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 • May 5, 2026
The city of Belfast wants to generate more solar power to offset its rising municipal electricity consumption, driven by a transition from heating oil to heat pumps. Since 2014, Belfast has built three solar arrays. The largest, located near the Public Works Department on Crocker Road, went into service in 2019. For a period of time, the three arrays offset nearly all of the city’s electricity consumption and delivery costs. “As we’ve increased the amount we use, the solar doesn’t cover as much,” City Manager Erin Herbig said.
SUN JOURNAL • May 5, 2026
Protecting the Lake Auburn watershed is critical to the future health and financial well-being of Lewiston-Auburn and greater Androscoggin County. That was the word from local officials Tuesday at the Androscoggin River Watershed Council’s annual conference in Auburn. The conference focused on topics, including shoreland stabilization, PFAS and climate change. Planning for resilient water supplies and lake protection, particularly Lake Auburn, were also topics of conversation.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 5, 2026
A contractor has been chosen to permanently close a troubled Bucksport landfill that once took waste from a local paper mill, almost three years after the state ordered the scrap metal company that owns it to shut it down. That’s a big step toward closing the site permanently and is an indicator that continued attempts to reopen it have come to an end. Orono-based Sargent Corp. was chosen to do the work for American Iron and Metal, a subsidiary of which bought the Verso mill site and its holdings in 2015. Engineers hired by AIM estimated last year that the closure would cost more than $13.4 million, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
GROWSMART MAINE • May 5, 2026
Leigh Hallett has been selected to be the next CEO of GrowSmart Maine, with a start date of Monday, August 3. Her expertise includes nonprofit leadership, equitable resource deployment, agricultural and food system policy, and rural economic development. This combination of skills makes her exceptionally well-suited to advance GrowSmart Maine's mission of fostering vibrant, sustainable communities across the state. Leigh’s background includes directing resource programs for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry, serving as a Public Information Officer for USDA Rural Development, and directing statewide nonprofits, including the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets, and most recently, the Maine Trails Coalition.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2026
The controversial smack boat is gone, the lawsuits and legal appeals are on hold and for the first time in weeks, a fragile 60-day peace has descended upon one of the most profitable but bitterly divided working waterfronts in Maine. Attorneys for these side-by-side lobster rivals — the Spruce Head Fishermen’s Co-op and the Mazzetta Company — told the South Thomaston Board of Selectmen last week that they have agreed to a two-month cooling off period to negotiate an end to their turf war.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 5, 2026
Twin Rivers Paper Company has acquired a New York-based Potsdam Specialty Paper Inc., the company announced Tuesday. The acquisition adds 26,000 tons to the half-million tons of paper the Madawaska-based company produces annually. Twin Rivers, owned in a controlling share by Atlas Holdings and Blue Wolf Capital, produces paper for the publishing, label, technical and packaging sectors. It operates a pulp and paper complex in Madawaska and neighboring Edmundston, New Brunswick.
SUN JOURNAL • May 5, 2026
Auburn City Council voted Monday night to join an effort to create a recreational trail between Lewiston-Auburn and Portland to be built partially along an inactive rail corridor between Auburn and Portland. The Casco Bay Trail is a proposed 72-mile off-road trail loop connecting Portland, Lewiston, Auburn, Brunswick and Freeport. It would includd a section of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad known as the Berlin subdivision that runs between Danville Junction in Auburn and The Roux Institute in Portland.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2026
The boxes are part of the Downeast Institute’s Clam Recruitment Monitoring Network. The project from the marine research and education institute studies how softshell clams survive and grow in the mudflats of Maine — something the clams have been struggling to do for the past four decades.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 5, 2026
A kayaker is missing off Deer Isle. The man was kayaking near the Deer Isle Bridge on Tuesday morning when his boat overturned.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2026
It’s no surprise that profitable industries try to protect their interests. However, what’s truly concerning is our Environmental Protection Agency chief, Lee Zeldin, “celebrating vindication” with a keynote speech at the Heartland Institute, where he promoted his rollback of the legal grounds for climate change legislation (News, April 9). The Heartland Institute is a think tank funded by major corporate interests, including oil and gas companies. With Mr. Zeldin now possibly under consideration for attorney general, I do not see any reason to celebrate his celebration at the Heartland Institute. ~ Richard Hackel, Chebeague Island
MAINE AUDUBON • May 5, 2026
Maine Audubon invited all candidates running to be our state’s next Governor who qualified for the upcoming primary election—five Democrats and seven Republicans—to participate in a 13-question survey covering a variety of wildlife-related topics. We are pleased to share answers from gubernatorial candidates who opted to take our questionnaire.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 6, 2026
