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How you can help shape the future of the North Woods

MAINE MORNING STAR • August 26, 2026

The Unorganized Territories (UT) is a region that encompasses all unorganized and de-organized townships in Maine, covering more than half of the state’s area and falling under the guidance of the Land Use Planning Commission. The Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) is the overarching document that guides planning, zoning, and permitting in the UT over 10-year time periods. The commission has begun the process of updating the 2010 CLUP. As the UT faces increased pressure from climate change, economic shifts, and development, it is critical to have a strong guiding document in place to retain and defend this globally unique landscape. ~ Frances Killea, Natural Resources Council of Maine

Kids on Trails event held in Jay as organizers urge families to hike together

LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • August 26, 2026

Children and families explored the trails at French Falls during a Kids on Trails event organized by the Western Maine Kids on Trails Community Group in partnership with MaineHealth Franklin’s Healthy Community Coalition. The free event Aug. 13 gave participants a chance to learn about the recreation area, walk its trails and take part in outdoor-themed activities while organizers previewed a book expected to be published later this fall. The book, “Kids on Trails,” will provide information about family-friendly trails in western Maine and help them safely plan and carry out walks, hikes and day trips with children.

Bear baiting is a family affair in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 26, 2026

Aiden McIver is getting ready for bear season with his wife, Jocelyn, and their children, Saylor, 7, and Levi, 3. McIver operates S&L Guide Service in the Greenville area and hopes to take his daughter bear hunting on youth day this weekend.

Maine DEP sues company over cleanup of contaminated Orrington site

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 25, 2026

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is suing the owners of a site in Orrington, alleging they’ve failed to properly clean up contamination. Mallinckrodt operated a chemical manufacturing plant along the Penobscot River between 1967 and 1982. While under Mallinckrodt, the site discharged between six and 12 metric tons of mercury. The plant shut down in 2000 when then-owner HoltraChem Manufacturing Co. declared bankruptcy. In 2022, a judge ordered Mallinckrodt to pay at least $187 million to clean up the region. Since 2013, Mallinckrodt US LLC has been owned by Covidien, subsequently acquired by Medtronic. Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals became an independent company via a spinoff from Covidien in 2013. Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals recently merged with Endo, then split into Keenova and Par Health.

Young humpback whale calf found in Maine river was severely emaciated

WMTW-TV8 • August 25, 2026

The Marine Mammals of Maine stranding hotline received a report of a deceased humpback whale in the New Meadows River in Phippsburg on Friday afternoon. MMoME performed a full internal and external evaluation that found the 20-foot female calf was emaciated and had very little muscle or fat and few stomach contents. The findings showed that the whale was between 6 and 9 months old and still maternally dependent. MMoME said that samples they collected will be sent for histopathology and that there were no other gross necropsy findings. "This was an incredibly sad case, but we are grateful for the opportunity to document her life and passing," said MMoME in a social media post.

Family of 3 people who drowned in Maine lake sue pontoon boat manufacturer and dealer

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 25, 2026

The family of three people who drowned when a recalled pontoon boat capsized in Maine is suing the manufacturer and dealer. The 2024 Sea-Doo Switch, an 18-foot pontoon boat, had a known safety issue and capsized on Aug. 30, 2025, in Flagstaff Lake. Three people were trapped under the flipped boat and drowned. The Sea-Doo Switch was one of thousands of boats recalled by parent company Bombardier Recreational Products, Inc. months before the fatal capsizing. There was a risk of the boat nosediving into the water, causing it to flip end over end on its bow. The recall came after multiple people were injured and one person died in capsizing events.

Maine bicyclist sues federal government after being hit by USPS vehicle

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 25, 2026

Marha Stover was riding an electric bicycle on June 27, 2024, on Atlantic Highway in Warren. She was hit when USPS employee made a right turn onto Camden Road without doing a “proper lookout.” Her collarbone was fractured and surgically repaired with plates. Her lawsuit alleging negligence was filed in the U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor on Monday. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, in part for Stover’s injuries.

After years of delays, commission advances northern Maine transmission and wind project

MAINE MORNING STAR • August 25, 2026

The Maine Public Utilities Commission will finally move forward with plans for a new transmission line to northern Maine and an 800 megawatt wind project. At a regular meeting Tuesday, commissioners selected Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power, to build the transmission line and Clearway Energy Group to build the onshore wind project. The bid selection marks a major milestone for the Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program, which has struggled to move projects forward. 

Maine nonprofit launches $20M fund to help farmers adapt to climate change

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 25, 2026

Orchard managers, sustainability advocates and state officials gathered Tuesday to celebrate a big financial pivot for regional climate-friendly agriculture: the Northeast Farmers Fund. What makes this climate-friendly farming program different than those that came before? The source of the funding. Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and Environment, a farming nonprofit based in Freeport, is bankrolling the $20 million Northeast Farmers Fund with corporate donations, starting with a $500,000 contribution from Hannaford Supermarkets. As big as it is, the fund will not fill the massive funding void created last year when the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled Wolfe’s Neck Center’s five-year, $35 million climate-smart farming grant. But it’s a very good start, said Dave Herring, Wolfe’s Neck Center’s executive director.

As Canada trade war rages, could Maine electricity prices spike?

