Description: High number of tourist every summer and the popularity of Bar Harbor are raising the prices of housing on Bar Harbor making it difficult to find affordable houses; especially for people who want to live in Bar Harbor year round, as the incentives to rent out housing to tourists are high. To understand better how to tackle this housing crisis it is important to understand the housing situation in Bar Harbor better, to later be able to find the right locations for future housing development. [show more]
Description: The USDA reported a shortage of veterinarians in at least 500 counties spanning 44 states. This shortage is mostly in rural areas and therefore has a larger effect on large animals and livestock. American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reported that only 10% of graduates had an interest in working with livestock.
Description: The Adirondacks is a state park in Upstate New York that encompasses 6 million acres (larger than any National Park). The park contains a Forest Preserve that encompasses 2.6 million acres. The other 3.4 million acres are privately owned land that is regulated by the Adirondack Park Agency.
Description: An estimated 73 million sharks were killed last year, primarily for their fins. Their populations are at critical levels, and they are still being fished out of the oceans at unsustainable rates. Some regional populations of shark species are down to 95 - 99%, which is considered functional extinction.
Description: According to the University of Hawaii’s Honolulu Climate Change Commission, Oahu is the most at risk from sea-level rise compared to all other Hawaiian islands. By the middle of the century, a report assembled by the commission warned that regular high tide flooding with 3.2ft of local sea-level rise would put 18 miles of coastal road and 4000 settlements at risk (Westfall, 2018).
Description: The Common Loon (Gavia immer) has historically been used as an indicator species during it's summer breeding season. More specifically, loons have been used as an indicator for heavy metals, biocontamination, and acidity (Canadian Lakes Loon Survey).
Description: The goal of this project was to identify birding hotspots on Mount Desert Island. To do this, I used data from eBird to determine which birds are most common in each sector. The sectors are areas used by birders during the annual Christmas Bird Count . Birding hotspots are areas that birders go to frequently