Zachary Bennett

This is how you blurb

Save the Date! Details coming soon.

assistant professor, associate professor, grad student

‘Nickname’ is not ‘nick’ + ‘name.’

It was originally ‘ekename.’

‘Eke’ was the Middle English word for “also” or “in addition.”

Since ‘ekename’ began with a vowel, people used ‘an’ before it.

Over time, 'an ekename' became 'a nickname.'

Restoring Balance to the Kennebec River An innovative agreement sets the stage for TNC and partners to restore the river’s ecological health while strengthening the region’s economic vitality.

Big conservation news on Maine's Kennebec River! The Nature Conservancy has reached an agreement with Brookfield Renewable to purchase 4 dams on prime sea-run fish spawning habitat. #envhst

www.nature.org/en-us/about-...

Penobscot Nation to reclaim 1,700 acres in rural Maine as tribe grows land holdings The Appalachian Mountain Club is repatriating the parcel to its former Indigenous stewards as part of a larger acquisition finalized Tuesday.

This new land will be used to forward the Penobscot Tribe of Maine's first priority: restoring Atlantic Salmon runs.
www.pressherald.com/2025/09/16/p...

I thought Corey Booker had claim to the Mr. PH throne. We seem to have a challenger.

French fashion and the devil go hand in hand.

#OTD September 11, 1692, in Salem Village Reverend Samuel Parris preaches on Revelation 17:14 "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them."

would gun laws have prevented this tragedy?

Congratulations to Kid!

Atlantic sunset: “as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever” saith Herman Melville.

There is truly no “getting high on your own supply” quite like writing a proposal for research funding.

Happy to announce that I've signed a contract with UPenn Press for my book Contested Currents: Rivers and the Remaking of New England.

Also...I've submitted my revised manuscript and that after several years the final product will hopefully be out in the world sooner than later!

"Between 2010 and 2024, at least 170 dams were removed in this region...That’s more than double the number of removals during most of the preceding century."

Great to see dam removal and river restoration highlighted in the @csmonitor!
#envhst
www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/a...

YouTube video by provi Kippers for breakfast? Is it St. Swithin's Day already?

great Simpsons reference! www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYS4...

Sebastien Rasles strongbox, Norridgewock, ca. 1721 Father Sebastien Rasles (1657-1724) was a French Jesuit missionary who moved to Canada in 1689. He learned many of the customs and languages of Wabanaki peoples, and advised Wabanaki peoples. Rasles...

Father Rales' strongbox is a classic in this genre: www.mainememory.net/record/7917

A very cool map of the Chesapeake from Edward Williams' 1650 book Virginia

New research from MIT found that those who used ChatGPT can’t remember any of the content of their essays.

Key takeaway: the product doesn’t suffer, but the process does. And when it comes to essays, the process *is* how they learn.

arxiv.org/pdf/2506.088...

Matthew Klingle, The Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle
For early history that's a good prequel to Nature's Metropolis: John William Nelson: The Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent

This book is a classic.

Observation: nearly all states that were founded by the English have Anglicized names, but nearly all states founded or incorporated by the USA have Native American names. Is there an explanation for this? #vastearlyamerica

More academic leadership positions should come with talismans

That King William accomplished many of the reforms the Stuarts also wanted, but without the opposition, is something that deserves more attention

two men are having a conversation with the caption well i got a flash for ya ALT: two men are having a conversation with the caption well i got a flash for ya

I had to confront someone in the gym today for writing in a library book, in gross disregard for all that is decent and holy.

Androscoggin River, once a ‘national disgrace’, should be recognized for clean-up efforts, advocates say Advocates propose reclassifying the water quality of the river from Rumford to Lisbon — a move they say could spark economic growth.

New Englanders were the first to build dams, and they have been the first to tear them down. The resurrection of Maine's Androscoggin and Kennebec rivers over the last 50 years is an incredible story. #envhist

www.pressherald.com/2025/05/30/a...

Did you ever take a basic historical methods class? I guess not. The notion that people are capable of being unbiased and totally objective, especially in the 21st century historical profession, and from those organizations, is a laughable conceit.

out of curiosity, how many of these people would've been friendly to a Republican administration? Is the profession so arrogant as to think there would be no costs to intervening in politics?

To this day, very few in Portland, ME (where I grew up) know about this event. Only a small plaque denotes the location of the heap of 200 bodies--still nobody knows where those people were buried.

Old Rough and Ready