Citizens Against Residential Mining Activity (CARMA) works to protect residential areas in Maine from mining. We were formed in opposition to activities related to metals prospecting and mining in the Georges River watershed. As a collection of residential communities and interconnected waterways and wetlands, Warren, Union, and the other towns in the watershed are at significant risk of irreversible environmental degradation and contamination. CARMA offers information and education about metallic mineral mining activity and advocates for solutions in these towns.
CARMA Board members, experts, and volunteers bring the community together to discuss proposed metallic mineral mining and determine whether it is right for our Towns. We come from all walks of life, but we are bound in one purpose – protecting this place, the place we all call home, and other Maine residential communities from unwanted activity by metallic mineral mining companies.
We have an expert advisory panel to rigorously fact-check our work and advise us on the science of geology and aquifers and the realities of mining. We have awesome legal counsel who guide us on land-use issues, legislation and local town process and protocols. And, we have an energetic website and social media team.
We are a formally organized Maine non-profit corporation with the resources, willingness and skill to work at the local level, the corporate level and any level necessary to protect our way of life and protect residential areas from becoming mining towns. Our vision is to remain vigilant defenders of Maine’s natural environment at the state level long into the future.
We have always been and continue to be open to speaking with or writing to you. We speak with people interested in our mission every day. We have already spoken with hundreds of you about your desires, concerns, and ideas.
Just send a note to carma.maine@gmail.com and one of us will write or call you back.
Read more about our story ↗
CARMA Founders and Board Members
*Current board member
Janan Archibald (seasonal Union resident, founder)*
Janan has been a seasonal resident of Crawford Pond for 45 years. Her great-grandparents were residents of Union and Camden, where her family still resides. She currently lives in New Hampshire and is the Director for Policy and Government Affairs and Lobbyist for One Sky Community Services, an Area Agency that serves individuals with developmental disabilities and acquired brain disorders. She has been an advocate on the state and federal level for healthcare and senior rights policies for the past twelve years. Janan says the best part of her childhood was spent summering in Maine and working at Round Top Ice Cream, Cappy’s and Haskell and Corthell. Her friends and cousins still live in the area and she looks forward to the day when she can return to live full-time.
Lori Bailey (year-round Union resident, founder)*
Lori has lived in Union on Crawford Lake for 35 years. She was an active member of the group that succeeded in getting mining ordinances passed in both Warren and Union in 1991-1994. She is a computer consultant and has set up customized databases for over 35 businesses in the mid-coast area.
Chris Fierro (year-round Union resident)*
Chris served in the Marine Corps and now works as the Director of Safety and Recruiting for Northeast Transport in Waldoboro.
Stuart Finkelstein (year-round Warren resident)*
Stuart retired from teaching after 38 years of educational adventures. He and his wife Jane operated River Run Camp, a day-camp for kids, on the St. George River in Warren for the past 20 summers. Watching kids swim, paddle, fish and lounge in the simple pleasures of a Maine river, away from phones, social media, and the distractions of a way too complicated childhood, attracts his commitment to keeping the river and our watershed safe, clean and sustainable for generations to come.
Philomena Fritz (seasonal Warren resident)*
Philomena, husband Patrick and their two children live in Camden and on Crawford Pond. She has experience in the healthcare sector managing research portfolios and strategic partnerships for large organizations and start-ups. Her passion is building collaborative ecosystem programs for public health. She currently is at Palantir Technologies, delivering technology and data solutions addressing complex health needs. Philomena has a fundraising background, having served on her college’s annual giving campaign committee since 2003 as well as serving as a Development Officer for the University of Chicago Hospital.
Ike Johnson (year-round Warren resident, founder)
Ike has lived in Warren for 36 years. He is retired from commercial diving and fishing. He is a staunch defender of the environments of Maine.
Arleigh Kraus (year-round Warren resident, founder)*
Arleigh is long-time resident of Warren. She and her family have a small organic farm. She has had a career in aquaculture and laboratory sciences. She is an activist at the state level and volunteers on several boards across the State. She chairs the Warren Medical and Adult Use Cannabis Committee. She is passionate about the need to protect our beautiful and valuable natural resources for future generations of Maine families, fishermen, and farmers along the St. George River and beyond.
