The Margaret Chase Smith Essay: Can Maine Prosper? Leadership, Research, and Partnership for Economic Growth

Yellow Light Breen examines how the Maine Development Foundation is working to help Maine’s economy through programs that focus on leadership, trusted research, and creative cross-sector partnerships

Opportunity and Equity: Fixing Maine’s School Funding Formula

In its last session, the legislature adopted much needed reforms to Maine’s education funding formula. Among other things, these reforms help to establish a link between education funding and student performance, to recognize the true costs of education, and to better measure the communities’ relative ability to pay. Yellow Light Breen explains each of these elements to be phased in over the next several years. He also responds to Peter Mills’ argument (this issue) to eliminate income from the definition of ability to pay and on the need for broader changes in how local government is funded. He notes that the recently adopted reforms allow policymakers the necessary breathing room to tackle these broader issues, but cautions legislators to stay the course in completing the reforms they just enacted

Land Management And Plant Species Pattern Effects On Grassland Pollinator Services

Invertebrate pollinator populations are widely recognized as declining because of anthropogenic activities that include changes in the amount and quality of available habitat, competition with introduced species, increased agricultural chemical use, and climate change. Because habitat and resource availability affect pollinator populations, land management may affect pollinator presence. My first aim was to determine if pollinator communities and habitat characteristics (available bare ground and floral resources) differed between grazed and idle grasslands within the Grand Forks County Grasslands of northeastern North Dakota, USA. Although available bare ground and plant species richness differed between grassland types, floral resources and pollinator communities did not differ between grassland types. My second aim was to determine how the spatial relationships among the plants within a site, in my case for a common prairie forb, affect pollinator visitation and pollinator services. The number of visiting invertebrates increased with plant diversity and visiting invertebrates were more diverse at greater Ratibida columnifera densities. Dipterans were by far the most abundant invertebrate visitors and they showed mixed responses to local plant characteristics. This research adds to our understanding of northern grassland pollinator communities and offers insight on how to restore grasslands to maximize pollinator services

Decolonizing Pathways towards Integrative Healing in Social Work

Taking a new and innovative angle on social work, this book seeks to remedy the lack of holistic perspectives currently used in Western social work practice by exploring Indigenous and other culturally diverse understandings and experiences of healing. This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from social memory and historical trauma, contemplative traditions, storytelling, healing literatures, integrative health, and the traditional environmental knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. In exploring issues of water, creative expression, movement, contemplation, animals, and the natural world in relation to social work practice, the book will appeal to all scholars, practitioners, and community members interested in decolonization and Indigenous studies

Prayer of Chief Yellow Lark, n.d.

Prayer of the Sioux Indian. Chief Yellow Lark. Presented to Ralph LeCocq of Harrison, South Dakota by Chief Red Cloud of the Andes Reservation of the Sioux Tribe.https://nwcommons.nwciowa.edu/lecocqmiscellaneous/1029/thumbnail.jp