The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
TURNER PUBLISHING • March 15, 2020
The Maine Forestry Museum invites every girl and boy aged 6 to 8 to sign up for the Little Miss and Mister Woodchip Contest, which will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, July 17, at the Forestry Museum grounds, 221 Stratton Road, Dallas Plantation. The Woodchip program is part of the museum’s 40th Annual Logging Festival, which will be held July 17 and 18.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 15, 2020
The Maine Public Utilities Commission has approved the sale of the power company Emera Maine to Canada-based Enmax Corp. for $1.3 billion. Enmax is a wholly owned subsidiary of the city of Calgary, Alberta. Emera serves about 160,000 customers in eastern and northern Maine. As part of the negotiated settlement among the two companies and the PUC, Emera will get rate credits, a freeze on rate increases until Oct. 2021 and various service improvements. Enmax is also providing an additional $5 million in aid for customers who are eligible for the low-income heating and energy assistance program.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 15, 2020
A 22-year-old man died Saturday afternoon when his snowmobile crashed in the southern end of Baxter State Park. Timothy G. Lagesse of Pascoag, Rhode Island, was driving a snowmobile at 112 Trail in Baxter State Park. Lagesse was driving at a fast speed when he veered off the left side of the trail and struck a tree 12 feet from the trail. Lagesse was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency personnel.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 15, 2020
Ski season is coming to what may be a premature end in Maine this year. Sunday River, Sugarloaf Mountain, and Hermon Mountain ski areas all announced Sunday that they would be suspending operations at the end of the day. Shawnee Peak announced it would be suspending operations at the close of business on Monday.
SUN JOURNAL • March 15, 2020
Jesse Tannenbaum and Jessica Roberts started farming four years ago with four raised beds on a quarter-acre residential lot on a busy Lewiston street. Eli’s Homestead has grown in the years since to 25 beds, plus a greenhouse and 50 chickens. The couple have just invested in what they hope is a new, year-round addition: Farming microgreens in a room of their 1920 Sabattus farmhouse. The nutrient-dense little sprouts can be harvested in as little as three days. Tannebaum has planted radishes, broccoli, kohlrabi, greens, edible flowers, sunflower shoots, kale, red cabbage and other vegetables in a warm room with a bright violet LED-light glow.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 15, 2020
One of Maine’s signs of the annual “mud season” has arrived at Acadia National Park, where carriage roads are shut down to all users. The National Park Service said the roads were closed on March 12 and will remain closed until they dry out and become firm enough to prevent damage to their gravel surface.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • March 15, 2020
A look at the fate of just a few animal species during the 200 years that Maine has been a state tells the larger story of how humans impact wildlife. Whether these animals have vanished, returned, arrived or thrived all have direct or indirect links to human behavior:
• The Departed: Caribou
• The Survivor: White-Tailed Deer
• The Returnee: Peregrine Falcon
• The Newcomer: Turkey Vulture
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • March 15, 2020
Are you kidding me, David Flanagan? (“CMP brings back former CEO in effort to regain public’s trust,” Feb. 19). It only took a few weeks for his high-minded rhetoric about turning Central Maine Power around to fall to a new low. CMP hired a private investigator to stalk people who oppose its corridor. I’m disgusted by this behavior, and I want Mr. Flanagan to directly address it. Does he think it’s wrong? ~ Linda Flagg, Jay
MORNING SENTINEL • March 15, 2020
A typical Sunday morning: a cup of black coffee, feet up and time to read the local paper. Usually, this is a pleasant ritual. But not today. I became more and more upset as I read about the huge amount of money (millions!) that has already been invested in the Central Maine Power transmission line project (“CMP shrugs off referendum, plans to start work on $1 billion transmission corridor,” Feb. 14). It is clear that a pending state referendum makes no difference to money and power. The “foundation” for the corridor is already being laid. Maine does not want this. ~ Peter Morrissey, Sidney
MORNING SENTINEL • March 15, 2020
I once thought that Central Maine Power had reached the summit of arrogance by refusing to take responsibility for the improper billing of Maine residents, but I was wrong. While trying to regain the confidence of Maine residents, CMP has done the worst possible thing by stating they would begin construction of the destructive corridor while it is being decided if Mainers will get a chance to vote on the project. To insist that they will start the corridor and begin cutting trees through the Maine forest before people are allowed to vote on the issue is just plain stupid. ~ Stu Silverstein, Waterville
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • March 15, 2020
Spokespersons for CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola often repeat the lie that they own all the land over which their proposed transmission corridor will pass. Why? Because the lie hides the truth that they will use one mile of public reserved land without obtaining the approval of two-thirds of the Maine Legislature, as required by statute and the Maine Constitution. Their second lie is that the transmission corridor would be a good investment in Maine. Who would believe that the destruction of 3,700 acres of forests and the erection of 7,000 100-foot-high towers to create between 19 and 38 permanent jobs would be a good investment? ~ John Nicholas, Winthrop
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 14, 2020
Bath is moving forward with a trapping program to address a rabies outbreak in which rabid animal attacks grew 700% from 2018 to 2019. Under the plan, 10 traps will be set in Bath and every fox, skunk and raccoon caught will be euthanized and tested for rabies. Other wild animals and any pets that end up getting caught will be released or returned to their owners.
