WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Audio Archives

Hosts: Ivonne Vazquez Common Ground Radio is an hour-long discussion of local food and organic agriculture with people here in the state of Maine and beyond. This month: ?For the August episode of Common Ground Radio, we look forward to the 50th annual Common Ground Country Fair, hosted by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, and taking place in Unity, Maine on Friday, September 25 through Sunday, September 27. We’re looking behind the scenes at the tremendous efforts to feed the thousands of volunteers who power each year’s fair. We will learn about what it takes to procure food, organize, cook, clean, and repeat throughout the three-day event. Guest/s: Deb Paredes Martinez, MOFGA’s Common Kitchen manager and Fair food liaison. Devon Salisbury, lead Common Kitchen coordinator. Jeremy Peskoe, lead Common Kitchen coordinator. Sarah eSBee Buhlman, Common Kitchen coordinator. FMI- www.mofga.org/about-the-fair/ www.mofga.org/why-volunteer/ About the hosts: Sarah Alexander is the executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), where she advocates for organic agriculture, a healthy environment, local food production, and thriving communities. Sarah has worked on issues related to food sovereignty, clean energy, public water systems, genetic engineering, and local food security. Her background is in community organizing, strategic campaigning, and legislative campaigns, having previously worked with Food & Water Watch, Green Corps, the White Earth Land Recovery Project, Shepherd’s Corner Farm, and the American Community Gardening Association. Holli Cederholm has been involved in organic agriculture since 2005 when she first apprenticed on a small farm. She has since worked on organic farms in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Scotland, and Italy, and founded her own small farm focused on celebrating open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables. Previously, she managed a national nonprofit dedicated to organic seed growers; hosted “The Farm Report” on Heritage Radio Network; and contributed to The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, which she now edits in her role as content creator and editor at MOFGA. Seth Kroeck is an organic grower at Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick, Maine. Seth is an active member of the Organic Farmers Association, Real Organic Project, and the Maine Grain Alliance, and is committed to supporting and building regional food systems. He serves on the board of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). Ivonne Vazquez is passionate about native plants, pollinators, DIY, sustainability, the environment, and sharing gardening knowledge. She is a Licensed Registered Maine Guide/Recreation, Basic Gardening Instructor at Bangor (Maine) Adult Ed, and native plant nursery grower/owner at Bas Rouge Farm & Forge in Orono, Maine. Ivonne sits on the boards of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), the Maine School Garden Network, and Fedco Seeds.

The post Common Ground Radio 8/13/26: Feeding Volunteers at the Common Ground Country Fair first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Judith Sloan and Najla Said, members of the multi-talented team behind Between a Rock and A Hard Place, join Amy this morning. This one-of-a-kind theatre experience is a benefit for WERU-FM and EarSay. Saturday, August 15th at 7pm, Emlen Hall, Blue Hill More information and a longer interview with the cast Learn more about EarSay and purchase tickets Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

The post Around Town 8/13/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves College of the Atlantic provides help with production. Engineering by Joel Mann of WERU Community Radio. Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording. Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities This month: What are some of the milestones in Healthy Acadia’s 25 year history? What are the connections between promoting and enhancing health and wellness and the health care sector? What are examples of how Healthy Acadia works with partners? What are ways in which Healthy Acadia measures outcomes of its work? How does Healthy Acadia approach the issue of food security? How does Healthy Acadia support people in recovery? Guest/s: Elsie Flemings, Executive Director, Healthy Acadia. Maria Donahue, Community Health and Prevention Director, Healthy Acadia. Katie Freedman, Community Health and Food Programs Director, Healthy Acadia. FMI: healthyacadia.org About the hosts: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals. Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor.

The post Talk of the Towns 8/12/26: Celebrating the Work of Healthy Acadia over 25 Years first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Shared Tables, Shared Stories event sponsored by the Maine Arts Commission, Maine Humanities, and Community Plate, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. There will be an event in Bangor on August 27th. Registration is recommended Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and other Democrats will hold a shadow field hearing on “Seeking Justice in Biddeford: Oversight of ICE’s Use of Force in the Death of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero,” in Biddeford on Monday August 17th, 11am, at Biddeford High School. It will be live-streamed on Representative Pingree’s YouTube channel. Friends of Sears Island Jellyfish Jubilee Activity kits for children ages 5-12 are now available the Carver Memorial Library in Searsport. Free, limited supplies. Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

The post Around Town 8/12/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger About the host: Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

The post Outside the Box 8/11/26: “No Nukes” first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Committee to Protect Health Care Announces Endorsements in Maine for U.S. Senate, Governor, and State Legislature Committee to Protect Health Care The Economic Policy Institute’s Cost of Deportations calculator Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

The post Around Town 8/11/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Shaw Institute: Updates on Research, Education, and Public Outreach with Executive Director and Senior Research Scientist Charles Rolsky, PhD August 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm FREE Seahorses at Shaw Institute Debora Kapisha, RN, freed from ICE custody, returns home, Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project – Maine Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

The post Around Town 8/10/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Glen Mittelhauser Producers: Glen Mittelhauser and Daaby Tingle In this episode, Glen joins herpetologist Steve Ressel beside a pond at dusk to listen to the breeding chorus of Maine’s frogs and learn how to distinguish the calls of Spring Peepers, Bullfrogs, Green Frogs, and Pickerel Frogs. Steve concludes by reflecting on the path that led him to a career studying amphibians and the importance of understanding the wildlife that surrounds us. More information about Maine Natural History Observatory can be found on our website at mainenaturalhistory.org/. About the hosts: Glen Mittelhauser founded Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) in 2003 to fill the need for an organization that specializes in collecting, interpreting, and maintaining datasets for understanding changes in Maine’s plant and wildlife populations.  Glen received his Bachelor’s in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 1989 with a focus in the biological sciences and received his Master of Science degree in Zoology (with a focus on ornithology and statistics) from the University of Maine in 2000. Glen was the Managing Editor for Northeastern Naturalist and Southeastern Naturalist for 18 years and has served as external graduate faculty for 3 graduate student committees at the University of Maine.  Glen currently serves on the Baxter State Park Research Committee. Logan Parker is an Ecologist residing in Waldo County, Maine. Logan started the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project in 2017 and brought the project (and his passion for bird conservation) to MNHO when he joined the team in 2018. Logan is heavily involved in the ongoing Maine Bird Atlas where he both coordinates and participates in the project’s special species surveys. When “off the clock”, Logan enjoys birding, writing, gardening, and working alongside his wife, Hallee, on their off-grid home in the Maine woods. Logan is also a wildlife photographer and shares photos and field notes through his project, Here In The Wild.

The post Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield 8/9/26: Maine Frogs with Steve Ressel, Part 4 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Anu Dudley About the host: Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine.

The post Earthwise 8/8/26: The Hazel Tree first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne The Absurdity of Sears Island Industrialization, Steve Miller, Aug 4, 2026 Steve Miller on Subtack Alliance for Sears Island Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project – Maine Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

The post Around Town 8/7/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.