The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
SUN JOURNAL • March 26, 2020
The folks over at “Fantastic Fungi” have sprung to streaming and online purchase of the film early due to COVID-19, and as a bonus are helping support your local theaters by giving out dedicated links that split the proceeds – https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frontiercafe.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 26
After ensuring new protocols are in place to protect fishermen, dealers and communities from the spread of the coronavirus, the Maine Department of Marine Resources will open the $20 million-a-year season elver season at 8 a.m. Monday.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • MARCH 26, 2020
Almost as soon as the coronavirus pandemic reached these shores, people started predicting what would happen after it was over. Humans are social creatures, who thrive on contact, on touch, on presence. Even Thoreau regularly had Sunday dinner at the Emersons while limning the natural world at Walden Pond, and when he went to the wilds of Maine, he always had a guide. Perhaps — none too soon — we will begin assessing the extreme alienation that results from having contact only through “virtual reality.” ~ Douglas Rooks
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 26, 2020
Mainers should do two things right away to help ensure we have reliable sources of healthy food now and in the future. The first thing we can do is support our local food producers. Second, Gov. Mills and the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, as well as our congressional delegation, should make emergency funds available to farms so that not a single Maine farm goes out of business during this pandemic. ~ Sarah Alexander, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 25, 2020
The recreational cod fishery in the Gulf of Maine is closed until Sept. 15. Cod were once abundant off New England, but the population collapsed after years of commercial overfishing. They’re also popular with sport fishermen. Regulators are developing new recreational rules, and expect them to be in place by the early summer.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 25, 2020
Acadia National Park announced Wednesday that it is indefinitely shutting down public access because of the coronavirus outbreak. All park roads, facilities, restrooms, carriage roads, campgrounds, visitor centers and visitor services will close Thursday and remain so indefinitely. Acadia attracts about 3.5 million visitors a year, making it one of the 10 most visited national parks in the country.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 23, 2020
Backers of the “Clean Power Corridor” proposed to cut a swath through western Maine forests – CMP and Hydro Quebec – are buying massive amounts of advertising to lay a guilt trip on Mainers by inferring that there is only one choice – we must approve the corridor allowing hydro power to flow to Massachusetts or else we will be responsible for releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Missing from the public discussion is that there is an apparently fully permitted alternative, Vermont’s “New England Clean Power Link,” which would bury conduits. ~ William Bunting, Whitefield
AP • March 25, 2020
The secretary of state’s office must address whether some of the petitions used to get the proposed $1 billion New England Clean Energy Connect onto the November ballot were invalid. Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy this week gave Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap until April 1 to determine the validity of signatures gathered by opponents of the proposed utility corridor in western Maine. A lawsuit contends notaries hired by opponents of the project engaged in other campaign activities, violating state law and possibly invalidating some of the signatures.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 23, 2020
Recently, I attended a historic hearing that included elders of several Maine tribes and Maine state legislators. After one of the elders finished speaking, a state legislator asked her what qualifications or certifications her tribe had to assure his committee that they could safeguard Maine’s environment. How dare they ask the people, whose ancestors subsisted off the land for 12,000 years only to give it up to hundreds of years of toxic pollution by Maine’s textile and paper industries and lax state regulations, for a conservation record. ~ Rafael Macias, Topsham
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 25, 2020
The National Park Service announced major closures throughout Acadia National Park to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Park Loop Road, including Ocean Drive and all restrooms, all carriage roads, campgrounds, visitor services and visitor centers will all be closed March 26. The National Park Service did not say when the park will reopen, but it is providing updates on the park’s website.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 25, 2020
In response to concerns about out-of-state snowmobilers heading to Aroostook County during the COVID-19 emergency, the state has sent emails to more than 30,000 non-resident sledders asking them to consider staying home during the remainder of this season and come back next year.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 25, 2020
The climate crisis is the ultimate example of being “out of balance” with the natural world that sustains us all. Our species has become a malignant threat to almost every species on Earth. In response, the Earth will sustain life by eliminating us, if we continue to treat the atmosphere as an open sewer. One of the worst offenders in this climate catastrophe is the airline industry. ~ Paul Rousseau, Brunswick
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 25, 2020
The spring turkey hunt will begin on time this year — despite web rumors, officials said Wednesday. Youth Turkey Day is May 2 and the opener for all others on May 4.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 25, 2020
State wildlife biologists are recommending an 11 percent increase in moose permits this fall, with the hike affecting only hunting districts in northernmost Maine. The proposal would increase moose permits in Maine for the third consecutive year, from 2,820 last year to 3,135 this fall.
MORNING SENTINEL • March 25, 2020
Viruses showed up on Earth around 1.5 billion years ago. There are millions of kinds of viruses. Biologists are unsure whether they’re alive or not, for two reasons: 1. viruses cannot reproduce on their own, and 2. viruses by themselves are inert. When you’re wiping down counters and washing your hands, you’re not exactly killing viruses. Alcohol-based disinfectants don’t kill viruses because viruses are not exactly alive. The virus on the doorknob or your finger has to be dispersed. Washing hands with soap is better for getting rid of the coronavirus than disinfectants because soap’s whole chemical mission is to loosen up and disperse scunge – it disperses the nonliving virus assembly. ~ Dana Wilde
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 24, 2020
All inland waters in Maine are open for fishing, and the requirement that anglers need a recreational license is suspended until the end of April. Gov. Janet Mills says she made the rule change to encourage people in the state to enjoy the outdoors while Maine and the U.S. grapple with the coronavirus outbreak. Mills it's says important to continue practicing social distancing.
SUN JOURNAL • March 24, 2020
Developers behind a cannabis business park off Minot Avenue with four greenhouses now and a retail shop underway have proposed a new $1.2 million project for 14 additional buildings. Mystique Way LLC’s application is pending with the Planning Board, which meets next month. Most of the buildings would be greenhouses and bring the total development up to 154,640-square feet. The park would employ about 40 people in total.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 24, 2020
The Trump administration is steadily pushing major public health and environmental rollbacks toward enactment, rejecting appeals that it slow its deregulatory drive while Americans grapple with the pandemic. The Interior Department, for example, is moving ahead with a measure that would greatly ease protections under the more than century-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Critics say the changes could devastate threatened and endangered species and speed an already documented decline in U.S. bird populations overall.
NPR • March 24, 2020
Clean energy and climate advocates say the huge stimulus bill Congress is negotiating should address not only the economy, but also climate change.But a split over that appears to have contributed to delays in passing the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday Democrats were filibustering the $1 trillion-plus bill hoping to include policies such as extending tax credits for solar and wind energy. Two trade groups, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), sent a joint letter to members of Congress last week saying that extending the credits "would allow our member companies to hire thousands of additional workers and inject billions in the U.S. economy."
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 24, 2020
The New England Aquarium keeps a database of photographs and physical details called the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog. There are only about 400 of the whales left in the world. The catalog has images of more than 750 whales and goes back to 1935. The aquarium said the upgrade improves an interface that was 15 years old. The improved database is also more accessible to the public, aquarium representatives said.