SUN JOURNAL • March 14, 2020
The deadline to apply for the Maine Moose Lottery is 11:59 p.m. on May 14, 2020. Applicants are awarded bonus points for each consecutive year that they have applied for the lottery since 1998 without being selected. The 2020 moose lottery permit drawing will take place at Unity College Sky Lodge in Jackman on June 13, 2020. ~ V. Paul Reynolds
NPR • March 14, 2020
Oil prices bounced back a bit after President Trump said the Department of Energy would buy crude for the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. "We're going to fill it right to the top," Trump said Friday in a wide-ranging news conference at the White House. He said it will save taxpayers "billions and billions of dollars" while helping an industry that's been reeling.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 14, 2020
The woods and waters of what is now Piscataquis and Aroostook counties were largely uncharted territory for the people of European descent in Maine in the years prior to statehood in 1820. But for the Wabanaki people, who had lived along Maine’s rivers and streams for countless generations, the land was a family member. So when Maine became a state in March 1820, one of the first things decreed by Gov. William King was the need to more accurately map Maine’s vast interior wilderness — untouched in the eyes of the state, but home for the Wabanaki. King asked Maj. Joseph Treat, a Bangor-based surveyor and son of a wealthy merchant family, to lead an expedition up the Penobscot and Allagash rivers and down the St. John River.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 13, 2020
Staff at Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Friday afternoon released a draft permit for Central Maine Power’s controversial powerline through western Maine. The draft permit would place significant new and potentially costly requirements on the project. Those include a significant narrowing of the corridor in the 54-mile stretch that would cut through the woods of western Maine. Instead of the 150-foot width proposed by CMP, the draft permit would limit it to 54 feet, in order to minimize visual and habitat disruptions. It would also require CMP to set aside 40,000 acres for permanent conservation in western Maine – although uses could include forestry.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 13, 2020
The political action committee for Central Maine Power is challenging whether opponents of its controversial transmission corridor have enough signatures to put the project on the November ballot. In a court filing in Kennebec County Superior Court, CMP's Clean Energy Matters PAC alleges that many of the signatures gathered by the anti-corridor campaign are invalid because the petitions were notarized by people involved in the campaign. If the allegations are correct, it could undo a recent certification by the Maine Secretary of State that would allow voters to determine the fate of the $1 billion, 145-mile project.
SUN JOURNAL • March 12, 2020
The Planning Board unanimously approved a $17.6 million solar project this week, 45 acres of panels over 142.7 acres, laid out to dodge wetlands and feed 14.6 megawatts into the grid to Central Maine Power. The project by BD Solar Auburn is pending approval by the Poland Planning Board, Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers. About two-thirds of the property, off of Lewiston Junction Road, is in Auburn, one-third in Poland.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 12, 2020
Responding to the state’s first presumptive case of the new coronavirus, legislative leaders have taken a number of steps including closing sessions of the legislature.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 12, 2020
Hiring a private investigator to tail anti-NECEC petitioners is harassment, plain and simple, and CMP must not be allowed to get away with it. This is another example on a long list of why Mainers don’t trust CMP. ~ Sandra Howard, Say NO to NECEC, Caratunk
