The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 29, 2020
The Ecology School is nearing the end of a $14 million project to move the nonprofit ecology- and sustainability-focused school from a rented summer camp at Ferry Beach 10 miles inland to River Bend Farm. By November, the farm will include the two most sustainable buildings in the Northeast, but the property will largely remain untouched by development.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 29, 2020
We care deeply about our state’s forests. We have had the privilege of working throughout our careers to ensure the North Woods of Maine are productive and protected. We continue to do that and believe the Clean Energy Corridor is one of those big – and important – steps that must be taken immediately to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. ~ Thomas Rumpf, former associate state director for The Nature Conservancy and former Maine State Entomologist; Lloyd Irland, former faculty at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and former director of the Maine Bureau of Public Lands and Maine State Economist
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 29, 2020
Bar Harbor just doesn’t quite seem like Bar Harbor. The Mount Desert Island town, with a population of fewer than 6,000 residents, typically thrives on millions of visitors each year — most from out of state — who throng to the island and Acadia National Park each year between Memorial Day and Columbus Day. But this year, with COVID-19 strangling the global economy and restrictions on people traveling to Maine, only a tiny fraction have shown up. Restaurants — like hotels — are feeling the lack of tourists acutely because they depend on a steady stream of customers. With local hotels far below occupancy and no cruise ships expected to visit at all this summer, many businesses are simply to make it through the year and re-open in 2021.
MORNING SENTINEL • June 29, 2020
The needs of industry has always been protected over the needs of the planet in the United States. That is, until recently, when some of our country’s natural wonders have been designated as protected, showing a marked change in the way this country treats its environmental resources. This is why it is so troubling to see that the president has been getting away with repealing these environmental protections bit by bit. ~ Peter Weiser, Waterville
UNION LEADER • June 28, 2020
Once considered one of the 10 dirtiest rivers in America, the Androscoggin River is on a sustained rebound and conservation groups are working here to preserve a large stretch of it for “quiet recreation.” Calling it “a rare opportunity to forever protect an undeveloped and scenic landscape,” the Mahoosuc Land Trust, which is based in Bethel, Maine, and The Conservation Fund, recently announced the Shelburne Riverlands Project, which seeks to raise $1 million to purchase 853 acres of land from Bayroot LLC. The Riverlands, according to the land trust, includes 22 islands and 12 mainland parcels located along an 8.7-mile stretch of the Androscoggin from just east of Gorham to Gilead, Maine.
TIMES RECORD • June 28, 2020
Tuesday, the Brunswick Farmers Market is moving back to the downtown mall, where vendors hope to have increased visibility going into the height of the summer season. The market’s 15 vendors will spread out at least six feet apart along the sidewalks, with enough space for customers to stand in line while keeping their distance. Brunswick’s other farmers market, the Brunswick Topsham Land Trust Farmers Market, usually at Crystal Spring Farm but currently housed in the Brunswick High School parking lot, is staying put, for now.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • June 28, 2020
A nasty fungus has infected numerous cherry trees in the city, including 14 at a city park where officials plan to have them cut down and removed. The black knot fungus is slowly killing cherry trees at Monument Park, off Memorial Circle, clinging to the trees’ branches and leaving them barren and dying.
TIMES RECORD • June 28, 2020
David and Tracy Percy, prior owners of Percy’s General Store in Phippsburg, want to create an 11-unit RV park at Popham Beach on the site of the store, which was demolished last year. The RV park would be set up at 6 Sea St, near the intersection of Sea Street and Popham Road. Last Tuesday’s hearing drew a crowd of roughly 35 people, some of whom spoke out against the project, expressing concerns about how the RV park and its fence might ruin their views.
