With annual clean-ups canceled, this group recruited boaters to keep Maine islands clean this summer

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 12, 2020

Swept in by the tide, heaps of plastic bottles, styrofoam and broken fishing gear accumulate on Maine’s islands each year. To clean up this mess, the Maine Island Trail Association usually organizes annual trips, filling boats with volunteers armed with trash bags. But this year, COVID-19 put a halt to that program. MITA launched a Call to Oars initiative this spring, inviting all recreational boaters to adopt Maine islands for the season and clean them up. So far, dozens of boaters have answered the call.

Maine bats - on the path to extinction?

WISCASSET NEWSPAPER • July 12, 2020

The Kennebec Estuary Land Trust and Midcoast Conservancy invite the public to learn about the lives of Bats! Join Jan Collins, Maine Master Naturalist, for a live webinar on Thursday, July 23 at 6 p.m. to learn about her studies on bats in Maine. This free event is great for naturalists 10 years old and up. Jan Collins is a 26-year veteran high school science teacher, a former interpretive specialist for the Appalachian Mountain Club, a two-time Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, co-author of “Forty Nature Walks in Southern Maine,” and a 2016 graduate of the Maine Master Naturalist program. 

On this date in Maine history: July 12

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 12, 2020

July 12, 1995: The bald eagle is removed from the federal endangered-species list. When the species was put on that list in 1972, Maine had only 29 nesting pairs and eight eaglets – a steep 97 percent decline from the amount estimated to have been present in the state 150 years earlier. Much of the drop was attributed to environmental pollution. After environmental controls and improvement in land-use management are imposed, the number rises quickly. In 2013, a survey finds 633 nesting pairs in Maine.

Wilderness camping is a remote retreat, but not a sure thing

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 12, 2020

During the coronavirus pandemic, when going hiking, birding or fishing, have a backup plan so that when the parking lot at the trailhead is full, you can move on to a less crowded spot, social distance and help stop the spread of the virus. Add to the list of outdoor activities that require a Plan B – wilderness camping. In 2020, with so many Mainers clamoring to get outside during the pandemic, many wilderness camping sites across Maine might as well have “No Vacancy” signs. At all of the wilderness camping sites in the North Maine Woods forests there has been a surge in use by campers going off the grid, an increase of at least 15 percent over last year – which was a record camping year at Maine state parks. Sometimes, even a Plan B is not good enough. Sometimes you’ve got to pack right.

Column: How do birds react to fireworks?

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 12, 2020

Q: Do fireworks and loud noises bother birds, especially nesting loons? A: This simple answer is yes, fireworks definitely disturb birds. Perhaps the biggest threat to wildlife from fireworks is displacement of nesting species. Are fireworks really necessary? If you want to see a (figurative and literal) “real” light-show, mark your calendars for the Perseid meteor shower later this summer! ~ Doug Hitchcox, Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist

Lewiston’s Garcelon Bog: From ‘disease-ridden’ swamp to protected refuge

SUN JOURNAL • July 12, 2020

It’s something of a miracle that nobody ever quite got around to draining a swampy section of the city known today as Garcelon Bog. Owned by the city and protected by the Androscoggin Land Trust, the area offers pleasant walking trails and a refuge for plants and wildlife that struggle to find a haven in urban environments. While people today may see the area as a preserve, for most of the city’s history it’s been eyed as a potentially lucrative source of fuel, an odiferous mess or a fine place for a highway. Somehow it survived anyway.

Fairfield woman dies after being ejected from raft on Kennebec River

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 11, 2020

Emily Fournier 33, and her family were whitewater rafting on the Kennebec River Saturday with the Magic Falls Rafting Co. when she and two others were ejected from the raft as they paddled through one of the larger rapids on the upper Kennebec River at about 11:30 a.m. Fournier floated through a portion of the river after being ejected and was pulled back into the raft but was unresponsive. Emergency life-saving measures were performed until the raft pulled over at an emergency evacuation point at the Moxie Lake Boat launch, where it was met by EMS personnel, and Fournier was loaded into an ambulance. She was declared deceased at about 1 p.m. 

Column: Bear, coyote hunting targeted in three petitions

SUN JOURNAL • July 11, 2020

There is probably no other anti-hunting activist in Maine who is more determined, persistent and passionate than John Glowa from China. Founder of the Maine Wolf Coalition, Glowa has been promoting the recovery of Gray Wolves in Maine since the early 1990s. According to the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Glowa has successfully filed three legal petitions with the Fish and Wildlife Department which, if enacted, “would all but eliminate bear and coyote hunting and trapping in Maine.” He is also trying to get Maine coyotes classified as “eastern coywolves.” This would open the door to federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Stay tuned. ~ V. Paul Reynolds

For southern Maine beach towns, mask ambassadors are summer’s front-line workers

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 11, 2020

In three of southern Maine’s busiest beach towns—Ogunquit, Wells and York—municipal leaders are using grants from the state to hire ambassadors to welcome visitors, remind them to practice physical distancing and wear masks, and answer questions about local regulations adopted to slow the spread of the virus.

Editorial: Maryland’s signature fish is under assault from mercury pollution

BALTIMORE SUN / KENNEBEC JOURNAL • July 11, 2020

Efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption, to address coal-fired power plants have been thwarted by the Trump EPA. Earlier this year, the EPA took steps to specifically weaken the Obama administration’s Mercury and Air Toxic Standards that regulated power plant emissions. And that’s on top of rolling back carbon emissions standards (Affordable Clean Energy Rule) the Trump administration believed were causing economic harm to the coal industry. And that’s on top of backing off enforcement of multi-state Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts. So, it’s not as if the EPA was asleep at the switch, it’s more like they’ve been deliberately flipping the switch to the benefit of monied special interests but to the broad detriment of the public.

