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Jym St. Pierre
Editor, Maine Environmental News

Opinion: Maine’s energy goals depend on a regulatory process people can trust

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October x, 2026

Our state leaders continue to aggressively promote widespread electrification, economic development, transportation electrification, rapid heat pump adoption and clean energy expansion. Every one of these initiatives drives up the daily demand for electrical infrastructure, heavy-duty service upgrades and overall grid capacity. Meeting these goals requires a larger workforce and a stronger, more resilient grid. There is an inherent contradiction in encouraging a society-wide dependence on electricity while simultaneously creating deep financial uncertainty around the exact investments that such dependence requires. If Maine hopes to build the skilled workforce, modern infrastructure and robust electric system its economic and energy policies require, it must preserve a regulatory process people can trust, rely upon and plan their lives around. ~ Tim Burgess, IBEW Local 104

Opinion: The grave consequences of politicizing science

SUN JOURNAL • September 12, 2026

The scientific community is right to be alarmed by the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed revisions to federal grantmaking rules. The deeper concern is the political capture of institutions that produce knowledge. Throughout history, political movements have sought to shape the institutions that determine how society understands truth, expertise and reality itself. This strategy is effective because it taps into psychological processes that have shaped human survival for thousands of years. Growing uncertainty surrounding federal funding threatens not only scientific discovery, but also the economic vitality, workforce development and medical advances upon which communities across Maine increasingly depend. Protecting scientific independence is about safeguarding one of democracy’s most essential foundations: our collective ability to distinguish evidence from ideology, truth from propaganda and scientific process from political loyalty. ~ Laura Ligouri, Mindbridge

Column: Ingrained in state culture, beloved atlases are a must for Mainers

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 12, 2026

Every Mainer receives two things at birth: a name, and a Delorme’s Maine Atlas. The atlas is so ingrained in Maine culture that a car feels empty without one. Sure, nowadays there are GPS devices and apps that modernize direction-finding, but there’s still a comfort in leafing through the pages of an old-fashioned atlas. Torn pages and coffee stains testify that its owner has actually gone somewhere. ~ Bob Duchesne

Dixfield man drowns while kayaking in Roxbury

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 11, 2026

Shawn Noyes, 20, had been kayaking with his family Saturday on Ellis Pond in Roxbury. He was seen in the water attempting to swim to a nearby island, when he disappeared. The Maine Warden Service conducted a search Saturday evening. Noyes’s kayak and life jacket were recovered from the pond. On Sunday, the Maine Warden Service dive team recovered Noyes’s body; he was not wearing a life jacket. The Maine Warden Service said everyone should wear life jackets while recreating on the water.

The Power of Plants: Designing with nature

HARPSWELL ANCHOR • October 11, 2026

Nature-based strategies seek to preserve and promote natural ecological systems to support healthier and more adaptive properties. On the coast, these strategies include the preservation and planting of native trees and plants, the introduction of bioswales and bioretention systems to promote natural stormwater flow, and the installation of living shorelines and planted buffers to shore up the coast. While these strategies vary in type and complexity, we know that they provide numerous benefits to homeowners. They are cheaper to design and install; they require less intensive local, state and federal permitting; they improve the aesthetics and property value of the site; and, with proper maintenance, they make properties more resilient and adaptive to upland water flow and erosive wave action. ~ Jamie Hark, Harpswell Conservation Commission

Column: This Maine point is a front-row seat to a massive bird migration happening now

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 10, 2026

Millions of waterbirds nest across Canada. Virtually all of them need to head south before Canada freezes into a 3.85-million-square mile block of winter ice. Many of those birds are migrating through Maine waters right now. It’s a spectacle almost nobody notices, unless they are tipped off by a highly popular newspaper columnist. All these birds are flying south. They follow predictable pathways. One of the major flyways takes them past Schoodic Point. On October 17, 2018, an astounding migration flight took place. The counters tallied 29,147 birds in one day. ~ Bob Duchesne

CMP shares northern Maine transmission route with legislators

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 10, 2026

The Maine Republican Caucus got the first look this week at a proposed transmission line route designed to move electricity from Aroostook County to the New England grid. The Central Maine Power/Avangrid 1,200-megawatt transmission line, connecting northern Maine to the regional grid through substations in Haynesville and Pittsfield, is part of the planned Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program. The 108-mile route already has some Mainers concerned about how it will affect their homes, farms, and northern Maine’s abundant wildlife and wilderness. The discussion with legislators was one of many that will take place over the coming weeks and months as engineering, environmental review, permitting and other planning activities move forward, CMP officials said.

Column: Coyotes are often misunderstood, and confused for other animals

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 10, 2026

Coyotes can be found across the entire state. The first recorded sightings are from the ’30s. They expanded their range northeast to fill a void left after humans killed off the eastern wolves that once lived in Maine, eradicating them in the 19th century. As the coyotes moved into these newly accessible areas, they encountered some wolves en route and began hybridizing, which gave us the variety of coyote hybrids, often called “coywolves,” that are seen in Maine today (officially called eastern coyotes). The coyotes around us are much more afraid of humans than humans need to be of them. But keeping them wild is important, so do not leave food out for them. And you should keep your cats safe and indoors all the time anyway as cats are also the No. 1 anthropogenic cause of mortality in birds. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox

Appeals court dismisses Maine lobster defamation lawsuit

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 9, 2026

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge’s ruling and dismissed the Maine lobster industry’s defamation lawsuit against a California aquarium on Friday. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and three lobster businesses sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation in 2023 after the organization’s Seafood Watch program put lobster on a “red list,” urging consumers to avoid the seafood. The foundation had claimed measures in the fishery don’t do enough to reduce entanglement or promote recovery of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population.