TURNER PUBLISHING • June 28, 2020
The City of Auburn has joined 24 communities across Maine in the first annual Maine Backyard Campout, sponsored the by Maine Parks and Recreation Association. The month of July is National Parks and Recreation Month. What better way to celebrate “all things Maine” than a state-wide backyard campout? The mission of this event is to encourage families to get outdoors and enjoy a camping experience, right in their own backyard.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 28, 2020
Starting this year, crossbows can be used – in addition to the usual compound or recurve bows – during the regular archery season for deer, giving crossbow hunters an extra month to hunt deer. Previously, hunters could only use them in the firearm deer season in November. The new law doubles the amount of time crossbow hunters can spend stalking deer – and offers them a hunting method that is not as physically challenging as a traditional bow.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 28, 2020
The most common question I receive is “where are the birds?!” One species that observers are especially attuned to is the ruby-throated hummingbird, typically the only species of hummingbird we see in Maine. They arrive in early May and are typically common in yards by Mother’s Day. But then by Father’s Day they are gone. Don’t worry, the hummingbirds are out there, they are just taking advantage of naturally-occurring food, which is generally more abundant and has a higher metabolic reward than sugar water. It won’t be long until hummingbirds will be back at your feeders. ~ Doug Hitchcox, Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 28, 2020
With close to half the state currently in a moderate drought and the rest abnormally dry, private drinking water wells in Maine are in trouble. According to hydrologists, now is the time to start taking steps to prevent a well from going completely dry before it’s too late. As water tables drop around the state, people who rely on private wells must start eliminating water use that is not absolutely necessary. In all likelihood dry wells will not replenish until this fall because this is the time of year when whatever rain does fall tends to do so in short bursts that is monopolized by growing plants and trees
SUN JOURNAL • June 28, 2020
Central Maine Power and its U.S. parent, Avangrid, have filed suit against its customers to deny them the right for self-determination in a citizens’ initiative. These outlandish actions are supported by its board of directors, including John Baldacci, former governor of Maine. Baldacci earns $200,000 per year as Avangrid’s vice chair while employed as senior adviser at Pierce Atwood, the lobbying firm. Last year CMP paid Pierce Atwood $3.2 million to represent CMP’s interests at the Maine Public Utilities Commission. The suit comes quick on the heels of a blistering marketing campaign that said, if I don’t vote for the corridor, I am going to be directly responsible for the further demise and hard times of the lobster fishery and the blueberry crop. If Mainers want to meet the challenge of Gov. Janet Mills’ Maine Climate Council, we need to own our grid, plow our profits back into the network, and access growth capital at much lower rates. ~ Sam May, a former Wall Street analyst with significant experience in both Silicon Valley and Hong Kong, Portland
SUN JOURNAL • June 28, 2020
Nine educators from around the state are involved in a pilot program teaching teachers to be registered Maine Guides. Canoe rescues. Lost-in-the-woods drills. Fire-starting and knot-tying classes. Inspired by a school drowning at Range Pond two years ago, a new program has educators from around the state taking to the woods to become registered Maine Guides. Kevin B. Frost hopes the course, and more like it, leads to more teachers taking their kids out on field trips, soaking in nature.
TURNER PUBLISHING • June 27, 2020
Mahoosuc Land Trust has announced the new Shelburne Riverlands Project, 22 islands and 12 mainland parcels along the Androscoggin River in Shelburne, New Hampshire. The project the MLT is seeking to require totals 853 acres along an 8.7 mile stretch of the river running to the state line in Gilead, Maine.
TURNER PUBLISHING • June 27, 2020
Pete and Marjorie Lovejoy look out from their home onto the same forested property where Pete’s father had 15 cattle in the middle of the 20th century. Pete and Marjorie said they hope that work can be done in the coming years to conserve forests and wetlands in the area, with a particular focus on keeping parcels of land together and large scale development at bay. In a time when some people may want to move from bigger cities and come “back to the land,” it will be important to make sure that the areas that define this region are protected. ~ Jonah Raether, Kennebec Land Trust intern
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 27, 2020
This September, Portland painter, illustrator and book artist Jill Osgood will follow in the tradition of Thoreau and Church and spend two weeks as a visiting artist at Baxter State Park. She will stay at Kidney Pond Campground, and will host at least two plein-air sessions that will be open to the public, according to the park. Through the visiting artist program, the park provides a cabin for two weeks each year to a visual artist or writer. This is the second wilderness residency awarded to Maine artists in June. Earlier, the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry chose painter Michael Vermette as the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Visiting Artist for 2020.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 27, 2020
The U.S. lobster fishing industry, based mostly in Maine, has had to cope with a supply chain that has been disrupted by the pandemic. Wholesale prices were lower than previous years this spring, and consumers started to see lower prices at markets earlier in June and prices could likely fall more in July. With restaurants slowed or shuttered, consumers are already paying less than $6 per pound in some markets – $2 to $3 dollars less than typical of this month in Maine.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • June 27, 2020
As the region experiences severe drought conditions, experts say the hot, dry weather has been a boon for nuisance caterpillars that continue to make inroads into areas of central Maine, and threaten trees and public health. The browntail moth caterpillar had for years been relegated to areas of Massachusetts and the Maine coast, but over the last five years the caterpillar has steadily moved into areas of Waldo, Kennebec and Somerset counties. They defoliate trees in their wake and their poisonous hairs can cause skin rashes similar to poison ivy or cause respiratory difficulty if inhaled.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 27, 2020
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill introduced by a pair of New England senators that would make disabled veterans able to attend national parks for free. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen proposed the bill. It’s designed to provide all veterans who suffered service-connected disabilities with free lifetime entry to any national parks.
