The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
Thank you for reading Maine Environmental News. Each year, we post thousands of news summaries, notices, and links related to important environmental issues from across the state (and beyond). If you find this service useful, you can help us continue to provide it by making a donation. Just click on the button below and contribute whatever you can afford. Thanks again for your generous support!
Sincerely,
Jym St. Pierre
Editor, Maine Environmental News
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 3, 2026
Social media posts from the past couple years talk of bunnies in Portland, eliciting speculation — and misinformation — about why they seem to be all over the city all of a sudden. Although most people are tickled to see the buck-toothed balls of fluff that we associate with spring (and Easter, specifically), the truth is that those spotted around Portland are invasive, non-native eastern cottontails. Not only do they nibble on gardens, they pose a threat to the nearly identical New England cottontail, whose endangered population conservationists have been working to restore. The non-native eastern cottontails have the edge in survivability. Over time, they’ll overtake the native New England cottontail population. ~ Leslie Bridgers
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 3, 2026
No one has done more for Maine’s rivers and lakes since Sen. Edmund Muskie authored the Clean Water Act than Sen. Susan Collins. I retired after 34 years at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and now work as a consultant in the clean water industry. I have personally worked on and witnessed many clean water projects across the state made possible by federal funding Collins helped secure. I can say from direct experience that Collins’ leadership has delivered real lasting results for Maine people and communities. I believe her record on clean water is unmatched, and Maine is better for it. ~ Nick Archer, Waterford
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 3, 2026
State reconstruction of the main Deer Isle Causeway, which connects the island to the mainland via Route 15, has finally been funded, but that doesn’t mean the town’s causeway troubles are over. Like the primary causeway, another, smaller causeway linking the island of Sunshine to the rest of Deer Isle is at risk of failing. But this one is owned by the town, rather than the state, so work on it will have to be funded by local taxpayers or grant funds. Walter Kumiega, facilities director for the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on the island, has been driving over the causeway regularly since 2004 and watches it continue deteriorating as sea level visibly rises. Even on calm days, he said, water sometimes laps at the edge of the road.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 2, 2026
Since the 1950s, Maine has used traditional bonding to make major investments in infrastructure expected to last for decades without overtaxing operating budgets. Through Democratic, Republican and independent administrations, bond issues once appeared on the ballot like clockwork. The Janet Mills administration has proposed just four bond issues in eight years. The current appropriations package includes bonds for transportation ($65 million), farms and forests ($45 million), the UMaine System ($18.5), water system and wastewater treatment ($40 million), “resilience” culverts and housing subsidies. There’s a notable exclusion: the Land for Maine’s Future Fund. A state that fails to invest in its future is a state that will cease to grow. The Mills administration has presided over eight consecutive years of budget growth. It’s too bad we don’t have more to show for it. ~ Douglas Rooks
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 2, 2026
Mainers may soon be able to install small-scale, portable solar energy systems in their homes, under a bill backed by the Legislature on Thursday. If signed into law, the measure, LD 1730, would allow electricity customers to use certain small solar generation and battery systems, which plug directly into wall sockets, similar to gas generators. Since they attach to a home’s electrical system like any other appliance, these panels are also portable, meaning homeowners and renters can take them along when moving — unlike traditional solar systems, which are generally permanent. The proposal comes as Mainers face steep electricity prices, driven largely by the cost of natural gas. It also comes as the American and Israeli conflict with Iran shakes global oilmarkets.
FRANKLIN JOURNAL • April 2, 2026
Students at Day Mountain Regional Middle School have launched a new podcast highlighting Maine’s natural environment. The “Wild and Wonderful Podcast,” created by members of the school’s Environmentalist Club under adviser Jami Badershall, features student-led interviews with local experts focused on wildlife, conservation and environmental change. “Our students are reminding us that learning is truly ‘wild and wonderful,’ and their voices are worth listening to,” Maine School Administrative District 58 Superintendent Laura Columbia said.
