The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
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Sincerely,
Jym St. Pierre
Editor, Maine Environmental News
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 20, 2025
I am writing to express my deep concern and strong disapproval of the Portland Planning Board’s decision to approve the Old Port Square tower proposal. This project represents a fundamental misalignment with the values, character and needs of Portland and its residents. First and foremost, approving a 30-story tower in the heart of the Old Port is profoundly disrespectful to the historic identity of this city. The attempt to frame the tower’s design as a “lighthouse beacon” that honors Maine’s heritage is disingenuous and, frankly, insulting. Growth can and should happen, but not at the cost of erasing the character and community that make Portland a place worth investing in. ~ Jenna Valente, Cumberland
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 20, 2025
Community members have been clear over the past three years that they don’t want anyone to live on contaminated soil next to 13 oil tanks in a flood zone on a peninsula that dead-ends on one already congested. Why is that so difficult to understand? This is a safety issue, a human rights concern and an environmental justice alarm, not a vendetta against affordable housing. Yet the Comprehensive Plan Committee has designated the eastern waterfront (Bug Light) as a unique high-growth area. ~ Barbara Dee, South Portland
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 19, 2025
Brian Fogg was on his way to work Tuesday when he spotted a deer struggling to cross a frozen tributary of the Passagassawakeag River off Head of the Tide Road in Belfast. The deer kept trying to get up, but fell through each time. “Then it got to the point where it was exhausted,” Fogg said. Fogg walked up to the doe, which was so tired it didn’t seem to mind his presence. He broke the ice with his boots until the water reached his waist, then shed some layers so he wouldn’t get soaked. Fogg, a hunter, always tries to help wildlife he sees in need, but he would not recommend others take the same approach. He said people can sometimes do more harm than good.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 19, 2025
A legacy Presque Isle lumberyard is back on the market three months after it sold at a foreclosure auction. The former Rathbun Lumber Co. was listed for $499,000 through RE/MAX County in late November. It was purchased by Glendon Braley and Green Meadow Farms Inc. of Mapleton at auction in September for $250,000, documents filed in the Southern Aroostook Registry of Deeds show and a Green Meadow employee confirmed Thursday. The lumberyard was run by the Rathbun family at 43 State St. from 1948 until 2016, when owner Alden Rathbun sold it to longtime employee James Mclaughlin. It last sold for $275,000.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 18, 2025
Since moving from North Carolina to Maine, I’ve learned — sometimes the hard way — that things just happen here. The weather shifts fast. The dirt road is suddenly closed. The old bridge can’t be crossed. A bike tire goes flat. And staying warm takes more energy than expected. Each lesson has added something new to my backpack. It now comes with me every time I head into the woods or onto a back road, and it’s fuller than ever with extra layers of clothes, a compass and maps, a hand-held GPS, safety items, a multi-tool, paracord and even a Ziploc of Vaseline-covered cotton balls for fire-starting thanks to a local guide’s tip. and snacks.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 17, 2025
Have seal conservation measures worked too well? In her book, “A Year with the Seals,“ Alix Morris is admirably even-handed as she explores and reports on her findings. The controversy over seals is not one “just of human-wildlife conflict, but of human-human conflict.” Morris is probably right when she predicts that conflicts between our species and the rest of the world are likely to get worse, not better. Investigations like hers will be essential in order “to take the time to identify and address the deeper issues at the heart of them.” ~ Thomas Urquhart
MAINE MORNING STAR • December 17, 2025
David Stevenson saw himself as an outlier at the Heartland Institute’s 2023 International Conference on Climate Change. He leaned over during one session to tell me, cheekily, that he might be the “only person here who believes in climate change.” And yet, despite that belief, Stevenson has dedicated the better part of a decade to obstructing a source of clean energy that can help replace the fossil fuels that are baking the planet. In fact, that’s why he was at the Heartland Institute’s conference: to rail against offshore wind farms. The following day, Stevenson laid out his case. It’s too expensive, he argued, and the United States was not effectively assessing its environmental impact. He suggested a plan to get the public to care about this issue: putting whales front and center.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 17, 2025
Samuel Dunning, a Brunswick native, stars in the new comedy/science fiction film "Tim Travers and the Time Traveler's Paradox." Now, he is working on promoting his directorial debut, “Canoe Dig It?” — a Maine-set mockumentary about a freestyle canoeing competition at Moosehead Lake that he also wrote and starred in.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 17, 2025
A Patten physician has been awarded the 2025 Wallace H. “Bud” Jeffrey Award for distinguished service to youth through his work with the Maine High Adventure Program, part of the Katahdin Area Council of Scouting America. Ron Blum, who first came to Patten in 1975 as a rural health program physician, has been connected to the Maine High Adventure Program at Baxter State Park since the 1970s. He first came on as a local doctor who occasionally treated scout injuries from the program base. The Maine High Adventure base in Matagamon, created by Bud Jeffrey.
