The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 16, 2020
Etiquette is always important for community gardeners. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, though, the rules for being a good garden bed neighbor have changed. Community gardens across the state have established new rules for the growing season in accordance with the governor’s orders, the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension guidelines.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 16, 2020
My Mainer friends…if you are worried about Maine’s economy, let’s get something straight: You can help. Book a vacation now in June in Maine because we business lodging owners cannot open our businesses to anybody outside Maine for the month. Don’t act like a typical Mainer by trying to keep your vacation as cheap as possible while at home to go spend, spend, spend somewhere else. In the month of June it is up to us Mainers to save our downtowns, our hotels, our wonderful lakeside cottages and our beautiful beachside tourism. ~ Julianna Acheson, Wells
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 16, 2020
It’s nice of the Fort Williams elitists to allow the local pedestrians, disabled and bike riders in, but how about the Maine citizenry who require an automobile to visit, like people from Portland? Why not allow them in and allow them to park? There’s lots of space. Do we have to wait till June 1? It’s a beautiful park, which lifts all spirits. ~ John Roediger, South Portland
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 16, 2020
The blatant meddlings of Central Maine Power and Hydro-Quebec failed to stop the people’s referendum, so now they are shamelessly trying to convince the good people of Maine that NECEC will save Maine from financial ruin. The western Maine mountains are a crucial component of Maine Vacationland, and Augusta relies on the revenue generated from wilderness seekers trying to experience “Maine, the way life should be.” Let’s preserve this priceless region for the next eight generations of residents and visitors seeking respite in the Moose River Valley. That would be good for Maine! ~ Sheryl Hughey-Harth, Jackman
MAINE PUBLIC • May 15, 2020
There are new developments Friday in the legal battle over whether rope used by Maine lobstermen poses a deadly threat of entanglement to endangered North Atlantic right whales. An activist who has won past decisions to protect the whales filed a motion in Bangor federal court seeking a preliminary injunction to halt lobster fishing in Maine. Richard Strahan's case is similar to one he brought in Massachusetts, where a federal judge ruled recently that the lobster fishery there violates the Endangered Species Act.
GEORGE SMITH’S OUTDOOR NEWS • May 15, 2020
DIFW’s wildlife video of carnivors is very good. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, and you can access it here.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 15, 2020
A state trooper in Maine claims in a federal lawsuit that a division of the State Police illegally gathered and stored intelligence on power line protesters, on gun buyers and on others. Trooper George Loder sued the Maine Intelligence Analysis Center last week in U.S. District Court. The Bangor Daily News reports that his lawsuit alleges the police agency violated the Whistleblower Protection Act and retaliated when he took his information to superiors.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 15, 2020
The New England Clean Energy Connect would build a transmission line from Quebec to Lewiston to bring hydropower to New England. The good in this project is far outweighs the bad. Windmills and solar are fine, but the power they produce is small potatoes compared to the renewable energy NECEC will create every year. How can anyone who wants cleaner air for our state can be opposed to NECEC? ~ Felix Meas, Sanford
MORNING SENTINEL • May 15, 2020
We are grateful for the support of neighboring utility Central Maine Power, who provided our company with a mobile substation and all the required manpower to install it when our main transformer failed, causing our system to go out on Christmas morning. The first week of May, they came back to remove it once we had the replacement equipment ready to install. Between the weather and the forest, it is challenging to deliver reliable power in this state and all Maine people are fortunate that neighboring businesses can help each other out when needed. ~ Martin Berry, Madison Electric Works
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 13, 2020
On the list of “least welcome critters,” many Mainers would put the porcupine somewhere between ticks and skunks. Dan Crocker of Exeter said he’s never had much use for them, either. That’s beginning to change, at least a little bit for him though, thanks to a baby albino porcupine that he’s been seeing on his property.
VILLAGE SOUP • May 14, 2020
When Hannah Raymond was growing up she never would have told anyone nature was her calling. It was not until after her college career, in which she held the idea of a more indoor-type of future in mind, did the now Searsmont resident realize the great wide open suited her heart's desire the most. Raymond, 35, spent many summers with her family in Maine, but the decision to call the Pine Tree State home did not come until six years ago. In April of 2019, Raymond, and her hiking partner, Erik Ludwig, began to hike a part of the Continental Divide Trail. After she left the Maine Conservation Corp., Raymond did volunteer trail work with the Smokies Wilderness Elite Appalachian Trail crew
NATIVE FISH COALITION • May 14, 2020
The Rapid River in Maine is the premier wild native brook trout river in the United States. Unfortunately, nonnative and highly invasive smallmouth bass have been illegally introduced to the Rapid River, putting the rivers wild native brook trout at risk. While bass can never be eradicated from a river the size of the Rapid, their populations can be controlled to various degrees. One thing we can do, and the law allows it, is to remove any bass we encounter while angling.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 14, 2020
More than seven weeks after Ogunquit closed its spectacular stretch of sand beaches to the public to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the town has decided to reopen two of them. Ogunquit Beach, also known as Main Beach, and Footbridge Beach will reopen Monday for walking, surfing, paddling and fishing.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 14, 2020
Many state officials — including Gov. Janet Mills — have been mum following a Bangor Daily News report on Thursday of a lawsuit by a state trooper, George Loder, who alleged that he experienced employment discrimination after he told his supervisors that the Maine Intelligence Analysis Center was illegally gathering data on Maine residents. Protesters who opposed the Central Maine Power corridor, employees of a summer camp and people who legally purchased guns were among the groups that were illegally surveilled, according to the lawsuit.
MAINE PUBLIC • May 14, 2020
With the depletion of certain items on grocery store shelves and the disruption to the supply chain, there is one thing the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted, and that is the importance of locally grown food. In Maine and around the country, small farms in particular are seeing a surge of interest in what they have to offer, and membership sales in community supported agriculture are especially attractive right now.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 14, 2020
Almost 75 percent of small businesses in a survey applied for help from a federal loan program designed to keep workers employed during the coronavirus pandemic, but only 38 percent of small businesses received any money, according to survey results the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday. Oil extraction and mining businesses had the best success in getting loans from the Paycheck Protection Program.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 14, 2020
Covering 229 acres of forests, fields and wetlands in Holden and Orrington, Fields Pond Audubon Center is a place to simply enjoy nature. On the property, more than 130 bird species and 20 varieties of butterflies have been documented, as well as a diversity of reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Owned and managed by the Maine Audubon, the preserve features a trail network that leads visitors through a number of different habitats, from fields that are maintained for ground-nesting birds to a mature conifer forest.
SUN JOURNAL • May 14, 2020
A 15-year-old girl was plucked out of Snow Falls Gorge by rescuers Thursday after falling about 30 feet into the icy waters. The girl was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway with minor injuries and hypothermia.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 14, 2020
Cate Street Capital, a private equity firm that was behind a controversial plan to reopen the former Great Northern Paper mill in East Millinocket with the help of a state tax credit program, has filed for bankruptcy. The firm bought the mill from its bankrupt former owner, Great Northern Paper, for $1 in 2011 and brought in investors in an attempt to reopen the facility. A Portland Press Herald investigation found that Cate Street inflated the value of its investment and ended up reaping $16 million in refundable state tax credits. The mill was closed again three years after Cate Street bought it.
MAINE COAST HERITAGE TRUST • May 14, 2020
Take a virtual tour of MCHT’s Aldermere Farm Preserve and meet the spring calves—the newest additions to the award-winning Belted Galloway herd.
