The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 21, 2020
Unlike Bucksport, Lincoln and Old Town, communities that have been redefining themselves since their paper mills closed, one smaller town’s survival efforts boast a unique twist. Monson faced its own uncertainty after the loss of its largest employer in 2007 — until a major benefactor, the Libra Foundation, brought in millions of dollars and hope of a brighter future to help rejuvenate the fabric of the community.
WASHINGTON POST • June 21, 2020
A northeastern Siberian town is likely to have set a record for the hottest temperature documented in the Arctic Circle, with a reading of 100.4 degrees recorded Saturday in Verkhoyansk, north of the Arctic Circle and about 3,000 miles east of Moscow. Records at that location have been kept since 1885. The Arctic as a whole, is seeing rapidly increasing temperatures as a result of human-caused global warming. This is in part because of accelerating feedback loops between melting snow and ice and air and ground temperatures, as well as other features of the region’s climate.
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • June 21, 2020
When Steve Brooke and others began talking about getting rid of the Kennebec dam and another dam at the mouth of Maine's Sebasticook River, many Mainers didn't see the point. There were hints of the Sebasticook's former productivity; 3,000 year-old fish traps built by the Wabanaki people were found in an upstream lake. But Brooke says many people had never seen a large river system in its natural state. Now the Sebasticook has the nation's largest run of alewives and blueback herring. And many other migratory fish are using the river.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 21, 2020
Add to the list of extraordinary events this spring a record lack of rainfall. According to data from the National Weather Service in Gray, the middle of May to the middle of June hasn’t been this dry in the Portland region in the nearly 150 years that such records have been kept. From May 15-16, when we had our last significant rainfall, through Thursday, this year has been “the driest by far” since at least 1871, according to meteorologist Chris Kimble of the weather service office in Gray.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 21, 2020
Reservations by Maine residents are up 37 percent from last year at this time – from 6,909 in 2019 to 9,467 in 2020, through June 17. Reservations by out-of-stater campers are up slightly this year, said Jim Britt of the Bureau of Parks and Lands, but overall state parks are on a pace to challenge the record number of campers they hosted in 2018.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 21, 2020
The Wonderland Trail is one of the sweetest short hikes in Acadia National Park, leading a scant 3/4-mile stroll to a fabulous vista. Beyond the conifers, massive slabs of pink granite buttress the rugged shoreline, the only natural defense against the ever-powerful ocean surf. Pull up a rock, relax and drink in the scene on the southern margin of the west side of Mount Desert Island. Acadia’s Wonderland Trail is the first in an alphabetical list of Natural Heritage Hikes, a series of unique trail guides developed by the Maine Natural Areas Program. ~ Carey Kish
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 21, 2020
Bird calls are short vocalizations that serve various year-round functions. Flight calls, alarm calls and contact calls are good examples. Songs are complex vocalizations only used during the breeding season. However, the distinction between the two types of vocalizations isn’t always clear. A great free bird app is available from the National Audubon Society (audubon.org/app). There are multiple vocalizations for every species. It’s a marvelous learning tool. ~ Herb Wilson
SUN JOURNAL • June 21, 2020
It started around Father's Day weekend in 1951 and for the next five decades, Joe Lelanksy didn't miss a trip, taking his pack of Boy Scouts with him for the first 25 years to Baxter State Park and Maine’s highest mountain.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2020
No bird in North America is more aggressive in defending its nest than a northern goshawk. You don’t have to look for goshawks. They find you. If you get anywhere near the nest, they will ask you to leave in a loud, clear voice, and it won’t be polite. I recommend that you do as they suggest, because a failure to obey is likely to provoke a physical attack, as they come screaming in, needle-sharp talons aimed at your scalp. This panic-attack attack happens only during nesting season. The rest of the year, goshawks don’t care about you. ~ Bob Duchesne
SUN JOURNAL • June 20, 2020
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of a plaque off a rock from the Height of Land overlook on Route 17 in Letter D Township in northern Franklin County. The plaque that designates the area as Height of Land was taken off a good sized rock, according to a Maine Department of Transportation photo. Anyone who has information that may be helpful to the investigation is asked to call the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at 207-778-2680.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • June 20, 2020
Maine Forest Rangers reports on Facebook that there have been 700 wildfires in Maine as of June 20, 2020. According to meteorologist Chris Kimble of the weather service office in Gray, this year has been “the driest by far” since at least 1871.
SUN JOURNAL • June 20, 2020
There is some upbeat news, especially if you are a Maine deer hunter. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has proposed the issuance of a record number of doe (any-deer) permits this fall. You heard right. If the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Council goes along with the Department’s doe-permit proposal, and it is expected to do so, there will be approximately 109,000 doe permits issued for the fall deer hunt. ~ V. Paul Reynolds
ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 20, 2020
Homebound travelers desperate to venture out for the first time since the pandemic are confronting a vacation landscape this summer that may require coronavirus tests for the family and even quarantines. States from Maine to Hawaii are trying to strike a balance between containing the new coronavirus and encouraging out-of-state visitors to spend their cash on hotels, restaurants and other businesses. The measures have gotten a thumbs-down from many in the tourism industry.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2020
One lone sheep — known to authorities as the “escape artist” — was captured again after more than a month of attempts to keep it corralled.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2020
In January, Maine AgrAbility launched Boots-2-Bushels, a new program to help Maine veterans transition to a career in agriculture after returning home. The program offered a variety of classes, from cultivation to marketing, as well as hands-on instruction from experienced farmers using a demonstration farm at the VA Togus Hospital in Augusta. Everything was on track for the program. Then, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Instead of canceling for the season, though, Anne Devin, farmer veteran outreach coordinator for Maine AgrAbility used some of military resilience, creativity and resourcefulness to make her program work for this brave new world.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 20, 2020
I live and walk on Back Cove daily. I live in fear of being hit by a bike that I cannot hear, have no warning that it’s behind me and about to pass. Walkers drift, move to look at something or, like me, pick up trash. I moved to Maine 10 years ago, from a large city where the culture of bike riders is to say “On your left” before passing. It almost never happens here. Why? ~ Eileen Purdy, Portland
SUN JOURNAL • June 20, 2020
On Sunday, there was an article about 66 environmental protections that President Trump has reversed. The bottom line: no clean water, no clean air, no limits on the amount of mercury that coal powered plants can spew into the air, and requirements for oil and gas companies to report methane production cancelled. Certainly there are 66 good reasons to vote that man out of the White House in November. ~ Nancy Pinkham, Leeds
CAMBRIDGE DAY • June 20, 2020
Amid a global pandemic, tensions over race relations and a struggling economy, President Donald Trump opts instead to dismantle environmental protections created during Barack Obama’s presidency on almost 5,000 square miles of ocean floor off the East Coast. Trump claims allowing commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument will jump-start the Maine fishing industry. The real issues the Maine fishing industry faces have to do with Chinese tariffs imposed as a result of Trump’s trade war and questions of how to protect endangered whale species without decreasing lobster yields. Trump had little to say on either point, instead opting for an ultimately useless rollback of important environmental regulations. ~ Annabel Xu, Somerville, Mass
PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE • June 19, 2020
Emergency action is being requested to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The Pew Charitable Trusts petitioned Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross yesterday to do more to save the fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales, many off New England shores. Peter Baker is the director of Pew's marine conservation work in New England. He says they're recommending four targeted offshore closures, including three seasonal areas in Gulf of Maine federal waters. "The state of Maine says that 76% of their lobstermen never leave state waters when they're fishing for lobsters," says Baker. "And the vast majority of these closed areas occur in federal waters that are offshore." Baker says closing these areas would do a lot to preserve the species. The state of Maine and local lobster groups claim recent federal right whale recommendations unfairly burden lobstermen.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 19, 2020
When a lone duck paddled past, about 15 feet away from me, I saw the reason for its abnormal behavior: There, about two feet behind it, was a small piece of wood, or cork, or plastic. Most likely, an angler found his lure snarled on bottom, and gave a quick yank to free it, ended up snapping the fishing line. Then, later the duck got its foot stuck in the nest of line, and ended up picking up more debris. Here’s hoping that we anglers can be a little more careful when we hit the water.
