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Lake Auburn Watershed birding walk, June 27

MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • June 19, 2026

Join Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission and the Feminist Bird Club of Maine for a birding walk along the shores of Lake Auburn, June 27, 8-10 am.

Woodchuck eating your garden? Here’s a Maine expert’s advice

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 19, 2026

Chris Maher, a professor of biology at the University of Southern Maine, has been studying Maine woodchucks, also known as groundhogs, since 1998. She researches their social behavior with a long-term study at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth and knows their habits and preferences well. She’s also familiar with fending them off in her personal time. Here are her tips for deterring woodchucks from your property. Don’t trap the woodchuck, don’t release it elsewhere, and don’t use poison. Do modify the landscape so they’re no longer comfortable, do build a fence around your garden, and do make woodchucks think there is a predator in the area.

York’s Sohier Park could get a $3 million upgrade

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 19, 2026

York is weighing more than $3 million in major upgrades at Sohier Park, across from the iconic Nubble Light. The town is considering several changes that would improve pedestrian safety and strengthen the site’s storm resilience while also completing routine maintenance. The project was proposed in January 2025, and the Selectboard reviewed the plans on June 8, though nothing has been officially greenlit.

Maine forest groups warn Pingree that federal cuts could endanger research, forest health

MAINE MORNING STAR • June 19, 2026

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree gathered state agencies and other forestry organizations for a roundtable discussion in Portland on Thursday about the impact of recent changes at the Forest Service and their concerns about future reorganizing. Maine forestry groups emphasized that any reductions of U.S. Forest Service research and staffing would have consequences across the state and region. Maine relies on the Forest Service to understand pests and diseases. Pingree said even though she is the ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Committee’s Interior subcommittee, she can’t get clarity on what the Forest Service reorganization might look like. 

What a Maine researcher has learned studying woodchucks for nearly 3 decades

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 19, 2026

Since 1998, University of Southern Maine professor Chris Maher has tagged over 600 woodchucks at Falmouth’s Gilsland Farm, tracking their behavior and genealogy. She’s been answering longstanding questions about the species. Not whether they’ll see their shadow on Feb. 2, and not how much wood they could chuck if they could chuck wood, but how and why they behave the way they do. “People kind of run this gamut between ‘I hate woodchucks, because they eat my garden, or they dig under my shed.’ Or they love woodchucks — chances are, those people don’t have a garden,” she said. Retirement is not too far off, and it doesn’t look like anyone else will be taking over the reins of the study from Maher.

Never forget, all roads are private in the North Maine Woods

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 19, 2026

With countless lakes, ponds and rivers, miles of hiking trails and scores of campsites, the North Maine Woods is an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise with more than 100,000 people visiting the region every year. The 3.5 million acres also is a privately owned working forest and while its owners are more than happy to allow access to the land over thousands of miles of dirt roads, visitors need to know the rules of those roads for safety’s sake. And the most important rule of all to remember is logging trucks always have the right of way.

5 ways to enjoy Acadia during a rainy day this week

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 19, 2026

Acadia’s weather forecast doesn’t always provide ideal vacation conditions, but there are still several ways to enjoy the park on a rainy day — and stay relatively dry.
• Ride the Island Explorer
• Visit Sieur de Monts Nature Center
• Take tea and popovers at Jordan Pond
• Travel the quieter carriage roads
• Visit the Abbe Museum

Late frost threatens Maine’s hard-hit wild blueberries

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 19, 2026

A late May frost settled upon the blueberry barrens at Smithereen Farm in Pembroke, pooling in the hollows overlooking Cobscook Bay and threatening buds that bloomed during the heat of the recent false spring. A similar vigil is playing out in frostbitten blueberry barrens across Maine, highlighting the vulnerability of one of the state’s signature crops to climate volatility and the growing divide between those who can and cannot afford costly defenses. The volume of Maine’s wild harvest is as volatileas the changing climate. Last year, growers had a 57.5 million pound harvest, a 36% decline. It is a uniquely Maine crisis. The state produces 99% of the nation’s wild blueberries.

The millions at stake for Orrington as another blaze erupts at embattled trash plant

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 18, 2026

A massive fire that broke out Tuesday is the latest setback for the embattled Orrington trash plant. Eagle Point Energy Center has sat idle for years, having been shuttered by foreclosure in 2023. Prior to its closure, the facility burned thousands of tons of waste a year from dozens of communities throughout Penobscot County and beyond. Then Evan Coleman purchased the facility around February 2024. Reopening was significantly pushed back by a 10-day fire in October 2024. At stake is at least $3 million of taxpayer money that Coleman is supposed to pay the town, which owns 25% of the facility. If that money is not paid, Orrington would have to foreclose on the property to recoup its losses.

