Non-Target Catches

THE MAINE SPORTSMAN • June 2026

Non-target catches are one of the problems a trapper has to deal with. The capture of a Canda lynx must be reported to a game warden or biologist prior to removing the animal from the trap, unless a Department official cannot be reached in time to prevent injury to the lynx.

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Rabid fox found in Maine town

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 29, 2026

A rabid fox was found in Lisbon Falls about 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Lisbon Police Department. In humans, rabies causes flu-like symptoms early on. As the virus advances, anxiety, confusion, agitation hallucinations and hydrophobia. It is almost fatal, in both humans and animals, once symptoms develop. Police urge anyone who spots a suspected rabid animal to not approach it and report the sighting to the police department.

Bangor will rename city trail after Gerald Talbot

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 29, 2026

Bangor is renaming a trail after Gerald Talbot, a civil rights leader and the state’s first Black legislator. That comes after Talbot died May 9 at age 94. The City Council authorized renaming the trail in honor of Talbot, whose name also adorns the park and playground off Second Street, where he grew up. Talbot made history in 1972 when he became Maine’s first Black legislator. His daughter Rachel Talbot Ross went on to serve as Maine House speaker. During his life, Talbot championed civil rights in Maine.

Maine sewage sludge crisis is ‘still under a clock’ even if landfill expands

MAINE MONITOR • May 29, 2026

The proposed expansion of the Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town and Alton comes as Maine grapples with where to put the PFAS-contaminated sludge that piles up each day at municipal wastewater treatment plants. The landfill’s application for an expansion license is being processed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which recently determined for a second time that the expansion would have a public benefit. That remains under an appeal brought by the Penobscot Nation and the Conservation Law Foundation. They argue air and water pollution from the landfill is an environmental injustice to the surrounding communities and to the Penobscot River. Juniper Ridge currently handles about half of the state’s total landfilled waste and about 90 percent of the state’s sewage sludge.

Maine still has places that feel genuinely wild. I explored one of them.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 28, 2026

The Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area, managed by The Nature Conservancy, sits just south of Baxter State Park and is part of nearly 500,000 acres of conserved forest connected to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and Nahmakanta Public Lands. Trees as old as 300 years have been documented there. The lakes contain brook trout, Arctic charr and rare freshwater mussels, species that require pristine water quality and relatively undisturbed habitat. The Debsconeag Lakes feed into the West Branch of the Penobscot River. If you navigate upstream through the Penobscot River Corridor — past Chesuncook Lake — paddlers can access Telos Lake and Chamberlain Lake. Telos marks the southern end of the 92-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

Maine plans to use herbicide against invasive water plants

MAINE PUBLIC • May 28, 2026

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection plans to use herbicides to kill invasive variable leaf milfoil infestations on three Maine lakes this summer. The agency is seeking new permits to apply chemicals in Messalonskee, Little Sebago and Androscoggin lakes, according to a department notice. John McPhedran, an aquatic invasives specialist at the department said it used the herbicide ProcellaCOR against milfoil infestations several times since the product was authorized by federal regulators in 2017. "We are discharging a pollutant to the state water, which none of us really like to do," McPhedran said. "But these are instances which we think that it is warranted."

Acadia waits for funding as Trump diverts $67M in park entrance fees to DC projects

MAINE PUBLIC • May 28, 2026

President Donald Trump has diverted at least $67 million in national park entrance fee revenue to finance beautification projects in Washington D.C., while parks like Acadia face a growing list of delayed maintenance needs. The administration has redirected $60 million in entrance fee revenue to repair nine decorative fountains around Washington. An additional $7 million has gone towards the controversial renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. At Acadia, officials estimate $138 million is needed to cover deferred maintenance and repair projects. On top of deferred repairs, officials estimate the park spends $9.6 million annually on routine maintenance.

Letter: Right whale requires ever more careful regulation

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 28, 2026

Your May 15 piece on North Atlantic right whales offered promising news about this year’s calving season. But as someone who has spent decades working to protect marine mammals, I’d caution against relying on this season’s numbers as a reason to ease up on regulations. More calves means more whales at risk. Recovery requires sustained 50-plus births per year. And we won’t get there without careful regulation. ~ Cindy Lowry, International Marine Mammal Project, a project of Earth Island Institute, Portland

9 midcoast towns receive climate grants

MIDCOAST VILLAGER • May 28, 2026

Nine midcoast towns—Rockland, South Thomaston, Union, Warren, Belfast, Northport, Lincolnville, Searsport and North Haven—will benefit from the latest round of state grants to prepare for severe storms and flooding and reduce costs to taxpayers through energy efficiency upgrades. The grants are through the state’s Community Resilience Partnership program, created in 2021 by Gov. Mills based on a leading recommendation of Maine’s climate action plan, Maine Won’t Wait.

Bowdoin temporarily withdraws Kingfield campsite application

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 28, 2026

Bowdoin College temporarily withdrew its application for a campsite in Kingfield through a May 26 letter sent by John Simoneau, Bowdoin’s director of capital projects, to the town’s board of selectmen and planning board. In the letter, the Brunswick college said it would not refile for at least six months. The period will give the town of Kingfield enough time to properly review the proposal and town ordinances. The planned campsite would be used by the college’s outing club, with groups from the club visiting the plot for weekend trips. For a week at the start of the school year, it would be used for freshman orientation trips.

