From the Community

The answer to the question about the best time to remove invasive plants is: It depends! Timing is important when working with invasive plants. Some are easily removed in early spring, when the ground is moist and the plants are small. Others are more easily identified later in spring or in summer, when their flowers are in bloom. Still others will spread if treated too early in the growing season.

Plants, like animals, are affected by stress. They deal with native pests and diseases, as well as introduced threats, which quite often have few natural controls. But that's another story for a later discussion.

Earlier this summer, a group of Harpswell residents spent a morning at the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust filling some 100 black fabric bags with potting soil and planting tomato and green pepper seedlings. Several weeks later, after the plants had matured, volunteers from Harpswell Aging at Home distributed the seedling containers to residents throughout Harpswell.

Harpswell student Molly Greenleaf earned highest honors and a place on the dean's list at the University of New Hampshire for the spring semester.

Twenty-two women survivors of domestic abuse gathered in a coastal paradise in Brooksville on July 11 for a daylong Healing Together retreat hosted by Finding Our Voices, the grassroots Maine nonprofit and sisterhood.

The local Casco Bay Flotilla of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary has launched a new website to better inform and educate boaters.

The Orr's Island Schoolhouse was the setting for the Orr's and Bailey Islands Fire Department's annual recognition dinner on June 19.

A casual conversation between two leaders of Harpswell's volunteer fire departments led to the launch of Harpswell's first basic fire school this summer.

The newly formed Harpswell Housing Trust now has a nine-member board and at least 18 enthusiastic and talented supporters. (It is not a membership organization). The Housing Trust has completed its bylaws and filed its incorporation papers, and it is preparing its 501(c)(3) application for nonprofit status with the IRS.

Harpswell Community Television is undergoing major changes to ensure its sustainability as a community resource.