The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 15, 2020
Maine has received more than $2.5 million via a multi-state cap-and-trade program. The money is the product of the 48th auction of carbon dioxide emission allowances on June 3. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is designed to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that generate more than 25 megawatts. The money generated from the auction will be invested in energy efficiency for Maine residents.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 15, 2020
Gulf of Maine Ecoarts will create a large-scale sculptural installation of a North Atlantic right whale and other endangered and threatened marine species to hang at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science in East Boothbay in 2021. The goal is to help people connect with the Gulf of Maine to promote stewardship of the sea and to help connect humans with each other, said artist Anna Dibble. The sculpture will be made with 95 percent beach debris and recycled, repurposed materials.
MORNING SENTINEL • June 15, 2020
The Maine Board of Environmental Protection will soon decide whether to allow Nordic Aquafarms, a Norwegian company, to build a massive, $500 million land-based industrial fish farm in Belfast. Many of us here in Belfast believe BEP decided on Nordic long before it wasted untold Maine tax dollars on its Nordic charade. We believe the fix was in from the get-go. How else to explain the bizarre BEP finding that Nordic has sufficient right, title and interest to even file for a permit? Nordic and its minions from away no more own a path to the sea for Nordic’s effluent discharge pipe than they own the Statue of Liberty. ~ Lawrence Reichard, Belfast
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 15, 2020
State environmental officials are looking for a way for 115 communities now sending their trash to landfills after the recent closure of a Hampden waste plant to instead send it to an Orrington facility that burns waste to create electricity. It’s not clear when or whether the Coastal Resources of Maine plant in Hampden will reopen after financial and contractual problems forced it to suspend operations at the end of May.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS • June 14, 2020
At a time when ocean scientists are warning that a dramatic increase is needed in establishing marine protected areas, Trump is taking aim at the first such zone in U.S. Atlantic waters. The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, created by President Obama in his last year in office, set a unique area in the Gulf of Maine off limits to commercial fishing. The monument area is a hotspot for several endangered whale species, and not of particularly high interest to New England's beleaguered fishery. When the administration moved to re-open the Monument to fishing, both Maine's governor, Democrat Janet Mills, and Republican Senator Susan Collins objected.
SEACOAST ONLINE • June 14, 2020
The Great Works Regional Land Trust Board of Directors and staff welcomed Danielle Olsen as its new executive director early this year. Olsen comes to GWRLT from Pennsylvania, where she served as the statewide director of watershed planning for a small nonprofit, and brings experience in land protection, conservation planning, and community engagement.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 14, 2020
When it comes to the common clash between bald eagles and loons – it’s common to hear Mainers rooting for the loon. “Eagles are magnificent, there’s no question. If you see one come down and grab a fish it’s a sight to see,” said Janet Coulter, who summers on Ingalls Pond in Bridgton. “But they are basically considered the enemy. We don’t want them dead. But we’re all loon people here.” Both birds are iconic Maine species. But others agree that many people tend to side with loons.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 14, 2020
For all their tapping, it is amazing woodpeckers don’t get headaches, especially for the amount of headaches they seem to cause people. A woodpecker’s drumming is its way of proclaiming a territory or attracting a mate so they seek out objects to drum against that will resonate the loudest, and man-made metal objects seem to be good at that. Whether they are drumming on your pipes or drilling into your house looking for food – put something between them and the place they’re drumming or drilling. I’ve had success hanging tin pie plates. ~ Doug Hitchcox, Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 14, 2020
It is illegal to remove a bird’s nest, especially when it is being used. A federal law, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, makes it illegal to destroy a nest that has eggs or chicks in it or if there are young birds that are still dependent on the nest for survival. And it is illegal to collect, possess, or by any means transfer possession of bird nests. ~ Doug Hitchcox, Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 14, 2020
Emerging from the morning shadows of the massive brick mill buildings of Biddeford and Saco, we are paddling with a swift current 4 miles down to the sparkling expanse of Saco Bay at Camp Ellis for our June getaway. Note: the lower Saco has strong currents. Paddlers will need to be confident and proficient in all moving water situations. ~ Michael Perry
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 14, 2020
Serge Abergel, director of media and external relations at Hydro-Quebec, seems to have it wrong in promulgating a recurring myth about New England Clean Energy Connect being “clean” power. Electrical power from Hydro Quebec is not clean. “Politicians who describe dams as ‘clean energy projects’ are talking ‘nonsense’ and rejecting decades of science,” says David Schindler, a leading water ecologist. Two peer-reviewed scientific journal articles state that hydropower from Quebec is as dirty as coal-fired heating plants. Indigenous tribes have suffered from methylmercury pollution. A foreign company is spending large amounts to influence Mainers on an invasive, for-profit project that provides little for Mainers. Ask Hydro-Quebec to fund an environmental impact statement. This will clear up most questions. ~ Richard W. Aishton, Ph.D., Environmental dynamics analyst, Farmington
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 13, 2020
Here are the 3,135 permit winners in this year’s moose hunting drawing who were randomly selected by computer to participate in the 40th annual Maine moose hunt starting in September.