Maine Audubon opens native plant education center

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 28, 2026

On one side of the Ann and Jim Hancock Native Plants Education Center, two birders scan the grassy field with binoculars. On the other side, an array of native plants sit in pots, ready to be distributed to homeowners across Maine who are looking to support local ecosystems. These two sides also represent the mission of the new education building at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm, the headquarters of the statewide environmental organization. Maine Audubon cut the ribbon on the building Wednesday, joined by over 200 supporters, donors and staff. The center is dedicated to the organization’s native plant program and associated events.

Opinion: Federal defense of Big Oil ignores climate chaos

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 28, 2026

Big Oil is causing terrible damage to our climate, and its proposed Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026 would prevent anyone from ever suing Big Oil to protect our children’s future. Even the name of this legislation is a lie. Big Oil not only harms us, it also intentionally deceived the American people about the dangers of its product. This is what makes it financially liable. The Republican agenda to defund clean energy is intensifying the damage from climate change that American citizens have to endure and pay for. ~ Richard Thomas, Waterville

Fact brief: Does pollution from the Midwest hurt Maine’s air quality?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 28, 2026

Yes. Maine’s air quality is affected by pollution from other parts of the country, including the Midwest. America’s Health Rankings, a public health data platform funded by United Health Foundation, ranks Maine fifth-best in the nation for air quality, tied with Alaska and New Mexico. But transported ozone — a lung-irritating gas formed when pollution reacts in sunlight — periodically hurts Maine’s coastal air quality. Maine receives both ozone and ozone-forming pollutants from upwind states. 

Environmental group files lawsuit against federal government over horseshoe crab protections

MAINE PUBLIC • May 28, 2026

A national environmental organization Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for failing to protect American horseshoe crabs under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity is among more than two dozen organizations that petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect horseshoe crabs in 2024. The Center says horseshoe crab populations have plummeted in recent decades and the species is threatened by overharvesting and habitat loss.

Letter: Greed is pricing Mainers out of vacationing in Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 28, 2026

My wife and I wanted a brief getaway to go camping. I called a few local campgrounds in Old Orchard Beach. I was shocked by their nightly rates: Bailey’s quoted $146, Powderhorn quoted $150 and Paradise Campground quoted $100. Bailey’s has 700 sites and Powderhorn has 400. On holiday weekends, by my math, Baileys could make $102,000 nightly and Powderhorn $60,000. Add in store sales and rentals, and the only explanation is greed. ~ Doug Davis,Windham

Opinion: Hydropower is central to Maine’s economic future

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 28, 2026

Electrification, advanced manufacturing, digital services and new technologies such as AI all rely on a steady power supply. These changes bring opportunity, but only if our energy grid is ready to support them over the long term. That’s why it’s important to focus on the smartest assets we already have and use them well. Hydropower is Maine’s largest advantage. The state has nearly 700 MW of installed hydropower capacity across roughly 50 facilities, supplying about 20% of Maine’s in-state electricity generation in a typical year. These are proven, durable assets. Many hydropower facilities operate for 50, 75, even 100 years. For businesses, that longevity and scale matter because it translates into long-term price stability and reliability. ~ Kimberly Lindlof, Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce.

As bird watching grows, hobbyists flock to Caribou for monthlong birding series

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 28, 2026

A few hours after dawn, Bill Sheehan and a group of binocular-toting bird watchers ambled down the dirt road toward Caribou’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. Sheehan, a birding guide and the founder of Aroostook Birders, called out the birdsongs radiating out of the trees around them. Around 30 people came out to birdwatch with Sheehan for the fourth outing of “May is Healthy You Caribou.” This May was likely the most successful month in the program’s 14 years, organizers said. Dozens have attended each outing. The trend matches a growing interest in birding worldwide.

AI is giving bad advice to people who want to visit Acadia

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 28, 2026

More visitors than ever are using artificial intelligence to plan trips to Acadia National Park. But the information they’re receiving isn’t always reliable. AI tools often provide inaccurate or outdated advice. As the park welcomes more tourists each year — Acadia recorded more than 4 million visits last year — many are first-timers who may not realize their itinerary is riddled with errors. One TikTok itinerary with more than 14,000 likes — tagged with a disclaimer that the video contained AI-generated media — raved about a coastal road trip starting in Portland, stopping in Kennebunkport, crossing Penobscot Bay and ending on Mount Desert Island. There is no such ferry, and Kennebunkport is southwest of Portland. Among the most glaring omissions in AI-generated Acadia itineraries was how to navigate transportation. Though two models — Claude and ChatGPT — warned that the park becomes particularly busy in summer, neither recommended the Island Explorer, the park’s free shuttle bus service.

9,400 tons of court-ordered sand to be deposited in Penobscot River this summer

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 28, 2026

A pilot project depositing about 9,400 tons of sand in the lower Penobscot River to test its effectiveness in covering mercury contamination is likely to begin in mid-August. The project is a court-ordered step, years in the making, toward addressing industrial mercury contamination in the estuary that has had wide-reaching negative effects throughout the food chain and on human uses of the waterway. If successful, the method will likely be used to cap an additional 124 acres of intertidal flats. The mercury contamination stemmed from the now-defunct HoltraChem plant in Orrington, which illegally discharged between 6 and 12 tons of the toxic metal in the river in the late 1960s and early ’70s.