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
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 23, 2025
A friend went hiking on a cold, blustery day in late November. At first, she was cold. As she hiked the mountain, she became hot. At the top of the mountain, exposed to the wind, she cooled off again. Then, on the way down, it felt as if frost was creeping into her bones. I can relate. The solution: Dress in layers. Instead of relying on just a thick coat and snow pants for warmth, you should pile on multiple, thinner layers of clothing. That way, you can take off layers as you warm up as a way of regulating your temperature. avoid wearing any cotton clothing. It holds onto moisture, such as sweat, which can rapidly cool your body. if you dress properly in layers, winter hiking isn’t cold. Remember: it shouldn’t be hot, either. Once you get used to it, removing and adding layers as you hike will just come naturally. ~ Aislinn Sarnacki
MAINE MONITOR • November 22, 2025
Following a surge of complaints about low water levels over the summer, engineers inspected the dam linking Pennesseewassee Lake and Pennesseewassee Stream to determine whether water was leaking and contributing to the decline. Engineers found no significant water loss. Still, the unusually low water level revealed a faulty spillway and other serious structural vulnerabilities that could lead to catastrophic dam failure during high-water events. In a twist of irony, the damage might have gone undetected had water levels stayed high. Town officials have moved quickly to initiate repairs and reduce the risk of dam failure before spring runoff. Over a three-week period in October, Bancroft Construction Corp. of South Paris repaired leaking timber boards, concrete beams and other structural elements of the dam, which was built in 1935.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 22, 2025
While some may feel divided on the election results, I know that Mainers stand united on environmental protection and conservation. Mainers should not stand for the destruction of our fauna, flora, and landscape. The Arctic tern is at risk for habitat loss due to drilling threats in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Some of these birds call the coast of Maine home during the summer and some breed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Maine’s ecotourism industry also faces huge risks. The proposed drilling will expedite the impacts of climate change. We need to stand up for public lands. Call your representatives and demand they vote “no” on H.J.Res. 131. ~ Gretchen Wilichoski, Orono
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 22, 2025
A new documentary detailing 50 years of black bear research in Maine was released Saturday on YouTube by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The 14-minute film, produced by Lone Spruce Productions, highlights one of the nation’s longest-running black bear studies and the small teams of biologists who have spent decades tracking and monitoring bears across some of the state’s most rugged terrain.
MAINE MORNING STAR • November 22, 2025
New England winters can get wicked cold. This week, five of the region’s states launched a $450 million effort to warm more of the homes in the often-frigid region with energy-efficient, low-emission heat pumps instead by burning fossil fuels. The New England Heat Pump Accelerator is a collaboration between Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The initiative is funded by the federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, which was created by President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The accelerator’s launch marks a rare milestone for a Biden-era climate initiative amid the Trump administration’s relentless attempts to scrap federal clean energy and environmental programs. The goal: Get more heat pumps into more homes.
MAINE MONITOR • November 21, 2025
The frontline of Maine’s battle against the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid is concentrated in the Midcoast, where the tiny insect is wreaking havoc on its namesake evergreens. After arriving in Kittery more than two decades ago, the adelgid has traveled up Maine’s coast largely unrestricted and bypassed a state quarantine on moving hemlock saplings designed to prevent the adelgid’s spread. In recent years, a coalition of Midcoast land trusts, private landowners and Maine Forest Service officials have ramped up their efforts to control the hemlock woolly adelgid by recruiting the help of a familiar foe: two species of beetle that prey on the adelgid in Asia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. It’s a counteroffensive that forest managers hope will knock back the adelgid to both relieve the recently infested hemlocks in the Midcoast and thwart the insect’s inland expansion.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • November 21, 2025
The U.S. government can continue requiring America’s lobster fishing boats to use electronic tracking devices to collect data, a federal appeals court has ruled, denying claims by some in the industry that the monitoring amounts to unreasonable search and seizure. Fishing regulators began requiring federally permitted lobstermen to install electronic tracking devices that transmit location data in late 2023. The data improves understanding of the lobster population and can inform future rules, authorities said.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 21, 2025
South Portland has a draft plan for its future, including the land under and around petroleum tank farms as potential sites for business and residential development. The 100-plus page comprehensive plan is the product of years of research, meetings and discussions, and it is not set in stone. The final version, ultimately approved by the City Council, will serve as a guideline for city policy and growth for the next 15 years.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 21, 2025
On Maine’s Bold Coast sits one of the last expansive forests on the Eastern Seaboard. Pressure to develop the area in the 1980s threatened the Bold Coast’s natural landscape and public access, sparking a decades-long protection effort. In October 2025, a new wilderness preserve was created by Northeast Wilderness Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust, The Bold Coast Wilderness Preserve, 2,037 acres, stitches together a tapestry of forests, marshes and islands that support the well-being of wildlife and humans. Less than 4% of Maine lands currently qualify as wildlands. The Bold Coast Wilderness Preserve nudges that number up. The preserve’s forests, formerly timberlands, can now evolve naturally into old-growth ecosystems, supporting greater biodiversity and carbon storage and complementing managed forests elsewhere. ~ Jon Leibowitz, Northeast Wilderness Trust, and Jacob van de Sande, Maine Coast Heritage Trust
