THE NARROWS SURROUNDING Maine’s Hog Island have been populated with lobster boats and recreational craft for well over a century. But last autumn, a very different vessel appeared there: a 40-foot barge carrying several tons of timber, stone, and hydraulic equipment, all in service of an ambitious project to save one of Audubon’s most historic structures, a building called the Queen Mary.
Like many of Maine’s 142 coastal communities, Hog Island is confronting sea-level rise, projected to increase substantially in the coming years. Over the past few decades, winter storm surges have started
