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Voters approved funding to repair York’s Cliff Walk. What’s next?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May x, 2026

York Harbor Beach’s half-mile Cliff Walk begins with a friendly welcome sign. It asks visitors to stay on the path, keep animals and litter off, and enjoy their visit. The scenic oceanside trail has been a pillar of York’s summers for decades. But the popular attraction has been closed since storms decimated it in January 2024. Now, with new funding approved by residents this month, the town is moving closer to finally beginning restorations.

5 places off the beaten path in Acadia to visit this summer

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 23, 2026

As Acadia National Park welcomes more visitors every year — the park recorded more than 4 million visits in 2025 — some locals and tourists prefer the park’s quieter, lesser known attractions, the spots that aren’t often advertised by tour guides and park rangers. There are still quite a few spots where locals and visitors can enjoy the park’s beauty without facing the summertime crowds.
• Schooner Head Road shore access
• Baker Island
• Airplane wreckage
• Schoodic Institute path
• Ravens Nest

Column: Something crazy happened during this spring’s bird migration in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 23, 2026

Food availability is the chief reason birds migrate. Maine hosts an abundance of insects in May, as you may have noticed, and the days are longer. Daylight length remains constant at the equator. At this time of year, there’s more daylight to feed hungry chicks in Maine than there is in Ecuador. Birds are anxious to reach their nesting destinations as quickly as possible so they can claim the best territory and woo a mate. Neotropical migrants arrive in spring and leave in autumn. That sounds simple. It’s anything but. There’s drama in the treetops for those who notice. ~ Bob Duchesne

Maine buys second PFAS-contaminated farm

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

The state has bought a second farm poisoned by forever chemicals, acquiring a 45-acre property in Unity abandoned by its owners after they discovered their water, fields, produce, and even their blood were saturated by dangerous toxins. Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis grew organic vegetables at Songbird Farm for almost eight years before they learned a previous owner had spread sewage sludge-based fertilizer on the fields decades ago. At the time, the state encouraged it; no one knew it was dangerous. After going public five years ago, Songbird became the public face of Maine’s forever chemical crisis. The couple closed the farm and began looking for a way they could move their family off of the contaminated parcel and begin seeking medical treatment.

Bar Harbor can only enforce passenger limits for cruise ships in July and August, judge says

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

A federal judge ruled this month that Bar Harbor can only limit the number of passengers coming ashore from cruise ships in July and August. In other months, the town cannot enforce an ordinance that caps daily disembarkments at 1,000, the ruling said. Voters approved that rule as a referendum in 2022, and local businesses sued the town in response.

I’m outside every day. Here’s how I survive black fly season in Maine.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 22, 2026

You can expect them to be out from mid-May to mid-June. If it’s warm, they can be out in early May. Don’t bother with anything DEET or a head net. Get a product with picaridin. Currently I’m toting Sawyer and Ranger Ready insect sprays. Good luck out there. ~ Susan Bard

On land and at sea, Maine food producers prepare for the season

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

It’s not just fruit and vegetable farmers who begin their work in earnest in the spring. Oyster farmers bring their cages to the surface. For goat farmers, it’s kidding season, and the cheeses produced during this time of year have a specific flavor that only comes from spring pastures. The season of regrowth means work for many food producers when the weather starts to warm.

Opinion: Maine is working to avoid a catastrophic spruce budworm outbreak

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 21, 2026

The last spruce budworm outbreak, from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, killed 20 to 25 million cords of spruce and fir across northern Maine and cost the state’s forest economy hundreds of millions of dollars. Salvage clearcutting reshaped the landscape and poisoned the politics of Maine forestry for a generation. The current budworm outbreak began in Quebec around 2006 and has since caused severe defoliation across more than 15 million acres of spruce-fir forest. Its leading edge has already crossed into Maine. But this time, Maine isn’t waiting for the hillsides to turn brown. In 2025, the Maine Budworm Response Coalition, a partnership of landowners, the Maine Forest Service, University of Maine scientists, and industry partners, treated 241,416 acres of forest with low-toxicity insecticides. Treated sites experienced roughly a 95% decline in budworm populations. The math is working, and the forests are holding. ~ Naresh Khanal, graduate student in natural resource economics, UMaine

Waterville teens are asking for dark skies. The city is listening.

CENTRAL MAINE • May 21, 2026

A group of high schoolers wants a clear view of the night sky, and it’s helping the City Council make that happen. The Waterville Youth Council is currently drafting an ordinance to regulate public lighting in Waterville to reduce light pollution and promote dark skies. Youth council co-chairs Penny Graham and Taylor Amuso said they picked light pollution as their issue because it’s a fixable problem. When lights are off, the pollution goes away. When cities design their lighting fixtures to keep the sky dark, they prevent the pollution. They also save money.

The secret weapon for combatting black flies

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Jokingly referred to as the “Maine State Bird,” black flies are one aspect of the Maine outdoors that most people would prefer didn’t exist. The female black fly feeds on blood for the nutrients it needs to lay hundreds of eggs. Black flies also contribute to a healthy freshwater ecosystem, serving as food for a wide variety of larger animals, including Maine native brook trout. While black flies can’t be avoided entirely, there are many things you can do to lessen the number of times you’re bitten when spending time outdoors. In addition to wearing repellent, it can be helpful to wear a hat, which will prevent black flies from crawling into your hair and biting your scalp. Glasses or sunglasses will shield your eyes, which black flies tend to be drawn to. “We suggest people who are gardening put a hardhat on and smear it with baby oil,” said Jim Dill, a pest management specialist with UMaine Cooperative Extension. “Those [black flies] will get stuck in the baby oil.”