MAINE PUBLIC • April 1, 2026
Earlier this month, two small Maine towns went in different directions on a divisive coastal development issue. One voted against new restrictions on aquaculture — the farming of aquatic species for food — things like salmon, oysters, clams or seaweed. The other approved them. South Bristol voters rejected a proposed amendment that would add restrictions to aquaculture 109 to 38. Residents of Cushing passed an ordinance prohibiting aquaculture sites greater than a half-acre.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 1, 2026
Maine’s annual moose hunting permits (tags) are a highly sought-after commodity. So how they are distributed gets a lot of attention. The concept of setting aside tags for lodges and outfitters dates back about a decade, when northern Maine’s deer population declined and many outfitters struggled financially. The goal was to help them regain economic footing. Some outfitters, however, began selling the tags to clients for prices exceeding $30,000. The lodge tag process expanded beyond its original intent. Restaurants, hotels and even a nudist colony in southern Maine reportedly applied for and received a lodge tag. LD 2054 would tighten the definition of hunting outfitters and prohibit the sale of lodge tags to anyone other than the hunter. As for the nudist colony that drew a lodge tag, eligible members would still have to don an orange vest and cap. ~ V. Paul Reynolds
MAINE AUDUBON • March 1, 2026
The third edition of Maine Amphibians and Reptiles explores the lives of 38 fascinating species—from tiny newts to rarely seen sea turtles—found across Maine and the Northeast. Built on 25 years of research, with expanded photos, regional studies, and engaging writing, it’s perfect for scientists and curious readers alike. Join some of the contributors to this fascinating book for a talk followed by a book sale and signing at the Falmouth Memorial Library. Light refreshments will be provided. At Falmouth Memorial Library, 5 Lunt Rd, Falmouth, ME, March 11, 5:30pm.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 1, 2026
Around the country, we’ve seen irresponsible data center projects that strain electric grids, raise ratepayer costs, waste precious water, generate constant noise and damage local communities. Maine legislators are right to want to protect us from the abuses seen elsewhere. Smart policy can protect our environment and still allow the state to participate in this once-in-a-generation opportunity. Sanford Woods was designed to meet those expectations. It will not connect to the electric grid. It will not drive up utility costs for Maine ratepayers or compete for scarce capacity. We chose a design that uses Maine’s abundant cold air rather than water-guzzling cooling systems. Sanford Woods would add billions of dollars to the city’s tax base, creating hundreds of high-paying permanent jobs. A statewide blanket moratorium on data centers is the wrong tool. It’s regressive. Mainers should expect legislators to protect the environment and the public interest while also enabling responsible growth. ~ Randy Gibbs, lead developer, Sanford Woods
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 1, 2026
The Penobscot Nation shares its name with the river that its people have belonged to for thousands of years. Yet, according to the state of Maine, the river does not belong to them. The Nation retains sustenance fishing rights, but it cannot regulate what goes into the water its people depend on to fish. The river runs through the Penobscot Nation’s homeland, and Maine has spent over a decade in court arguing it belongs to the state instead. A multi-dam removal project on the Penobscot has been a celebrated conservation success as it reopened habitat and promised vast “environmental, economic and cultural benefits.” But while the river got ecological justice, the people it’s named for are still waiting for theirs. Multiple tribal sovereignty bills have been introduced in recent sessions of Maine’s Legislature — most only to be vetoed or quietly shelved. The question of who governs the Penobscot River is still, in the most important sense, open. ~ Ainsley Morrison, graduating senior at Bowdoin College
SUN JOURNAL • April 1, 2026
DEAR SUN SPOTS: With Earth Day happening on Wednesday, April 22, I’d like to hear about what Sun Spotters are doing that day (or on the surrounding weekends) for our beautiful, yet struggling, planet. ANSWER: Thanks for letting us know about this, Cindy. I like the idea of planting and donating and will certainly mention it to the crew of neighbors I gather with for Earth Day which this year has the theme, “Our Power, Our Planet.” Some other ideas that come to mind is to contact your local school, college campus, or church to see what they’ll be up to on Earth Day — perhaps you can join in. I once was part of a group where over 30 women got together in the morning to collect and dispose of roadside trash. The Nature Conservancy website (https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/earth-day/) has some unique ideas that include going on a scavenger hunt, bird watching, clearing trails, creating a special pollinator garden, and more.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 1, 2026
The state’s transportation department is planning a $2.5 million project to extend a popular paved pedestrian and bicycle trail in Ellsworth to the 96-mile Down East Sunrise Trail. Ellsworth’s 1.3 mile multi-use trail, running parallel to State Street between Lakes Lane and Birch Avenue, is set to be connected to the lengthy Down East Sunrise Trail, which extends from the city’s High Street corridor to Perry, on the eastern edge of Washington County. Construction of the connector trail in Ellsworth is slated to begin in the summer of 2028.
