The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 11, 2020
“The Great Maine Moose Hunt, Celebrating 40 Years of Modern Moose Hunting in Maine,” is a new book that features moose tales from 19 registered Maine guides or avid moose hunters. Roger Lambert and friend James Cote compiled the stories that will ring true to any who have been drawn for a permit, recruited friends, and headed into the vast Maine woods in search of their own hunt of a lifetime.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 11, 2020
A buying frenzy and the disruption of the global supply chain have created one of the least expected shortages of the COVID-19 pandemic – bicycles. Maine bike sellers have sold out of many models and styles, and are having difficulty restoring their stock during the biggest bicycling craze in almost 50 years. Some worry spare parts soon will become scarce even as overseas factories recover from shutdowns triggered by the pandemic.
TIMES RECORD • June 11, 2020
We don’t eat many of them, although they are delicious. Lobster and other fish love them and they are highly prized as baitfish. These are the many species of herring that live in Maine waters. Watching them fight their way upstream or rush through the water in giant schools is inspirational, perhaps the definition of indefatigable. ~ Susan Olcott
TIMES RECORD • June 11, 2020
Our coastal Maine woods have begun to say, “It’s the warm season; take a look at this.” Three favorite flowers colored this voice in my head — the trout lily, trillium and, finally, the pink lady’s slipper. I love each, and they arrive each spring in an overlapping sequence. ~ Sandy Stott
MAINE PUBLIC • June 10, 2020
The Downeaster passenger train is set to resume limited service on Monday for essential workers and those traveling for essential purposes. During what is being called "Phase One," there will be one daily round trip between Brunswick and Boston with nine stops in-between. Downeaster spokesperson Natalie Bogart says a train will leave Brunswick at 4:15 a.m. Monday through Friday, arriving in Boston at 7:50 a.m. The return trip leaves Boston at 5 in the afternoon, arriving in Brunswick at 8:15 p.m.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 10, 2020
Rob Landry of Portland planned for three months to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. He contracted out work at the small business he runs, and flew to Georgia to begin the hike on March 7, his 53rd birthday. Then the coronavirus outbreak swept through the country. A few weeks later, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy asked thru-hikers to get off the AT to stop the spread of the virus. Landry mulled his choices and decided “my best option was to stay on the trail.” He used sanitizer, washed his hands frequently, and wore a neck warmer as a mask when he went grocery shopping off the trail. Now halfway through the 2,200-mile trek, Landry said the Class of 2020 AT hikers, however many there are, will have a very different thru-hike story to tell.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 10, 2020
Three parties—West Forks Plantation, the town of Caratunk and Kennebec River Anglers—are challenging a conditional permit for a $1 billion hydropower project granted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. They are asking the department for a stay to postpone its activity on a May 11 permit approval for Central Maine Power’s controversial New England Clean Energy Connect project, which would bring hydropower from the Canadian border through Maine. In a separate filing, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, an environmental advocacy group, on Wednesday filed both a stay of the permit decision and an appeal of it with Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection.
MAINE PUBLIC • June 10, 2020
Opponents of Central Maine Power's proposed powerline through the state's western woods are lining up to formally challenge the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) recent permit for the project. On Tuesday, an array of individuals and conservation organizations, plus the potential host towns of Caratunk and west Forks Plantation, called for a stay of any physical work on the project. They say to avoid irreversible environmental damage, work should be on-hold until federal permits are issued and voters weigh in on a statewide referendum in November. And Wednesday, the state's largest environmental advocacy organization, the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), filed a formal appeal of the DEP permit. CMP called the moves "baseless."
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 10, 2020
The new waste plant in Hampden has had to temporarily close this month as it struggles to pay its expenses and faces a new lawsuit from a contractor that alleges it’s owed at least $1.2 million for staffing and running the facility. That closure has forced the 115 communities that normally send waste to the Coastal Resources of Maine plant to instead divert it to landfills, as they have had to do multiple times over the past two years as the facility opened late and then in fits and starts.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 10, 2020
The Maine Bird Atlas now in progress, under the auspices of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Volunteers are fanning out across the state, mapping the locations of every breeding bird they can find. Such surveys are conducted every 20 years or so. By comparing current data with past results, biologists can get an idea of how much our environment has changed. With changes to climate and habitat, we’re seeing southern birds moving north, and northern birds disappearing. Grassland birds are vanishing. Aerial insect-eaters have taken a huge hit. ~ Bob Duchesne
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • June 10, 2020
Hiding by a fence post I found a clot of bird’s eye speedwell, a blue so deep and sweet you could just about cry. That’s the good news. The huge white pine that grew for 150, 200 years, by the lakeshore at the park broke in half. A tick got in the cat’s thick orange fur and swelled up to the size of a pea. Every kind of suffering and joy seems upon us here in early summer, 2020. A time to gain, a time to lose. A time for love, a time for hate. A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late. ~ Dana Wilde
BARRON’S • June 10, 2020
he price of lobster has stagnated as restaurants nationwide operate at limited capacity and foreign markets essentially closed. In addition to the gutted demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, Maine lobstermen are facing potential changes to their gear and the fishing industry in general after an April ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. That ruling said the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to report the lobster industry’s harmful impact on the North Atlantic right whale. “There are no bright spots in fishing. Between Covid and the whale regulations, there is no good news,” says lobsterman Mike Dawson. “Covid is a current short-term blip. The whale rules have the potential to alter the fishery long-term.”