Jake Stamp (year-round Warren resident)*
After years living in several US states and multiple foreign countries, Jake moved to Warren in 2020. He comes from a family of environmental and social justice advocates and wishes to carry on that tradition by advocating for the health and wellbeing of all those that live in the St. George River watershed and across the great state of Maine in general. He works in IT and spends his free time with his wife restoring their circa 1841 farm to its former glory.
Bill Stinson (year-round Union resident, founder)
Bill Stinson is the owner and brewer at The Pour Farm brewery in Union. He has been a homebrewer since 1987 and opened the Union taproom in 2018. Before that, Bill was a software engineer and tech executive in the Boston area.
Dave Stuart (seasonal Warren resident, founder)*
Dave is a recently retired New York City corporate litigator who now provides free legal services to incarcerated survivors of sex trafficking, domestic violence and prison sexual assault and rape. He and his family have been enjoying Maine’s natural beauty for many years, and he intends to continue doing so for the rest of his life.
Joe Tassi (year-round Hope resident)*
Joe recently retired as Captain/Master from Schooner Lazy Jack Cruises a business he owned and operated in Boothbay Harbor Maine from May of 2003 until December of 2020. Before moving to Maine, he was an A&R executive with Arista Records Nashville and a recorded and published songwriter. Purchasing a home in Hope Maine in 2016 he has been a full time Maine resident for 20 years. A life long sailor, he grew up sailing San Francisco Bay, raced J boats nationally after moving to Nashville, and now retired, owns a small sloop (his old man boat) he sails out of Rockland, Maine.
Kathy Wellen (year-round Union resident, founder)*
After 30+ years in the marine industry and living on vessels at sea as her home, Kathy and her husband chose to make Union their home on the land for the last eight years. She is now retired and keeps herself busy on the boards of three non-profit organizations in the Union area. In her spare time Kathy enjoys the summer activities of hiking, boating, mountain biking, and paddle boarding. In the winter she also enjoys hiking but also cross country skiing and ice skating when the conditions are right.
CARMA Expert Advisory Panel
Bill Dunn
Dr. Bill Dunn has 45+ years of work experience as an environmental and water resources scientist, systems ecologist, and project manager. He has directed water resources and environmental services projects from Florida to New England and across the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas. Throughout his professional career, Dr. Dunn’s project work has focused on helping private and public-sector clients meet their water use needs while protecting the long-term health and integrity of natural systems, and surface and groundwater sources.
Jan Morrill
Jan is the Tailings Campaign Manager at Earthworks where she seeks to elevate best practices in tailings storage on a local, regional and international level. In June of 2020, Jan co-authored Safety First: Guidelines for Responsible Mine Tailings Management, a set of guidelines endorsed by 150 frontline community groups and civil society organizations from 24 countries that aims to protect communities, workers and the environment from the risks posed by the thousands of tailings facilities across the globe. Jan lives in Rockland, Maine.
Nickie Sekera
Nickie is the co-founder of Community Water Justice — a network of front-line communities against water privatization in Maine, determined to secure protections, rights and accessibility to our groundwater through education and action for future generations. Nickie is also a trustee of the Fryeburg Water District, a founding director of the Saco Headwaters Alliance and most recently appointed by the State on the Commission to Study the Role of Water in the State of Maine.
Andrew Stancioff
Andrew is a geologist, natural resource planner, analyst, and manager with 35 years of experience in geology, hydrology, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, climatology, and oceanography. He has 40 years of experience in developing countries and 25 years in Africa. Mr. Stancioff has lived in Spruce Head, Maine since 2007.
Robyn Tierney
Robyn is a fourth-generation New Mexican. She has a Ph.D. in ecology from Colorado State University. She has taught riparian ecosystem management and other classes as an assistant professor at two universities, worked in a regulatory capacity for a state mining and minerals division, and has reviewed or authored over 250 environmental impact statements, assessments, permit applications, and related reports for energy and mineral development projects throughout the western United States.