Update: EPA directs Maine to open St. Croix dams to alewives

A bit of breaking news yesterday in regards to the future of alewife ("river herring") runs on the St. Croix River, which forms the border between Maine and New Brunswick.

Responding to legal motions by environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has directed Maine to open the river to the fish, which just completed their annual migration. Maine had blocked the fish from entering the river under laws passed in 1995 and 2008.

The story is in today's Portland Press Herald.

The move follows the publication on Sunday of my front page feature on the issue in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

The EPA's letter to Attorney General Bill Schneider and four LePage administration officials is available here. (In lawyerly fashion -- and contrary to journalism practice -- the "news" is in the last two paragraphs.)

On America's eastern frontier, a fight over fish, a river, and a Maine law

My story in today's Maine Sunday Telegram is on the fight over the future of alewives in the St.Croix River, which forms the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick.

The fish -- which serves as forage for most bigger creatures in fresh and salt water alike -- has been blocked from entering 94% of the watershed on orders from the Maine legislature because bass fishing guides fear their industry might be undermined by the alewives' spring spawning run. But environmentalists, lobstermen, the Government of Canada, and the Passamaquoddy Indians all now want that law overturned.

At stake: the ecological future of 1600 square miles of lakes and ponds and perhaps a far greater swath of the Gulf of Maine.

[Update, 6/25/19: An update on the alewives story.]

For Canada Day, a story from Canada

I lived for a time in the lower Rio Grande Valley, where a single culture is separated by an increasingly fortified political boundary. I was there on 9/11 in fact, and the aftermath complicated life in what had been for many on the Texas side at least a casually cross-border lifestyle.

Though it gets far less attention, the same is true of life on America's easternmost frontier, where residents of eastern Maine and Southwestern New Brunswick have shopped, socialized, married, and gave birth to their children without much regard for the international frontier. My story in today's Maine Sunday Telegram -- Canada Day as it turns out -- describes how the situation is playing out there, especially in light of a new U.S. tax law that's made many borderlanders anxious.

Speaking on Ameican Nations, Castine, Maine, June 27

For those in the PenBay and Hancock County regions of Maine, I'll be giving my American Nations talk in Castine tomorrow evening, June 27, at 7pm. It's free and open to the public.

The talk, part of the Maine Writers Series at the Witherle Library and jointly sponsored by the Wilson Museum, the Friends of the Witherle Library, and the Castine Historical Society, takes place at the Unitarian Universalist Parish House which, if I recall correctly, is on the town green. There will be a signing afterward, and I hear Blue Hill Books will have copies of the book on hand.

For a prequel of the talk, try my essay in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education.

Running for President on a Divided Continent

My recent book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, argues that there's never been on America, but rather several Americas, each with their own founding ideals and takes on the great American policy questions: what is the correct balance between individual liberty and communal freedom?; what is the right relationship between church and state?; what does it mean to be American?

It also argues that the political differences between these regional cultures can still be seen on today's political maps, including the "blue county / red county" maps of most every closely contested presidential contest of the past two centuries.

Skeptical? You may find the results of the recently completed 2012 presidential primaries sobering. It's the subject of my essay in the new issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, now available online for your reading pleasure. (Hint for academics: a brilliant core text to adopt for your 2012-2013 courses.) Regionalism played an overwhelming role in the G.O.P. contest, and revealed continued weaknesses for President Obama in Greater Appalachia.

This paradigm - and this all-revealing map of the "nations" [pdf] - has been getting renewed attention of late. Last week on Slate's "Political Gabfest" podcast, the magazine's chief political correspondent, John Dickerson, recommended American Nations.to Obama and Governor Romney as they prepare themselves for the general election. Steve Kornacki at Salon weighed in further on what is now being called "Obama's Greater Appalachia Problem," perhaps pivoting off earlier discussions from Alec MacGillis at The New Republic, Politico's Charles Mahtesian, and Andrew Sullivan's "The Dish" at The Daily Beast.

Regionalism: ignore it at your peril.

The (200th anniversary of) the war that made Maine a state

It's the bicentenial of one of the United States' most poorly understood conflicts, the War of 1812, in which foreign troops sacked the federal capital, burned the White House, and occupied a good portion of my native state. Americans suffer from historical amnesia and unlike, say, Hungarians or Serbs, tend to especially forget those conflicts that didn't go so well.

That's a pity for Mainers because the conflict played a central role in our reemergence as a separate polity after a century and a half spent as an internal colony of Massachusetts. The British invasion of eastern Maine -- and the Bay State's tepid reaction to it -- fueled the drive for statehood, a story I tell in this feature in today's Maine Sunday Telegram.

For more context on Maine' historical relationship with Massachusetts, may I suggest my second book, The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier.

Slate's reading recommendation for Obama and Romney: American Nations

Last week on Slate's "Political Gabfest" podcast, the three co-hosts discussed book recommendations for President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to help them along the campaign trail.

I was pleased, of course, when the magazine's chief political correspondent, John Dickerson, recommended American Nations. Right on. (The audio for this starts at 46:55.)

Meanwhile, Steve Kornacki at Salon weighed in further on what is now being called "Obama's Greater Appalachia Problem." This is a reference to one of the regional cultures in the book, and Kornacki provided a hyperlink to my nations map for reference, which some hundreds of people clicked on last week. If you haven't seen the map yet, click as well. No, really, click it. You know you want to.

For those curious what the book's paradigm has to say about this presidential campaign season, check out my essay on this subject in the Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review this week. (It's not yet out online.) [Update: 6/25/12: Now it is.]

Or, if you happen to live in the Penobscot Bay region of Maine, come to my free public talk in Castine this coming Wednesday, June 27, at 7pm. It's part of the Maine Writers Series at the Witherle Library and jointly sponsored by the Wilson Museum and Castine Historical Society.