Loon hatches for 1st time in a century in southeastern Mass.

ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 10, 2020

A loon hatched for the first time in more than a century in southeastern Massachusetts thanks to a long-term effort to restore the traditional nesting grounds for the aquatic birds, wildlife officials said. The chick hatched this spring in Fall River, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and Biodiversity Research Institute, a Portland, Maine-based group, announced Thursday. BRI relocated loon chicks from Maine and New York to the Lakeville, Massachusetts, area back in 2015 in the hopes of re-establishing breeding and nesting patterns. They said that appears to have worked.

Marine Monuments Don't Hurt, But Help, the Fishing Industry, Scientists Say

TRIPLEPUNDIT • July 10, 2020

Last month, during a roundtable with Maine fishermen, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation to open the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to the fishing industry. Some fishermen claimed that restricting commercial fishing in the monument off the coast of New England endangered their livelihoods. These claims are, in fact, false, some scientists say: Opening this monument to commercial fishing hurts fishermen — and the effective way to manage the marine monument is to halt commercial fishing.

Environmental group trying to change waste rule that benefits Lewiston company

SUN JOURNAL • July 10, 2020

After failing through legislation, an environmental group is petitioning the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to change a rule that allows waste from out of state to be sent to Maine landfills. If successful, the change would force a Lewiston company to close, according to its owners. The environmental coalition, Don’t Waste Maine, and the nonprofit Toxics Action Center argue a “loophole” in the state’s waste regulations allows out-of-state waste to be funneled through processing facilities in Maine, including ReEnergy Lewiston LLC, making it eligible for disposal in state-owned landfills.

They Were Asked To Stay Home. But Some Thru-Hikers Insisted On Finishing The Appalachian Trail

MAINE PUBLIC • June 10, 2020

Every year, several thousand adventurous souls set out to hike all 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail. But this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, thru-hikers have been advised to put their dreams on hold. Some have refused. That refusal has created tension between those who want to push personal boundaries and those who say there should be limits on public safety. The Appalachian Trail officially ends at the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine's Baxter State Park, and the park did not completely open until July 1. So several people essentially sneaked in to do the climb, and that created more hard feelings when they posted pictures online of themselves doing it.

Hydro-Quebec Says It Will Offer Maine A Deal On Electricity Transported By Proposed CMP Powerline

MAINE PUBLIC • June 10, 2020

Canadian energy giant Hydro-Quebec says it will offer Maine a cut-rate deal on a slice of the electricity carried by a powerline that Central Maine Power wants to build through Maine's western woods. Hydro-Quebec is offering to sell a half million megawatt-hours a year to a large Maine buyer at a discount of $4 per megawatt-hour. The Mills administration says that would be worth $2 million annually to state consumers. Project opponents in the environmental community say it could be worth only about 12 cents off a $100 utility bill. Nick Bennett, staff scientist at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, calls that "nothing."

Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry reminds about the risk of accidentally spreading invasive species while moving firewood

PISCATAQUIS OBSERVER • July 8, 2020

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) is reminding the public about the risk of spreading tree-killing invasive species while moving firewood. New infestations of invasive pests or diseases pose a serious threat to Maine’s landscapes, trees, agriculture, forests, wildlife, and the environment. Harmful invasive species, some of which are invisible to the naked eye, can hide in or on firewood. While most cannot move far on their own, these pests and diseases can be carried long distances on travelers’ firewood and start new infestations. Quarantines can help limit the movement of potentially infested wood, but everyone has to do their part to stop or slow the spread of invasive species. 

Janet Mills signs deal with Canadian hydro company to provide discount electricity to Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 10, 2020

Gov. Janet Mills announced Friday morning that she struck a deal with Hydro-Quebec to provide discounted electricity to the state through Central Maine Power’s controversial transmission corridor. Under the agreement, Hydro-Quebec will provide up to 500,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year to Maine. Hydro-Quebec also pledged to speed up disbursement of about $170 million in benefits for the state. The controversial corridor is mired in legal challenges related to a referendum that would ask voters this November whether the project should be permitted to go forward. 

How to poop in the woods

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 10, 2020

Going to the bathroom is a part of daily life, and it doesn’t just disappear in the woods. So what if you’re hiking or camping and you can’t find a restroom? It may seem like a silly question, but pooping in the wilderness responsibly, effectively and cleanly is a skill that comes in handy if you’re spending any amount of time outdoors. In fact, knowing this skill may be more important than ever before. This summer, many public restrooms and outhouses are closed in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. And based on anecdotal evidence, people are spending more time enjoying outdoor activities this season.

Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust launches Community Conservation Corps

BETHEL CITIZEN • July 10, 2020

This summer, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust launched the Community Conservation Corps creating well-paying jobs for people in a safe working environment, continuing our well-earned reputation for outstanding stewardship of conserved lands, and extending our stewardship practices beyond our 14,000 acres of conserved lands. The CCC will further RLHT’s mission while increasing the region’s economic resilience.

Facing referendum, CMP corridor backers negotiate $258 million incentive package for Mainers

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 10, 2020

The two energy companies behind the proposed New England Clean Energy Connect hydroelectric power transmission corridor through western Maine are attempting to sweeten the deal for voters by offering a $258 million incentive package. The financial commitment from Central Maine Power Co. and its NECEC partner Hydro-Quebec offers a significant boost from the originally negotiated incentive deal valued at $50 million. The latest offer comes at a pivotal time, just four months before voters weigh in on a referendum question asking state utility regulators to reverse their prior approval of the 145-mile NECEC project.