Maine’s tallest mountain is greening faster than others in New England

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 9, 2026

Four decades worth of satellite observations reveal that alpine tundra across the Northeast are undergoing widespread vegetation expansion, not just at the advancing tree line but well above it, too. The new growth is transforming rare, high-elevation ecosystems once thought buffered from rapid change. And Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak at 5,268 feet, is greening faster than any other New England summit. Vegetation has increased there by 7.9% from 1984 to 2024, according to a recent study in the journal Ecosphere by scientists at Dartmouth College and the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Longtime Acadia visitors vent about speed and disruptive impact of e-bikes in park 30

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 9, 2026

Mount Desert Island residents have grown weary of the staggering rise of e-bikes on Acadia National Park’s sprawling carriage road system. It’s been roughly seven years since the National Park Service announced a blanket policy allowing Class 1 e-bikes — which cannot travel faster than 20 mph— in parks across the country. Since then, many MDI residents have grown tired of the persistent congestion, speed and generally disruptive impact that some say has accompanied the electric bicycles’ introduction to park life. But while e-bikes have annoyed many longtime park visitors, they’ve also provided others, some of whom have various physical limitations, with a new way to enjoy Acadia’s beauty.

How to eat well in the Maine outdoors

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 8, 2026

Camp cooking isn’t just about fun and flavor. A nourishing meal is fuel for a successful adventure, guides said, and safe practices are critical to avoid getting sick in remote places. Experts shared their tips for eating well in the outdoors — whether backpacking or in a campground. “Things taste better when you’re camping,” said Taylor Boucher, founder and owner of Portage Eats, a new South Portland-based business that makes meal kits for the campsite.

Nearly half of Maine is now in at least severe drought

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 8, 2026

Experts now estimate that nearly half of Maine is under at least severe drought conditions as the entire state remains mired in a monthslong dry spell that hasn’t been helped by recent rain. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, released Thursday, indicates roughly 46% of the state’s area is in at least severe drought, including 5% — a chunk of coastal Maine — that is experiencing a more dire extreme drought. No part of the state is yet in exceptional drought, the most serious level.

Work to restore waterways in the Magalloway reaches far downstream

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 7, 2026

In July, more than 78,000 acres around the Magalloway River in northern Oxford County was conserved in a joint effort by four groups, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, Forest Society of Maine, The Nature Conservancy and Northeast Wilderness Trust, which formed the Magalloway Collaborative in spring of 2025. The four groups have worked together to raise the $62 million needed to buy the development rights to the land. But there is still conservation work to be done. Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust has identified many undersized or failing stream crossings that hinder the movement of fish in the preserve, which have been in place on logging roads for decades.

Maine agency fines Fryeburg Solar $204K for damaging environment

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 6, 2026

New Jersey-based Fryeburg Solar jumped the gun in 2021 by starting work at the 45-acre site before it got final approvals and demonstrated that it could afford to decommission the facility if needed. State inspectors found construction crews exposed more land at one time than allowed, failed to maintain erosion controls and winter construction standards and let sediment and soil runoff pollute wetlands, streams, properties and nearby Lovewell Pond. The runoff problems began in 2021 and, despite repeated state inspections, violations persisted. In December 2025, DEP declared the restoration a success and began drawing up a civil penalty of $204,499. If approved, the Fryeburg Solar deal will be the sixth consent agreement of 2026.

Opinion: What Maine’s next generation of farms needs to succeed

SUN JOURNAL • September 6, 2026

The Lisbon greenhouse facility operated by Springworks Farm is headed to auction. Roughly 40 miles away, Vertical Harvest, a high-tech producer of indoor leafy greens in Westbrook, has faced significant delays and has yet to reach the commercial scale it originally envisioned. If Maine is going to support innovative agriculture with public resources, it should ask before a project moves forward: Is the operation ready to run? I’ve spent three decades in commercial horticulture. I served as general manager for Backyard Farms, the 40-acre tomato greenhouse range in Madison. A lesson I’ve learned throughout my career: operational readiness is fundamental to success. Operational readiness is having the people, systems and discipline to run a facility reliably from day one. ~ Ryan Douglas, Maine-based strategic advisor to cultivation businesses

Supreme Court declines to take up Maine lobster boat tracking appeal

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 5, 2026

The lower court ruling allowing the GPS tracking of federally licensed lobstering boats will stand, ending the suit by Vinalhaven lobsterman Frank Thompson, who argued that it infringes on his Fourth Amendment rights.

Letter: Weakened fuel efficiency goals will cause lasting damage

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 5, 2026

The Trump administration recently lowered goals for fuel efficiency in many gas-powered vehicles from 50.4 miles per gallon in 2031 down to 30.1 mpg. This reduction will increase emissions and accelerate climate change when we need to slow it down. This change is short-sighted, environmentally harmful, and will have lasting negative impacts on all of us. Keep this in mind when voting this November. ~ Erica Bartlett, Portland

Foot and Paddle: Little Jackson

DAILY BULLDOG • October 4, 2026

Little Jackson, one of my year-round favorites among the Western Mountains of Maine, rises north of Webb Lake and the town of Weld, in the unorganized territory of Township 6 North of Weld. Mainstays of the Tumbledown-Jackson Range, Little Jackson ( 3445’) and its nearby twin, Big Jackson (3555’), are the two highest peaks in the Weld Region. The Jacksons tend to be less frequently visited than the very popular Tumbledown Mountain, with its iconic Tumbledown Pond; prominent Mt. Blue with its observation tower; and bare-summited Bald Mountain, south of Weld. I hope to see you on trail! ~ Doug Dunlap