The Maine Monitor and its publisher, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, are pleased to welcome a new addition to the independent, nonprofit news organization.
Delger Erdenesanaa will cover the environment, explaining and investigating the most pressing energy, water, forestry, fisheries and pollution issues. She will also follow one of the biggest issues of them all — climate change, exploring how rising temperatures are reshaping not just the state’s landscapes and seascapes, but also the ways Mainers live and work.
Most recently, Erdenesanaa worked at Chemical & Engineering News in Washington, D.C., covering state and federal policy on chemicals in food, agriculture and water. Previously, she has reported for the Pulitzer Center, The New York Times, the Texas Observer and Inside Climate News.
Last year, she took a deep dive into climate change and the ocean, including tracing how a marine heat wave from 15 years ago is still affecting wildlife and fisheries in the Gulf of Maine.
“I learned immensely from all these experiences,” Erdenesanaa said. “But lately I’ve been missing more local, on-the-ground reporting. I want my work to meet a real need in people’s lives for trustworthy information about the issues that affect them most immediately.”
Stepping into this role at The Monitor feels like coming full circle for Erdenesanaa, who first came to Maine at age 16 to attend the Maine Coast Semester program at Chewonki in Wiscasset.
As someone who grew up in Massachusetts after immigrating to the United States with her family from Mongolia as a young child, getting an immersive environmental education in the woods and salt marshes of Maine expanded her horizons and, in a way, set her life’s trajectory, she said.
Erdenesanaa studied Earth and oceanographic science at Bowdoin College, and worked for a while at an international environmental policy organization in Washington, D.C., before becoming a journalist.
“I’m thrilled to be returning to Maine, and hope I can make a meaningful contribution in my small way to this state that has given me so much,” she said.
Have a story idea for Delger? Email her at [Show Email] or fill out our contact form.
