summer home looming behind.
Our Towns

Summah People, Some Ahn’t

Thanks to a shared love of place, summer folk and locals can communicate across what are sometimes vastly different experiences.
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