Portland's dog owners seem to be doing a better job these days of scooping up their pets' poops.

But the city's Public Works Department is not exactly jumping for joy.

That's because, while it's much easier to navigate the city's sidewalks, there is still a whole lot of doggy doo ending up in the city's storm drains and waterways, all wrapped up nicely in plastic bags.

"They go all through the trouble of picking it up," said John Emerson, the department's wastewater coordinator. "Then, rather taking it home with them, they'll flip it into the storm drain."

Those left to clean the resulting mess say dog walkers probably figure the bags of poop will go directly from the storm drains to the city's sewage treatment plant. But about half of the city's storm drains lead instead to places like Capisic Brook, the Presumpcot River, the Fore River and Casco Bay, they said.

"Dog bags have been a particular problem as of late," Emerson said.

But this pet peeve also represents a much bigger problem facing the city and Maine's other urban centers.

Maine's island communities face some big challenges these days.

And one of the biggest is the cost of energy, which can be two to five times higher on some islands than on the mainland.

But islanders are resourceful if nothing else, and they're sensing a huge opportunity in the breeze that sweeps over them virtually every day.

''Islands are small pieces of land surrounded by lots of water, and they're also small pieces of land surrounded by lots of wind,'' said Philip Conkling, president of the Island Institute in Rockland.

Maine's 15 islands with year-round residents are, in many ways, the most likely places to lead the transition away from dirty, expensive fossil fuels. Vinalhaven and North Haven are well on their way, with plans to convert to wind energy starting next summer. Others plan to follow.

Islanders now hope to sustain their communities using the same winds that fueled their settlement in the age of sail.

''It's taking really a historically valuable resource that hasn't been used for roughly 100 years and putting it back to work,'' Conkling said.