CENTRAL MAINE • August 25, 2026

Canadian leaders said this week they are considering cutting off or hiking taxes on electricity exports to the U.S. in retaliation for a new round of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. The move, which would be unprecedented, could drive up electricity prices for Maine customers starting next year and would mark a new front in the ongoing trade war between the two longtime allies. Trump’s new tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods deepened the trade war between the two countries in the past week and placed Maine’s highly integrated cross-border economy on the front line.

Advisory group asking for public input on future of data centers in Maine

MAINE MORNING STAR • August 25, 2026

The Maine Data Center Advisory Council will hold two virtual listening sessions with the public in the coming weeks. Gov. Janet Mills created the group with an executive order this spring, and tasked members with evaluating issues related to large-scale data centers and providing strategic input on policies to address the potential benefits and drawbacks of data centers. The first listening session will be held Thursday at 1 p.m., and the second will be Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 5 p.m.

Take in the views from these western Maine lookout towers

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 25, 2026

While Maine’s days of fire towers may have ended decades ago, mountains across the state still hold the lookouts for hikers with the energy to seek them out. Here are five mountains you can hike across western Maine to get your quest started:
• Bald Mountain — Oquossoc
• Mount Blue — Weld
• Snow Mountain — northern Franklin County
• Old Speck — northern Oxford County
• Flagstaff Mountain — northwest Somerset County

On high peaks, 3 rare butterflies live at the edge of survival

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 25, 2026

The endangered White Mountain fritillary and threatened White Mountain arctic survive in different alpine habitats in New Hampshire’s Presidential Range, while the endangered Katahdin arctic is known only from Maine’s Katahdin. Their isolation helped create butterflies found almost nowhere else, but it also leaves them especially vulnerable to changing climate, damaged habitat and, in one notorious case, collectors. Stay on established trails rather than walking on alpine vegetation. Look. Wait. Photograph one if you are lucky enough to see a butterfly. But do not trample the habitat trying to find it.

Project covering Penobscot River mercury contamination with sand to begin this week

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 25, 2026

A pilot project beginning in Orrington this week will spray about 9,400 tons of sand over the Penobscot River estuary, testing a method that could eventually cover 124 more acres of tidal flats contaminated with mercury decades ago. The 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. Lingering mercury has led to a shellfish harvesting closure and consumption advisories for fish and some game. The metal travels up the food chain and has a range of toxic consequences for people and wildlife that ingest it.

Lewiston lands another balloon festival with organizers pleased and looking to grow

SUN JOURNAL • August 24, 2026

While weather limited some flights over the weekend, organizers said strong crowds and new attractions revealed once again the appeal of one of Lewiston-Auburn’s greatest events. “Seeing thousands of people come together in Lewiston and Auburn, make memories with their families and enjoy our community is exactly why we do this. There are certainly things we learned this year and things we will look at as we plan for the future, but I think we can all be very proud of what our community accomplished this weekend.”

MDI rallies behind lobsterman whose boat sank off Bass Harbor on Saturday

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 24, 2026

An online campaign for a Mount Desert Island lobsterman whose boat sank off the coast of Bass Harbor on Saturday has raised more than $32,000. Daniel Closson, whose fishing boat “Never Enough” sank off Gott’s Island while he was hauling traps around midday on Saturday, escaped the incident after being rescued by fellow lobstermen who received his mayday call. The sinking was the second major boating incident to occur in Bass Harbor in under two months. On July 3, a late night fire destroyed Nathaniel Snow’s lobster boat that was moored at the harbor.

50 Years of Common Ground

MAINE ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS ASSOCIATION • August 24, 2025

MOFGA is celebrating the 50th annual Common Ground Country Fair this year, with a number of events including including Fifty Years of Common Ground, an exhibition of five decades of the the posters of the Common Ground Country Fair. The exhibition will be held at the Maine State House in Augusta, June 1 through August 30, and at Waterville Creates in Waterville, September 4 through 30, in partnership with the Maine Arts Commission and Waterville Creates. 

US-Canada trade war hurting Maine businesses, workers and consumers

MAINE PUBLIC • August 24, 2026

Collapsed trade talks between the U.S. and Canada have resulted in 50% tariffs from the Trump administration on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports. And now Prime Minister Mark Carney is promising matching tariffs on U.S. imports beginning Sept. 8. Lee Umphrey, president of Eastern Maine Development Corporation, said the folly of the trade war is hurting businesses, workers and families. He fears rising costs of wood products and energy may lead companies to lay off workers. He said the war in Iran and federal cuts continue to generate economic uncertainty for businesses and consumers.

Canada could respond to Trump’s tariffs soon. Here’s how it all affects Maine.

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 24, 2026

After a brief delay for negotiations last week, the Trump administration enacted new tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods Saturday. Those tariffs deepened the trade war between the U.S. and its northern neighbor. In Brewer on Monday, Vice President JD Vance defended the new tariffs, saying Canada has long treated American goods unfairly. If, as Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Saturday, Canada is “at war” with the U.S. on trade, Maine is on the front line. Carney said he planned to target forestry products, one of Maine’s most integrated industries with Canada. Pulp and paper products were among the goods Carney said could be targeted by Canada’s new retaliatory tariffs. Trump has tried several times to enact sweeping tariffs on Canada. Nearly every attempt has been shot downby courts.