MAINE AUDUBON • April 1, 2026
Curious about what critters live in your local streams and freshwater marshes? Learn about Maine Marsh and Stream Explorers, a collaborative community science project between Maine Audubon and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This program trains volunteers to survey for macroinvertebrates, or large aquatic insects, in streams and freshwater marshes statewide. April 22, 7 pm, online, preregister.
MORE THAN JUST PARKS • March 31, 2026
Late Tuesday afternoon, with the subtlety of a wrecking ball, the Trump administration announced the most devastating attack on the U.S. Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. They’re ripping the headquarters out of Washington and shipping it to Salt Lake City, Utah — the beating heart of the anti-public-lands movement. They’re shuttering every one of the ten regional offices that have governed this agency since Gifford Pinchot built the system over a century ago — and with them, the career professionals who spent entire lifetimes earning expertise. They’re destroying more than fifty research facilities across thirty-one states, labs that house decades of irreplaceable long-term science, the kind you cannot restart once it’s gone. And they’re replacing all of it — the offices, the scientists, the institutional knowledge, the professional independence — with fifteen political appointees embedded in state capitals alongside the governors, legislators, and industry lobbyists who have spent their careers demanding that the Forest Service log more, protect less, and get out of the way.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 31, 2026
Maine lawmakers Tuesday took a possible step toward establishing a program to recoup money from large, corporate polluters to pay for the impacts of climate change. The House passed a bill that would study how much greenhouse gas emissions have cost the state in a 75-72 vote that fell largely along party lines. The Senate passed the bill 19-13 earlier in the week with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. The bill, LD 1870 started out as a proposal for a so-called “climate superfund” that would collect fees from groups that extract fossil fuels and refine crude oil and whose activities are found to contribute to certain levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The money would be used to fund climate change adaptation projects. It was revised to a proposal for a study of the cost to the state of greenhouse gas emissions from 1995 to 2024.
MAINE MORNING STAR • March 31, 2026
Maine lawmakers have given initial approval to a bill to study the costs of climate change in the state, amending a prior proposal that would have launched a program to get polluters to pay for those damages. The Senate advanced LD 1870 with a first vote of 19-13 Monday followed by an initial vote of 75-72 in the House of Representatives Tuesday. The votes were mostly along party lines.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 31, 2026
Some 234,000 acres of Indigenous land in Maine was granted to Colby and Bowdoin colleges between 1796 and 1861. The Massachusetts Legislature, which governed the District of Maine until it became a state in 1820, granted to Bowdoin College a total of 182,000 acres of “unappropriated lands” in central Maine. Colby received just over 52,000 acres. The institutions would parlay that into tens of thousands of dollars used to fund construction of their first buildings. It was a small fraction of the 12 million acres to which Wabanaki Nations laid claim. After Congress passed the Morrill Act in 1862, creating so-called “land grant universities,” the University of Maine received 210,000 acres scattered across the United States. Now, as the tribes work to regain land, some Maine institutions are grappling with how — or whether — to address the legacy of their involvement in its dispossession.
SUN JOURNAL • March 30, 2026
As the western Maine ice-fishing season winds down, boaters are looking ahead to open-water angling. The state of Maine offers a resource, Maine Lakes Ice Out, to help chart the transition. The guide is updated on weekdays during the spring as information becomes available. The state defines “Ice Out” as the date when, “you can navigate unimpeded from one end of the water body to the other. There may still be ice in coves or along the shoreline in some areas.