SUN JOURNAL • December 16, 2025
With complicated datasets drawn from decades of monitoring, information about the conditions of Maine’s waterbodies has been difficult for the public to access or understand, according to state scientists and Lake Stewards of Maine. That’s why a scorecard interpreting that data will be a helpful tool for residents and visitors who want to understand the health of the waters they enjoy, said Alison Cooney, executive director for the Lake Stewards of Maine. The new scorecard was created by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and is hosted on the Lakes of Maine website, which is owned and managed by the Lake Stewards of Maine.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 16, 2025
New buyers have expressed interest in scooping up Hermon’s ski mountain. The identities of the interested buyers haven’t been disclosed, but Hermon Mountain Ski Area said Tuesday that they have “strong local ties.” The group is under contract to buy the ski area. The sale hasn’t closed yet, but “momentum is strong and the outlook is encouraging,” according to the owners. “Most importantly, this group is committed to keeping Hermon Mountain a ski area and honoring its long-standing role in the community,” the owners said.
TIMES RECORD • December 16, 2025
The Brunswick Town Council on Monday night approved a sweeping plan that will guide the town’s land use and growth over the next decade. The plan, crafted over six years by the Comprehensive Plan Update Steering Committee, serves as the legal basis for the town’s zoning and land use and provides guidance on future investments and development, building on the previous plan from 2008. Titled “One Brunswick, Beautifully Balanced,” the 2025 plan designates areas for growth, limited growth and rural protection, and serves as an outline for protecting natural resources, investing in infrastructure and maintaining town character. Notably, the plan reduces the designated growth area and discourages development in rural parts of town.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 16, 2025
Affordability of energy costs and especially electricity were discussed recently by a panel of the Maine Legislature. One statement stood out as questionable: “…a wave of solar development…created a multimillion dollar burden for electric customers.” I do not see a charge on my electric bill attributable to solar development. What has changed is the cost of “delivery” or transmission of electricity to the rate-paying customer. The Public Utilities Commission approved utilities to recover storm damage costs suffered during the winter 2022 storms. Despite that these were considered “100- year storms,” we are paying off the damage in two to three years. The way to improve the affordability of Maine electric power is 1) to mitigate the infrastructure damage done by coastal and winter storms, and 2) to produce as much power as possible locally, to limit our dependence on transmission lines, which represent the most expensive part of our power bills. It may even be worth consideration of public ownership of the delivery infrastructure. Sustainable energy sources contribute to both goals, unlike fossil fuels. ~ Thom Moore, former NASA scientist, Scarborough
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 16, 2025
On Nov. 21, Casella Waste Systems submitted a permit application to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for the proposed expansion of Juniper Ridge Landfill. This application was made despite a two-hour meeting on Sept. 29, in which Casella and staff from Maine’s Bureau of General Services heard directly from JRL’s immediate neighbors, the Penobscot Nation, and Old Town residents about JRL’s ongoing assault on health and quality of life. It appears that sacrificing our health and environment is considered acceptable if Maine can continue to avoid responsible waste management for the next 11 years. ~ Daisy Goodman, Old Town
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 16, 2025
I saw movement under the ice. I knelt and peered into the depths to figure out what had caused the movement. There it was: a turtle swimming through the reeds beneath the ice. I was about ten years old and will never forget that moment. It’s not just the fun and speed of ice skating that makes it my favorite winter activity. It’s the scientific wonder and wildlife observations that skating on wild ponds, lakes, rivers and streams keeps me coming back for more. To skate outdoors, you have to take safety seriously. I have never fallen through the ice and don’t plan to. I always bring a hatchet and chop a small hole all the way through, no matter how thick the ice. This lets me measure the thickness accurately. Ice skating keeps me observant, aware and most importantly, filled with the same childlike glee about the wonders of nature that has no age limit. ~ Hazel Stark
MAINE CONSERVATION VOTERS • December 15, 2025
Holding our elected officials accountable for the votes they take each year is a cornerstone of the work of Maine Conservation Voters. Today, MCV released the new 2025 Environmental Scorecard, which tells the story of what happened in 2025 – the first half of the 132nd session of the Maine Legislature. Check out the scorecard to see how your lawmakers voted this year on key environmental and democracy bills.
MAINE PUBLIC • December 15, 2025
A group of Maine lobstermen have worked out a plan to respond to endangered North Atlantic right whales in federal waters. In January 2025, an unusually large number of whales surprised fishermen and scientists when they showed up in the southern Gulf of Maine. Maine lobstermen who fish in those waters want to be better prepared if it happens again. About two dozen lobstermen turned up at the American Legion Hall in Kennebunkport on December 10. Fishermen in Lobster Zone Council G, which stretches from Eliot to Cape Elizabeth, decided their best option was to reduce the number of vertical ropes in the water, by removing one of two endlines attached to their trawl — a move which is usually against regulation. But in this case, enforcement officials made an exception.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 15, 2025
Snow is piling up and the air stays cold, even during the height of day. Herbaceous vegetation has long died off and acorns are far scarcer than just a few weeks ago. Survival becomes more challenging for deer, and though the two-legged hunters have yielded the field, four-legged ones are keeping the deer on their cloven-hoofed toes. With the end of expanded archery and muzzleloader seasons, most deer hunters will hang up their gear and call it a year. A few, however, will simply shift gear(s) and set their sights on another species. Coyote season is open year-round, but night hunting season begins as soon as the two-legged deer hunters are done. ~ Bob Humphrey
AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY • December 15, 2025
The federal government has announced four proposed rules that would weaken the Endangered Species Act, one of the most effective laws ever enacted to prevent extinctions. Described as a means to increase resource development and economic growth, the proposed rules erode keystone sections of the ESA. Many of our bird populations are in decline. Without strong protections, some of today's threatened species may face extinction.