Maine warns of contaminated fish in midcoast stream

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 18, 2026

Chemical contamination has made it into two more Maine waterways in concentrations great enough to pose danger to people eating the fish they catch. Testing in Sandy Stream in Freedom, Knox and Unity, and in the Sebasticook River in Winslow, found elevated levels of the toxic chemical perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) in fish tissue samples, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention. PFOS is one of the many types of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Trump deal scraps two Gulf of Maine wind energy leases

MAINE PUBLIC • June 18, 2026

Energy giant Invenergy will abandon two of its offshore wind power projects in the Gulf of Maine as part of a $765 million deal with the Trump administration to invest in fossil fuel power plants instead. Under the arrangement, Chicago-based Invenergy will give up offshore leases in California, New York and Massachusetts. The lease payments will instead be redirected to building natural gas power plants in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri and a geothermal generation project in the American west. President Donald Trump is openly hostile to offshore wind power and his administration is pro-fossil fuel energy.

Trek Across Maine officials prioritize bicyclist safety

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2026

The 42nd annual Trek Across Maine, a three-day, 180-mile biking event, will begin and end in New Gloucester. The trek is a major with proceeds going toward lung health education, research and advocacy efforts. Sarah Brown, of the American Lung Association, encouraged riders to obey traffic laws and warned drivers the trek may result in congestion and intermittent delays along the route.

Inside the volunteer effort — and legal challenge — to help protect horseshoe crabs in Maine

MAINE PUBLIC • June 18, 2026

What has twelve legs, ten eyes and one tail? It's not a creature from science fiction — it's the horseshoe crab, a so-called living fossil that some scientists say is now threatened with extinction. That's at the center of a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity alleging the federal government has so far failed to include them for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Downeast, where the Friends of Taunton Bay have been monitoring horseshoe crabs for nearly three decades, the data show a clear trend. "The decline was gentle for awhile, and then somewhat precipitous," says the group's Frank Dorsey. He says they used to find more than 100 a day, but the number dropped by more than half with the arrival of invasive green crabs, which eat horseshoe crabs' eggs and can destroy eelgrass habitat.

Local artists to host plein air painting at Coastal Rivers preserves

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2026

Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust invites artists and nature lovers of all experience levels to kick off a summer of outdoor creativity with “Painting at Preserves,” a series of free monthly plein air painting and sketching sessions. The first program is from 9-11 a.m. Monday, June 22, at Seal Cove Shore Preserve in South Bristol. Led by local artists Erica Qualey and Joy Vaughan, these sessions offer a unique opportunity to explore, connect and create within the scenic beauty of the Midcoast.

Jay data center on hold indefinitely as company backs out, despite veto of statewide ban

MAINE MORNING STAR • June 18, 2026

Plans for a data center at the former paper mill in Jay are on hold after the data center company pulled out of the project — just two months after Gov. Janet Mills cited the project as her reason for vetoing a statewide data center moratorium. Town officials posted on Facebook that the company that owns the mill, JGT2, notified the town that Sentinel Data Centers would not be moving forward with the project. Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport), who sponsored the moratorium bill, said she never saw evidence to back up the promises made by developers for jobs and other benefits to the area. Sachs said the benefits of the project seemed “overstated at best,” and now residents across the state are left without the protections of a statewide moratorium.

Opinion: Annulment of EPA ‘endangerment findings’ cripples Clean Air Act

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2026

The Clean Air Act is clear. It values the environment that supports all life on Earth. But regulations limiting an air pollutant may not be imposed on a corporation unless/until EPA scientists determine that a pollutant “endangers” the environment and/or human life. President Trump in an executive order directed the head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, to reexamine the “endangerment” rationale of the EPA with an eye to rescinding it. On Feb. 12, 2026, Trump and Zeldin (with no scientific background) announced that they were erasing the EPA’s 2009 scientific finding that six greenhouse gases “endanger” human health and the environment, thus crippling the Clean Air Act. This is unprincipled and legally unsupportable. It ignores a 2007 Supreme Court holding. State governments and national environmental organizations have appealed. ~ Orlando Delogu, Portland

Maine moves to expand deer hunting season along the coast

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 18, 2026

The state is considering adding expanded archery season for deer hunting to towns along the coast and some Maine islands. A new proposal would apply to the midcoast and Hancock County, including the islands of Verona and Deer Isle-Stonington. The expanded season starts in mid-September and ends in mid-December, bracketing regular archery season, which lasts through the month of October. The push comes as deer populations have grown along the coast, in some places eating young trees and vegetation before they can regrow and causing problems for people such as car crashes, tick-borne diseases and extensive crop damage. 

West Marine stores in Maine among 59 to close nationwide

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 17, 2026

West Marine stores in Portland and Southwest Harbor are among 59 that the national chain plans to close. The Florida-based retailer of boating, fishing and watersports equipment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May.

King among lawmakers demanding info on Trump use of national park fees to pay for D.C. repairs

MAINE MORNING STAR • June 17, 2026

U.S. House and Senate Democrats are demanding transparency from the Interior Department after media reports revealed the Trump administration redirected roughly $90 million in national parks fees to help fund renovations and upcoming celebratory displays in Washington, D.C. The administration’s use of fee revenues to pay for fountain repairs, statue upgrades and fireworks shows in preparation for America’s 250th birthday on July 4 diverts money from national parks in desperate need of billions of dollars in maintenance, lawmakers wrote in two separate early-June letters to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. Joining in signing the Senate letter was Angus King (I-ME).