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 21, 2025
In one of Maine’s fastest growing towns, some residents want things to slow down and are pushing back against new developments. On Wednesday, Scarborough held the second of two meetings addressing how the town will manage growth since the passing of a new law that could make it more difficult for the town to rein in development, officials said. LD 1829, signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills in June, aims to address Maine’s affordable housing shortage by peeling back zoning restrictions and limiting how municipalities regulate development.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 21, 2025
There are some really cool birds in the world, but perhaps none are as beloved as a snowy owl. Aided by the fame of Harry Potter, snowy owls are one of the most recognizable and charismatic species around. In Maine, we see them only as winter visitors and some years they are completely absent. As exciting as it is, I do worry a bit because of the attention that these owls attract. Only get as close as you need to. You may actually have a better chance of getting to see one hunt if you are far enough away to not disturb any prey items. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox
MAINE PUBLIC • November 20, 2025
The New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line — also known as the CMP corridor — will be online by the end of the year, in time to supply power to the grid for the winter season, according to a winter energy plan released by ISO New England. "We're expecting people in New England on some of those colder days to use anywhere between 20 to 21,000 megawatts of power," said ISO NE spokesperson Mary Cate Colapietro. "That's pretty similar to last winter's peak demand day." The NECEC electricity transmission line will carry 1,200 megawatts of hydropower from Quebec to the New England grid. The controversial project was first proposed in 2017 and had been rejected by Maine voters at referendum four years ago. But it came back online after Avangrid won a court victory in 2023.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 20, 2025
Despite the 43-day federal government shutdown, Acadia National Park had its busiest October ever and is on pace to set a new annual record for total visitsWith nearly 600,000 visits tallied last month — when many buildings in the park were closed to the public and only a skeleton crew was on duty — Acadia National Park almost reached 4 million visits for the year by Halloween.
SUN JOURNAL • November 20, 2025
A chemical spill at a cannabis production facility on Riverside Drive forced the closure of several streets Thursday afternoon. The owner of Cure Cannabis said a disgruntled former employee, John Morrison, doused pot as it hung in a drying room poured isopropyl alcohol and bleach on cured marijuana destroying at least $100,000 worth of pot. Central Maine Power was called to cut electrical service to the building as fire and hazmat teams investigated the source of the smell. Riverside Drive from Dunn to Broad was closed as was a stretch of Mill Street from Riverside Drive to Broad Street.
MAINE PUBLIC • November 20, 2025
Wood banks — which provide firewood to people in need at no charge — have officially existed in Maine for almost two decades. They're increasing in number, due in part to the rising cost of living, and cuts to government support programs.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 21, 2025
After years of political and legal setbacks, a new power corridor through western Maine has received the final permit needed to get the project online by its goal of December 2025. When Maine regulators first approved the New England Clean Energy Connect corridor that will carry hydropower from Quebec into Massachusetts, conservationists won a key concession from the project: developers were required to permanently conserve 50,000 acres in the area of the corridor. On Wednesday, Central Maine Power parent company Avangrid received the final approval it needed from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to conserve that area of the Maine wilderness. This means that, once testing and commissioning is done, the power corridor could be online by the end of the year. The $1.5 billion power line is designed to help Massachusetts meet its climate goals.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 20, 2025
Leah Kovitch was pulling invasive plants in the meadow near her home when a tick latched onto her leg. She didn’t notice the tiny bug until her calf muscle began to feel sore. She made an appointment with a telehealth doctor — one recommended by her health insurance plan — who prescribed a 10-day course of doxycycline to prevent Lyme disease and strongly suggested she be seen in person. Later that day, she went to a walk-in clinic near her home in Brunswick. Staffers found another tick on her during the visit and one of the ticks tested positive for Lyme. Her insurer denied coverage for the walk-in visit. She hadn’t obtained preapproval. Prior authorization rules can block coverage for even simple, medically necessary care. The Trump administration announced this summer that dozens of private health insurers agreed to make sweeping changes to the prior authorization process. But, so far, the federal government has offered few specifics about which diagnostic codes tagged to medical services for billing purposes will be exempt from prior authorization — or how private companies will be held accountable.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 21, 2025
Lyman-Morse has been awarded a contract to design and build a fleet of solar-powered ferries that will restore regular passenger service to a portion of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts for the first time in nearly a century. The Thomaston-based boatbuilder is set to build three aluminum, solar-assisted electric ferries for MeVa Transit, the public transportation agency that serves the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts. The project is funded by a $4.2 million federal grant.
CENTRAL MAINE • November 20, 2025
About six months ago, several of Newry’s 11 volunteer firefighters downloaded the What3Words app. The free geocoding program divides the world into 10-by-10-foot squares and assigns each one a unique three-word address. Traditional addresses or landmarks often don’t exist in rural areas, making it difficult for rescuers to find people. Using the app is simple: a lost or injured hiker taps the “Locate Me” icon, and the three-word address appears at the top of the screen. They read the words to the emergency call taker. This year, Newry firefighters have rescued five or six people on the 50 miles of trail in the Mahoosuc Range. The tool has its limits. Location accuracy can vary depending on the hiker’s phone carrier.