FIDDLEHEAD FOCUS • June 10, 2020
The video shows Fort Kent Lions Club members ranging in age from 20 to 93 years old passing a potato to one another in video clips filmed at their homes and places of business. Through their Pride of Lions Show and other fundraising efforts, the club supports the community in a variety of ways, including, in conjunction with local potato farmers, distributing potatoes and monetary donations to area food pantries and restaurants.
MAINE PUBLIC • June 10, 2020
Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King says legislation he helped craft called the Great American Outdoors Act, will address the billions of dollars in needed repairs and maintenance at the nation’s national parks. The legislation would set aside revenues the government receives from onshore and offshore energy development to repair and maintain the national parks. King told Senate colleagues that the people own the parks, many of which have large maintenance backlogs.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • June 10, 2020
As we quarantined in our homes, a lot of wild animals took over our yards. Most of them, my wife Linda and I have enjoyed. But not all of them. One night two weeks ago, a bear tore down and busted our bird feeders. That bear also visited our neighbors and tore apart two of their beehives. We’ve enjoyed seeing a doe deer with last year’s fawn, and the turkeys that feed all over our yard. We also have a stunning array and number of birds. Today, I’m very worried about our outdoor industry — especially guides and sporting camps — and our small businesses. A lot of sporting camps will not open this year, because they depend on out-of-staters and they won’t be coming to Maine this summer. Guides have had almost all of their trips canceled. ~ George Smith
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 10, 2020
President Trump used the occasion of a visit to Maine last week to do right by an industry that hasn’t had much good news lately when he reopened to commercial fishing nearly 5,000 square miles of ocean south of New England that President Barack Obama closed in 2016. Stay tuned. In the process of righting a wrong, Trump’s action, announced at a Bangor roundtable, has once again set hair on fire in the environmental community, tested the limits of presidential power and set the stage for litigation. ~ Jerry Fraser, Wells, retired publisher of National Fisherman
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 10, 2020
Some of Maine’s popular hiking trails, campsites and other outdoor destinations are experiencing major overcrowding early this season. In addition to conducting research about where you’d like to visit, choose alternative locations nearby as a plan B, C and D. That way, you’re almost certain to find a spot that isn’t crowded.
MAINE BEACON (Maine People's Alliance) • June 9, 2020
After numerous states saw massive lines at the polls and delays in reporting results, advocates in Maine are asking the state to take additional precautions to protect Maine voters’ access in the July 14 primary. Gov. Janet Mills has issued an executive order extending the deadlines to receive absentee ballots and submit voter registration applications by mail or through a third-person. But a local coalition of pro-democracy groups, including Maine Conservation Alliance, is concerned those steps do not go far enough to make voting accessible to all Mainers.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 9, 2020
President Donald Trump spent much of his time here in Maine last week continuing his assault on our public lands and waters. At a roundtable with carefully curated supporters, the president announced that he would reopen the only marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing. Opening the monument to commercial fishing activity will have no economic benefit for Maine fishermen. It is also illegal. Allowing fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts will do nothing to help Maine fishermen recover lost revenue or add a single job — no Maine-based boats fish there. If anything, we should be protecting more areas of our oceans, not rolling back protections on the sole marine monument in the Atlantic. ~ Sean Mahoney, Conservation Law Foundation Maine.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 9, 2020
A spring canoe trip on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is an exciting way to start the open water fishing season. Combining fishing and canoeing goes together like cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast. The smelt runs start soon after ice out on the waterway headwater lakes. Brook trout and togue follow these forage fish to their spawning areas and gorge themselves on the easy food source. If you are lucky enough to be in these spawning areas at the right time, the fishing can be unbelievable. ~ Matt LaRoche, Superintendent of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway
