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How to stay safe when you or your kids are riding ATVs

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 20, 2026

Maine officials are reminding off-road vehicle users to prioritize their safety following two fatal crashes in two days that claimed the lives of young people. The warden service has investigated six fatal off-road vehicle crashes since spring, including five that involved ATVs and utility task vehicles, also known as side-by-sides. That does not include ATV or UTV crashes that occur on public roads, which fall under other agencies’ jurisdictions. Ronald Fournier, a recreational safety supervisor for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, says there are two constants among fatal ATV crashes: speed and lack of helmets.

Maine sees uptick in travelers coming from Canada

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 19, 2026

Data shows that border crossings from Canada into Maine are rising again this summer, although traffic is still down from 2024. Federal data shows fewer Canadians visited the United States in 2025 amid political tensions and economic pressures. Some boycotted the United States last year in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The exchange rate for Canadians has also gone up.

Opinion: America’s ‘roadless areas’ are under attack. Here’s what New England stands to lose.

NEW HAMPSHIRE BULLETIN

Whether you have enjoyed a hike to a summit in the Green or White Mountains, fishing a cold-water trout stream, a postcard-perfect view from a highway overlook, or a glass of clean water from your tap, there’s a good chance that a U.S. Forest Service “Inventoried Roadless Area” is to thank. But the Trump administration put New England’s irreplaceable roadless areas in its crosshairs for logging and development by announcing its intent to rescind the “Roadless Rule.” More than one-fifth of the White and Green Mountain National Forests are at risk.

Portland makes pedestrian-friendly signal updates along Washington Avenue

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 19, 2026

The city of Portland has implemented new traffic signal timings along outer Washington Avenue that are meant to improve pedestrian safety. A news release Wednesday said the changes reflect the city’s “prioritization of vulnerable road users and safety in general” as officials continue a Vision Zero campaign aimed at eliminating pedestrian injuries and deaths.

Silent film festival will showcase Maine films unseen for over 100 years

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 19, 2026

In the early 20th century, Maine’s forests, lakes, rivers and coastline made the perfect backdrop for films made by small, local production companies. Silent film expert and restorer Ed Lorusso will host the 4th annual silent film festival “Up in Maine” showcasing three films shot in Maine that haven’t been screened in more than 100 years. Silent film actor Edgar Jones, William B. Williamson and Blaine Viles built a film studio in Augusta and produced 25 films between 1919 and 1921. Jones set out to make North Woods dramas based on topics like the lumber industry. The “Up in Maine” festival will be Aug. 29, 1-3 p.m. at the Colonial Theater, 139 Water St., ​Augusta. Tickets are $10.

Column; New Portland station could help launch rail revival in Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 19, 2026

Passenger rail service in Maine scored its first big success since Amtrak trains started running to Brunswick in 2012 when the Federal Railroad Administration last Friday announced a $48 million grant to relocate the current Portland station to a site near Mercy Hospital. The new station could open up a new era of passenger and freight rail travel in Maine, if the state’s leaders would only listen to the growing popular demand for new service, expediting Amtrak service to Lewiston, Waterville and Bangor. ~ Douglas Rooks

Janet Mills joins growing chorus opposing major utility merger

MAINE PUBLIC • August 19, 2026

Gov. Janet Mills joined officials from four other New England states in opposing a major acquisition in the electricity industry that the governors suggest could impact rates and infrastructure improvements. The proposed merger of Florida-based NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy, which is headquartered in Virginia, would reportedly create the world’s largest regulated electric utility. The proposal is being reviewed by federal regulators. But in a joint statement released Tuesday, five governors said the deal would “concentrate an unprecedented amount of leverage in NextEra,” with potential ramifications for ratepayers.

Maine’s top court denies appeal of controversial Bar Harbor aquaculture lease

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2026

Maine’s highest court on Tuesday denied a second appeal of a state decision to grant a roughly 20-acre aquaculture lease in the waters off Bar Harbor to a Trenton-based mussel grower. The decision comes almost seven years after Acadia Aqua Farms first applied to lease about 40 acres in Eastern Bay to grow blue mussels. It also leases waters in Deer Isle, Blue Hill Bay and Frenchman Bay. The Bar Harbor proposal was met with organized opposition from residents and waterfront landowners.

Trump administration advances plan to rescind protections for nearly 45 million wild acres

MAINE MORNING STAR • August 18, 2026

The Trump administration will move ahead with plans to end more than 25 years of sweeping protections for tens of millions of wild, federally managed acres across the U.S. Brooke Rollins, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on Tuesday filed a rule to rescind “in its entirety” the national 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which prohibits road construction, logging and mining on nearly 45 million acres managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The Roadless Rule prohibitions are intended to protect wildlife, watersheds and old-growth forests.

Maine officials, offroad clubs urge safety after two ATV-related deaths

MAINE PUBLIC • August 18, 2026

On Saturday, 20-year-old Bruce Kennedy of North Berwick lost control of his ATV while traveling at a high speed on Piscataquis County trails. He died at the scene due to the injuries suffered in the crash. A day later, two fifteen-year-olds were riding in a 2026 CF Moto Z Force side-by-side in Fort Fairfield. One of the boys was thrown from the vehicle and died on the scene. The other boy was transported to Cary Medical Center in Caribou with injuries. Ron Fournier is the recreational safety supervisor for the MDIFW. He says riders often neglect basic safety protocol on trails they feel comfortable on, but conditions are often changing.

