BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 26, 2025
In Stonington, nonprofits build workforce housing, conduct research that helps its lobster industry, conserve its land and provide arts programming. It’s an example of how much of the responsibility for providing such services is shifting to outside organizations. Gaps are being stretched by abrupt changes in federal priorities. Since January, nonprofits have seen funding abruptly cut, grants canceled and research projects terminated by the Trump administration. That’s taken a toll. Housing is needed for Stonington’s lobster industry, the busiest in Maine. Lobster dealers often house their own employees in order to keep a workforce. Other aspects of the industry are researched and supported by the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, another local nonprofit that aims to keep fisheries sustainable and economically viable. Grants it received during the Biden administration were canceled earlier this year by Trump.