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 • October 24, 2025
Richard Edward Barringer, cabinet member for three Maine governors and public policy educator, died on October 20, 2025. He was a passionate champion for Maine's environment and the well-being of its citizens over a 60+ year career of public service. Richard received a master's degree from UMass and a doctorate from MIT. He taught at the Kennedy School of Government, directed the Massachusetts Bicentennial Commission, and authored A Maine Manifest (1972), an analysis of Maine's changing natural resource-based economy. He moved to Maine in 1973 to become the first director of the Bureau of Public Lands, where he and colleagues reclaimed 600,000 acres. He was commissioner of the Department of Conservation 1975-1981, then state planning director 1981-1986. Richard then joined USM as a research professor and graduate teacher in public policy. Dick published Toward a Sustainable Maine (1993) and Changing Maine (2004). He competed in the Democratic primary for governor in 1994. He joined with other stewards of the outdoors to establish the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation in 2011. A memorial service for Richard will occur at 14 Ocean Gateway Pier, Portland, on November 18, 2025, from 4 to 5 p.m. followed by an informal catered celebration.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 24, 2025
Youth hunters across the state headed out early Friday morning for the first in a two-day firearm deer hunting season dedicated to youth under the age of 16. The young sportsmen and sportswomen are mentored by more experienced hunters who are happy to share their experience in an effort to preserve the heritage and pass it on to the next generation.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 24, 2025
A recent op-ed argues for Maine to become a place where rocket launches occur regularly. Claims of benefit to Maine must be weighed against the harms to our traditional economy. Maine’s economy is highly dependent on commercial fishing on the one hand and tourism on the other. Tourists flock to Acadia National Park from all over the world. It’s a uniquely beautiful spot where one can witness the first rays of dawn light in the continental U.S. Residents of nearby Steuben earlier this year rejected a bid to build a rocket launch site offshore of their village, citing the threat to environmental health of waters where food is harvested and also significant noise pollution. And who wants to see a rocket launch facility within sight of Acadia? Not locals. Previously, Jonesport rejected a launch site after passing a moratorium to halt development while local residents had time to study the proposal. Which town will be next to say it does not want to hear or see rockets launching from its coast? ~ Mark Roman, Solon
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 24, 2025
In 2015, and a boiler explosion forced the paper mill in Lincoln — then owned by Lincoln Paper and Tissue and employing more than 100 people — to file for bankruptcy, leaving the mill site vacant and in need of a $60 million chemical cleanup. The town acquired the mill, dam and nearly 400 surrounding acres in the years following the closure, and razed many buildings to develop the area into the Lincoln Technology Park. Now, Lincoln is looking ahead to 2027, when the largest battery system in the world is slated to be built on the former mill site. But the town is asking companies coming to the mill site to create a fund to pay for expenses from future closures. Lincoln is doing what it failed to do in the past: plan for the worst.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 23, 2025
The northern Maine wind and transmission line is one step closer to reality as the Maine Public Utilities Commission seeks input from potential bidders and other interested parties on a draft request for proposals. Experts tout the power of northern Maine’s wind energy potential, but harnessing that wind and getting the electricity it produces to the power grid has had its share of obstacles and stalled attempts, including the Number Nine Wind Farm, canceled in late 2016, and the Aroostook Renewable Gateway, which was canceled in December 2023. These setbacks come at a time when the state’s need for new energy sources has grown amid Mainers skyrocketing electricity bills. Not to mention a dramatic increase in the region’s electric usage due to heat pumps, EVs, and other electrification priorities, further highlighting the push to harness the County’s wind potential.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 22, 2025
Maine tourism took another hit this past summer. The state saw 6% fewer visitors between May 1 and Aug. 31 than during the same period in 2024, when roughly 7.8 million people visited the state, according to the 2025 Summer Visitor Tracking Report released Wednesday. That drop to about 7.3 million visitors in 2025 comes in the wake of a 9% decrease between the summers of 2023 and 2024. However, the annual report from the Maine Office of Tourism indicates that tourists are staying longer.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 23, 2025
The city of Belfast has made plans to deal with two contaminated downtown buildings it owns in the coming months. The city received $2 million through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields program earlier this year to clean up the former Waldo County Superior Courthouse and a dilapidated building at 74 High St. known as Bradbury Manor so they can be reused. A consulting firm hired by the city, TRC, is proposing to demolish and abate the manor site while containing contaminated soil, and to abate materials at the former courthouse during the renovation process along with capping soil.