One of the most inspiring stories you’ve likely never heard is about a woman who went for a walk and ended up completing the Appalachian Trail. In 1955, the 67-year-old Gatewood, of Ohio, got the idea to walk the entire AT from reading a National Geographic article in a waiting room. She took a hand-sewn duffel bag carrying minimal supplies and a pair of Keds sneakers, and covered more than 2,000 miles from Georgia to Mount Katahdin. It took her 146 days. At the end, Gatewood became the first woman to solo-hike the storied trail. Gatewood later completed the Appalachian Trail a second time and also tackled the Oregon Trail. A stage version of Emma Gatewood’s story is being performed this month at The Public Theatre in Lewiston starting Friday.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2026
Honey bees are Maine’s official state insect and a keystone species in our ecosystem. As a local beekeeper measuring PFAS in my own hives, I stand with the Maine farmers. I can’t help but wonder how different our response will be to present and emerging environmental crises if we have someone trained in both law and scientific thinking as our next governor. During his time as director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Shah recognized how widespread PFAS contamination is in Maine’s soil and water. Now, at a time when science-informed leadership is more essential than ever, he’s made PFAS protection a top priority. ~ Erin Evans, Portland
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2026
As thousands of Maine homeowners face the daunting cost of testing their wells for forever chemicals, new state research suggests that an affordable mail-in kit may provide a reliable alternative. The state is providing free water testing and home filtration systems for those who live near known hot spots. Others who want to know if PFAS are lurking in their private well must pay for their own test, which isn’t cheap. Although prices have come down in recent years, the cost of a professional analysis conducted by a state-accredited lab will run between $250 to $500. In response to a surge of calls from concerned citizens, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently completed a first-of-its-kind study to determine if an $85 home test kit, made by the Illinois-based Cyclopure, can offer cheaper yet trustworthy test results.
SUN JOURNAL • May 5, 2026
A year and a half ago, Christy Crocker, director of the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council, was working with an enthusiastic school district to help test for radon in its building when all of a sudden, administrators called it off. She understood that for the small district, it likely wasn’t a priority. Something that can’t be seen, smelled or tasted doesn’t feel real, Crocker said, and school districts facing numerous financial pressures have to pick their battles. Maine passed a law in 2019 encouraging schools to test for radon. In March, Maine released the first progress report detailing five years of school testing data. Elevated radon levels existed in at least one room in nearly a quarter of buildings tested. In some, levels were much higher than the point where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends taking action. However, only 12% of all Maine schools, have been tested.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2026
Maine has a problem. Our people want to live in the modern world and not take part in building it. Give us more EVs, but don’t mine any minerals here — the children of Democratic Republic of the Congo are good at that. Remove all the hydro dams instead of building fish ladders, we can just buy our power from other states or countries — or burn more natural gas. Bring broadband to remote counties with taxpayer money but, please, don’t build any data centers — NIMBY all the way. we should diversify and grow our economy. We can’t run a state based on the annual lobster catch and the vacation industry. ~ Zak Harding, Wells
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 4, 2026
The price of Maine’s baby eels has hit a 16-year low for a statewide average of $286 per pound this month, the lowest such average since global demand made prices for Maine’s eels soar in 2011. The average price per pound in Maine is roughly $600 lower than last year, when it was $891 per pound. The state’s fishery for baby eels — also known as elvers or glass eels — peaked in 2018 at $2,366 per pound, according to historical data recorded by the department. The majority of American baby eels caught in Maine waters are shipped live to eastern Asia, where they’re kept in aquaculture ponds until they’re fully grown and then sold for seafood.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 4, 2026
A pair of nesting ospreys were electrocuted in Camden after Central Maine Power removed a long-used nesting platform from a utility pole, prompting outrage among residents. Ospreys have been nesting on a platform above power lines near the Camden Rockport Middle School for years. “There’s nothing worse than thinking, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to see the osprey chicks hatch and fly, and instead to see two dead parents,’” said Alison McKellar, a Camden Select Board member. Osprey are protected under federal law. While they have been classified as threatened or endangered in other states in the Northeast, they have never been listed in Maine. CMP has installed more than 30 osprey platforms across its service area.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 4, 2026
On Memorial Day 1960, my 8-year-old twin brother Don and I sat on the pigpen fence, having just completed our barn chores on our grandparents’ dairy farm in Mercer. Awaiting Grammy Lue’s brass-horn breakfast call, we rocked back and forth until the fence collapsed. Smeared with slop, we raced into the farmhouse and yelled, “Grammy, the pigs have escaped.” To ease the tension, Don chimed in, “But Mr. Chubby (our 250-pound boar) is no longer bunged up.” After days of constipation, Chubby took care of business in Grampa’s potato patch. Henrietta — the matriarch of our Barred Rocks — was busy digging for grubs when the pigs stampeded by. Panic-stricken, she laid an egg on the lawn. ~ Ron Joseph
