Fourth ‘radio hour’ tackles Maine’s marshes

The Maine Monitor Radio Hour is a monthly program in which reporters and editors from The Maine Monitor join WERU host Amy Browne for a discussion about the newsroom’s recent reporting.

This month, Browne was joined by Maine Monitor editor Kate Cough, who talked about her new series on saltwater marshes in Maine. The ongoing series is being co-published with the Portland Press Herald .

Cough and Browne discussed what inspired the series, what Cough found in her reporting and how it built on her earlier series The Unstoppable Ocean .

Maine has some of the most extensive blue carbon reservoirs in the northeast — second only to Massachusetts, according to a study published by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2023.

But as sea levels rise and development presses in, these reservoirs, and the habitats they create, are at risk of disappearing.

An analysis by the University of Maine suggests that a significant portion of Maine’s salt marshes — between 28 and 57 percent, depending on the sea level rise scenario — could be gone by the end of the century. They are also threatened by polluted runoff from pesticides, septic systems and agricultural waste.

You can listen to the episode here. Tune in to listen live the first Thursday of every month at 4 p.m. on WERU 89.9 FM.