CENTRAL MAINE • October 23, 2025
Maine’s extended drought could be prolonging the fall allergy season, but there isn’t enough data available to confirm a connection, experts say. During a drought, there is no rain to “wash” pollen out of the air, said Andrea Nurse, a researcher at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute. Instead, the pollen released by a common fall weed like ragweed stays adrift longer and travels farther, making it harder for people to avoid. Drought-related winds can also pick up and recirculate old tree and grass pollens left on top of a parched ground. Despite these facts, scientists and doctors can’t yet prove whether droughts like the one currently gripping Maine — new federal data shows 93% of the state was in severe or extreme drought as of Tuesday — make seasonal allergies worse.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 23, 2025
Despite this week's rainfall, the entire state of Maine is now experiencing some drought conditions, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report. Around 93% of the state has been impacted by severe drought conditions, up from 73% last week. Senior service hydrologist Sarah Jamison with the national weather service in Gray said the four inches or so of rain was a good first step — but that Maine will need another 10 to 12 inches before winter to get fully out of the woods.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 23, 2025
Nearly double the number of people who visited Aroostook County in 2024 visited this summer, according to numbers released Thursday by the Maine Office of Tourism. Final tourism numbers won’t be out until the end of the year, but the snapshot of summer travel indicates 7.3 million people spent time in Maine, 6% fewer than last year’s 7.8 million. But Aroostook drew about 511,000 tourists during the season, a significant jump over roughly 300,000 people in 2024.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 23, 2025
A section of the Riverside Trail in Portland is closed indefinitely as Portland Trails begins repairs and cleanup following the removal of several homeless encampments on the trail along the Presumpscot River. The closure, which affects about a mile of trail between Forest and Warren avenues, took effect Oct. 17. Portland Trails, a nonprofit that maintains almost 100 miles of trails, had previously issued an alert for the area, warning trail users of safety hazards and advising caution, but decided last week to move to a full closure after the encampments along the river were swept.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 23, 2025
The Trump administration on Thursday finalized a plan to open the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, renewing long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation’s most sensitive wilderness areas. The plan fulfills a promise by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to open this portion of the refuge to possible development. The massive GOP bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, passed during the summer, called for at least four lease sales within the refuge over a 10-year period.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 23, 2025
Amid the chirps of chickadees, clamor of squirrels scampering up hemlock trunks and the soft flow of the Royal River, Passamaquoddy/Maliseet words can be heard in the woods of Yarmouth once again. “Nulasihkuwolpon Sipuhsisuwi Kcihq,” says the voice of Dwayne Tomah. “Welcome to Riverfront Woods Preserve.” The words emerge from the Wabanaki interpretive sign project in Yarmouth’s Riverfront Woods Preserve. Officially completed this week, the educational signs erected throughout the preserve share the history and cultural life of the Wabanaki Confederacy and its long connection to the diverse ecologies in the 50 wooded acres.
MACHIAS VALLEY NEWS OBSERVER • October 23, 2025
Maine is promulgating climate, energy, and equity policies that have had an adverse disparate impact on rural Maine. Climate policy has driven up energy and electricity prices, been opaque as to the size and distribution of the costs and benefits (averted climate change), and loudly pursued equity without defining it. Legislation from 2nd Congressional District Republican leadership offered several opportunities to correct these issues. A series of party line votes assured that the adverse disparate impact will continue. Maine has increased public/conservation land holdings using generous Land for Maine’s Future funding. The 30% goal would require doubling public lands holdings by adding 3 million acres. Public lands holdings and acquisitions are concentrated in the 2nd CD - no county in the 1st CD has even double digits in public holdings: The 30% public lands goal has an adverse disparate impact on the 2nd CD, removing much larger percentages of the tax base, and it is only going to get worse. ~ Jon Reisman
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 23, 2025
For more than a decade, the nonprofit WindowDressers has offered low- or no-cost window inserts, designed to plug drafty windows and keep heat indoors. Armstrong, a longtime volunteerturned coordinator, said the Rockland-based group helps New Englanders lower their heating bills while bringing people together for “community build” sessions.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 23, 2025
In their reporting on the careers of Jane Goodall and David Attenborough, CNN, NPR and PBS all skipped mention of their many statements warning of dire consequences for wildlife, their habitats and us if we don’t find ways to cork the population-growth genie — and soon. ~ Anthony Taylor, Buxton
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 23, 2025
A family-run farm in northern Maine is now getting statewide recognition. Freckle Farm in St. David is this year’s recipient of the Maine Institute for Family-Owned Business Shep Lee Community Service Award. The award, according to the Portland-based institute, recognizes a business of any size that demonstrates a commitment to giving back to the community, volunteerism, and employee service to the community. The 2.4-acre farm is run by Keren and Corey Morin. The Morins and their five children mostly handle everything at the farm, and will occasionally get help from volunteers. The farm began in 2020 as an effort to tackle food insecurity amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They were shocked to see empty grocery store shelves in their town in 2020. This motivated them to start the farm and prevent their neighbors in town from going hungry.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 23, 2025
I had a terrible dream the other night. Not a Stephen King-style horror that haunts you in the dark, but a different kind of nightmare. In it, hunting simply didn’t exist. No rifles, no bows, no shotguns. No hunters wandering the woods. A world without one of America’s oldest traditions. I thought about how lucky we are to live in a country where, with few exceptions, nearly anyone can hunt. For me, it is about putting meat on the table, but it is also much more. The woods and fields are my cathedral, a place where I find peace, rejuvenation and a sense of being whole. Those opposed to hunting might find that elsewhere. I have yet to see it. I feel sorry for those who never understand the need or passion as I do. ~ Al Raychard
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 22, 2025
An earthquake rattled Monhegan early Sunday morning. The magnitude 2 temblor shook the ground at a depth of 6.7 miles just about 1.8 miles north of the midcoast island about 3:13 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Since 1997, there have been more than 150 recorded earthquakes in the state. The strongest quake in recent memory occurred on Oct. 16, 2012, when a 4.5 magnitude earthquake shook the ground in East Waterboro.