One Nation, Under Fraud: The Penobscot Remonstrance and the Fight for Sovereignty

JESUP MEMORIAL LIBRARY • May 20, 2026

MDI Historical Society, Abbe Museum, and Jesup Memorial Library will host a panel discussion offering a critical examination of Maine's historical and legal relationship with the Wabanaki Nations. Drawing on archival records—including the 1942 Maine Legislative Research Committee hearings—and landmark court decisions such as Murch v. Tomer and State v. Newell, the discussion reveals how law and policy were shaped to control, diminish, and deny Wabanaki sovereignty. At Jesup Memorial Library and on Zoom, Bar Harbor, Sept 10, 5 pm.

Letter: Maine voters should prioritize the environment

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 20, 2026

Maine has made great progress eliminating pollution and protecting the environment. The Maine Climate Council reports that our forests, farmland, grasslands and wetlands offset 91% of Maine’s carbon emissions. However, much remains to be done. Voters need to focus on candidates’ positions on the environment. The Trump administration’s support of fossil fuels, defunding of renewable energy and gutting agencies that conduct research and collect data needed to address the climate change we see all around us must be resisted. Only we the voters can do it. Ed Muskie must be rolling over in his grave. ~ David Griswold, Auburn

Janet Mills calls Acadia’s $100 non-US resident entrance fee ‘ridiculous’

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Gov. Janet Mills said on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s policy of charging higher entrance fees for non-U.S. residents visiting national parks — like Acadia — is “ridiculous” and “foolish.” “It’s not going to raise any money because they just won’t come,” Mills said.The statement comes after President Donald Trump implemented a $100 fee for all non-U.S. residents who visit 11 of the country’s most popular national parks, including Acadia National Park. A standard park pass for visitors with U.S. residency is between $20 and $35. The new fee — required for all non-U.S. residents who are 16 and over — started on Jan. 1.

Column: Why Maine game warden pilots are a special breed

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Sooner or later, most career game wardens place themselves in harm’s way in the line of duty. The same can be said for game warden pilots, perhaps even more so. Maine warden pilots are often called upon to assist from the air in searches for missing people. More often than not, the weather is nasty, and warden pilots find themselves flying in dangerous conditions close to the treetops. On May 12, Maine game warden pilot Joshua Tibbetts, 50, lost control of his Cessna 185F and crashed near Schoolhouse Pond north of Farmington. He did not survive. Other Maine warden pilots were involved in fatal crashes in 1956, 1972, 2003 and 2011. Tibbetts, and all the Maine game warden pilots before him, are a special breed. We appreciate their sacrifice. ~ V. Paul Reynolds

Wyeth Foundation’s donation preserves Christina’s Maine world for the public

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 20, 2026

The field in Cushing that was the setting for Wyeth’s masterpiece has been donated to the Georges River Land Trust for the public to enjoy.

Bangor tied a heat record Tuesday. It may break one today.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

The mercury topped off at 89 degrees Fahrenheit in Bangor on Tuesday, tying the record set for May 19 back in 1962. Bangor has another shot at the record title Wednesday, with the weather service forecasting a high of 87 degrees here. That would surpass that record for May 20 of 86 degrees set in 2003.

Maine’s lumber mills, like the one in Searsmont, have known fire risks

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 20, 2026

Fires and explosions have long been threats to Maine’s lumber and paper mills. In April 2020, a pulp digester exploded at the Androscoggin Mill in Jay, sending smoke and debris more than 100 feet into the air. At Irving Forest Products in Dixfield, an explosion and fire in May 2021 damaged a machine used to move wood chips, and a fire last November caused serious damage to the sawmill building. “The fuel load at a lumber mill is exceedingly high,” said James Graves, director of the Maine Fire Service Institute. “They happen regularly.” But Graves said relatively few are as tragic as the fiery explosion at Robbins Lumber Inc. in Searsmont that injured 12 people and killed Andrew Cross, 27, a member of the Morrill Volunteer Fire Department. Eight were still hospitalized Tuesday.

A Penobscot County sporting camp that hosted star athletes is selling for $1M

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 19, 2026

A longtime Maine sporting camp that hosted renowned professional athletes is on the market for just under $1.1 million. Established in 1898, the South Branch Lake Camps is perched on a roughly 6-acre peninsula, offering more than 1,670 feet of private shoreline. The property in Seboeis Plantation, roughly 45 minutes north of Bangor, contains 11 furnished cabins. The site was used as a sporting camp for decades and hosted celebrities including Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Bobby Orr and Jerry McKinnis, creator of “The Fishin’ Hole,” a television show that aired for 44 years on ESPN. It’s the second oldest running sporting camp in Maine.

Maine’s biggest ski resort is in a dispute over $150K of taxpayer money

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Franklin County is asking Maine’s largest ski resort to repay roughly $150,000 in taxpayer money that officials say was improperly charged for an infrastructure project that fell apart. The county agreed in 2020 to subsidize a project by Sugarloaf that would have dammed the south branch of the Carrabassett River at its source, Caribou Pond, which lies in a small, wooded basin about six miles south of the resort’s entrance. The dam would have created a reservoir for the resort to use as a water source for snowmaking. In 2023, Sugarloaf officials said the project would have required construction along a road that intersects with the Appalachian Trail, and it was no longer happening as planned. But Sugarloaf kept charging the county anyway.