CLEANTECHNICA • June 13, 2020
Donald Trump has decreed that the Atlantic Ocean’s only fully protected marine sanctuary is now open to commercial fishing. Fishing can resume at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England, Trump said during a roundtable discussion with commercial fishermen and Maine’s former Republican governor, Paul LePage. “We’re undoing his (Obama’s) executive order. What was his reason? He didn’t have a reason, in my opinion.” Whales, dolphins, fish, birds, seals, and other marine life depend on the sanctuary to survive. No evidence exists that the creation of the conservation area of Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument has hurt commercial fishing in New England.
MORNING SENTINEL • June 12, 2020
Since Coastal Resources LLC suspended operations May 28 after being unable to get a $14.7 million loan, area towns have been sending their trash to Waste Management-Crossroads Landfill in Norridgewock, but they hope Coastal will be back up and running with help from the Municipal Review Committee.
MAINE PUBLIC • June 13, 2020
On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold a hearing to confirm Nancy Beck as chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency responsible for protecting the public against dangers associated with consumer products including toys, children’s products, power tools, cleaning supplies and some building materials. Beck has devoted her career to opposing health protections from harmful chemicals, including as a lobbyist for the chemical industry. Should Beck be confirmed, we will all be left in danger of exposure to dangerous chemicals in our products with firefighters and children most vulnerable to exposure. ~ Michael J. Crouse, Professional Fire Fighters of Maine, and Sarah Woodbury, Environmental Health Strategy Center
MAINE The Magazine • June 12, 2020
My wife and I are standing halfway up Maine’s tallest peak, named Katahdin, which means “The Greatest Mountain,” by the Penobscot people long ago….We are hiking with a group of at least 20, most of whom are climbing the final stretch of their 2,200-mile trek from Georgia to Maine….Around us [at the summit] is a 360-degree view of Baxter State Park, perhaps the crown jewel of Maine’s North Woods.
SUN JOURNAL • June 12, 2020
Police said a rabid fox attacked a cat Thursday on Nob Hill Avenue off Webster Street. An animal control officer was notified by a homeowner that a fox had attacked the family pet. The owner was able to kill the fox before the officer arrived at the scene. The officer took the animal to the state lab in Augusta where it tested positive for rabies.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 12, 2020
On the same day hospitality and tourism industry leaders demanded more help to save their struggling industry, Gov. Janet Mills accelerated her administration’s reopening plan to allow overnight tourists to visit the state five days earlier than planned. Trade groups representing Maine’s hospitality and tourism businesses on Friday pitched an $800 million state bailout plan for an industry they warned was on the verge of collapse. The Mills administration is allowing tourists to begin visiting Maine and stay in paid lodging starting June 26, five days before the date they were allowed to come here under the administration’s phased reopening plan.
THE HOUR • June 12, 2020
Until now, the seafood industry has been relatively unscathed by outbreaks of coronavirus. Seafood processing facilities are smaller than meatpacking plants, so if one goes down, it has less impact on overall supply. The largest lobster facility in Maine employs between 200 and 250 people, and there are only a couple of facilities in the state that size, said Annie Tselikis, executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers' Association. By contrast, there are regularly more than 1,000 workers at America's major meat plants. While consumers could be protected from large supply shortfalls, the virus may still bring a significant toll for some producers. That could add to the pain felt from the lack of restaurant demand, and it comes after U.S. lobster fisheries were already hit by Chinese tariffs in Donald Trump's trade war.
THE COUNTY • June 12, 2020
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has selected an experienced conservationist to serve as the district conservationist for its field offices in both Central and Southern Aroostook County, and has hired new employees to supplement staff in those offices. Helena Swiatek, currently the NRCS district conservationist in the USDA Service Center in Houlton, will now also serve as the new district conservationist in Presque Isle. Ethan Hill has been chosen as a new soil conservationist in Presque Isle, and Dusty Lockman has been selected as a new soil conservation technician in Houlton.
