BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2022
What does birdwatching have to do with food security and dams? A lot, I can tell you as a professional scientist, birdwatching, nature and ecology guide in Bar Harbor who has worked along the coast of Maine for three decades. I’ve brought hundreds of people with me to see the awe-inspiring wonders that depend on sea-run fish and ecologically healthy rivers and streams to nourish Gulf of Maine waters. But over these 30 years, I’ve also seen the impacts of corporate greed and misguided policies that put the future of our wildlife, our economies, and food security at risk and I’m worried. Former Gov. Paul LePage’s policies, especially on the environment, are dangerous and shortsighted. I believe his policies will destroy ecological health, when we should be removing useless out-of-date dams and modernizing the Shawmut and Union River dams. Shouldn’t we, as a society, work together to find solutions that look at the health and productivity of the Kennebec and the Union rivers as a whole and connect them to the Gulf of Maine and the jobs produced with a healthy marine fishery? ~ Michael J. Good, founder of Acadia Birding Festival and president of Down East Nature Tours