Letter: How Maine farmers can hack the market

CENTRAL MAINE • August 18, 2026

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of driving to Maine’s North Country where we saw firsthand our enormous fields of potatoes, buckwheat and other vegetables. We stopped at Bouchard Family Farm in Fort Kent where we were told that carrots and other local vegetables are sold to the public one day a week. Why don’t more Maine farmers do what Bouchard is doing, and run co-ops? Better yet, use building space next to a Hannaford store. That way, Hannaford becomes David. Maine farmers become Goliath! ~ Louise Haggett, Old Orchard Beach

Portland waterfront workers question zoning change for Hearts of Pine stadium

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 18, 2026

Workers who rely on Portland’s western waterfront for their livelihood are organizing against a zone change required for the Hearts of Pine’s stadium plans at Cassidy Point. Mariners working in commercial shipping, tugboat operation and more say they’re concerned about losing a substantial swath of industrial waterfront property — and future jobs — following the Aug. 4 unveiling of a $50 million soccer stadium proposal. The team has an agreement to purchase about 8 acres of property at the western edge of Commercial Street along the Fore River, which includes a commercial pier. However, in order for the 9,000-11,000-seat stadium to move forward, the city would need to approve a zone change.

$13.4M job to close troubled Bucksport landfill starts years after state order

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2026

Work has started to permanently shut down a dormant landfill that for decades took waste from Bucksport’s former paper mill, three years after the Maine Department of Environmental Protection ordered it to close after finding it wasn’t complying with its operating permit. The 109-acre property off River Road/Route 15 is owned by Montreal-based scrap metal company American Iron & Metal, which bought the Verso paper mill and its holdings, including the landfill and three area dams, following the mill’s 2014 closure. The long-awaited work likely marks the end of AIM’s apparent efforts to delay an end-of-year closure deadline, which have fed local frustration and distrust. The landfill and a dam the company is seeking to abandon have become complicated and costly mill legacies for the town to navigate.

A few of the roughly 150 shipwrecks in the waters around Acadia National Park

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2026

There may be more than a thousand shipwrecks along Maine’s coastline, and researchers have identified 150 vessels around Acadia, including MDI and the Schoodic Peninsula, according to a 2009 inventory completed by marine archaeologists. While some remain unidentified — their port of departure, passenger manifest and captain unknown — more than a few have storied histories, and their tales of misfortune still linger around Mount Desert Island.

Column: This easy Maine bike trail winds through a stunning coastal marsh

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2026

One of our favorite places to ride is the Eastern Trail, the southern Maine section of the developing East Coast Greenway trail system that, when complete, will travel 2,900 miles from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida. The ET covers 65 miles consisting of several on-road, multi-use off-road sections through a dozen towns from Kittery to South Portland. It is the off-road sections that I prefer to ride. All totaled, there are now 23 miles of it between Kennebunk and Bug Light in South Portland after a 1.6-mile “Fill the Gap” section connecting Scarborough and South Portland was opened this summer. ~ Al Raychard

Biddeford woman hurt when jet skis collide in northern Oxford County

SUN JOURNAL • August 17, 2026

A Biddeford woman was injured Sunday when two jet skis collided on Richardson Lake in Richardson Township in northern Oxford County.

Mice may drive Lyme disease more than deer

MAINE MORNING STAR • August 17, 2026

For more than three decades, researchers have been tracking ticks, mice, oak trees and other wildlife in a forest to better understand what makes Lyme disease more likely to spread. Their latest findings challenge some long-held assumptions — including the idea that deer are a major driver of Lyme disease risk. Researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, a nonprofit environmental research group, found that white-footed mice, not white-tailed deer, are closely linked to the number of young blacklegged ticks, the life stage most likely to infect people with Lyme disease.

Desert of Maine celebrates 100 years of ecological wonder

TIMES RECORD • August 17, 2026

Intensive farming practices in the 1800s stripped away the topsoil at the Tuttle family’s farm in Freeport, revealing sand dunes left behind by retreating glaciers tens of thousands of years ago. The 25-acre ecological oddity became a tourist attraction by 1926, welcoming city dwellers who traveled up Route 1 for a taste of the rural life. Today, the desert is home to mini golf, play areas, a campground and dozens of interpretive signs and educational activities that tell the history of the property and of Maine tourism itself. One hundred years later, visitors exploring the dunes at the Desert of Maine can view the early stages of forest succession in real-time as trees start to encroach on the sandy landscape.

Maine struggling to get homeowners to test and treat private wells for arsenic

MAINE MONITOR • August 17, 2026

Just 53 percent of Mainers on private well water had tested for arsenic as of 2023, the latest figures available. The number has not moved much since 2014, when around 48 percent of Mainers on well water reported having tested it for arsenic, and is far short of the goal set by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to have tested 65 percent of wells by 2020. Low-income households making below $25,000 were least likely to have had their wells tested, according to the data collected by the Maine CDC.