The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2020
One female browntail moth can lay hundreds of eggs, leading to hundreds of new caterpillars emerging the next spring. The Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has categorized the invasive species as a public health nuisance.
MORNING SENTINEL • June 22, 2020
During the ecstatic, gasping quaking of nature that we call simply “June and July” in these parts, hundreds of globeflower bushes ripen and then fire up the bog off the west shore of Unity Pond. They’re called globeflowers because their little four-petal tubular white blossoms grow close together in nearly perfect spheres an inch or two in diameter, with long pistils poking out like antennas all over the surface. ~ Dana Wilde
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2020
July 22, 2013: A jackhammer-equipped backhoe pounded its way through the Veazie Dam on the Penobscot River, which was demolished as part of a river restoration project. The $62 million restoration project gave fish direct access to the Piscataquis, Mattawamkeag and Pleasant rivers, and the East Branch of the Penobscot River.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2020
July 22, 2010: The only financial backer of a proposed $1 billion liquefied natural gas terminal in the small Canadian-border city of Calais withdraws from the project. A group called Calais LNG wanted to build the terminal on about 330 acres along the St. Croix River, featuring a 1,000-foot pier and two or three storage tanks. It also would have had 20 miles of underground pipes connecting to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline with the capacity to move 1 billion cubic feet of gas daily. Critics said the terminal, and LNG tankers in Passamaquoddy Bay and the St. Croix River, would endanger coastal wetlands and the livelihoods of local fishermen. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dismissed Calais LNG’s application in 2012. In 2016, FERC dismissed an application to build an LNG terminal in Robbinston near Calais.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2020
Here’s what I like about the CMP Corridor Project:
• Taxpayers are not on the hook.
• This is an existing renewable resource with a proven track record.
• It will pump millions of property tax dollars into local communities.
• It creates great jobs.
• It will replace fossil fuels and reduce carbon being pumped into the air.
• It must meet dozens of regulatory hoops in a process with input from all parties.
• More jobs, more local tax dollars, less pollution, and a fair and legal process. This is a clear win/win for Maine. Fossil fuel interests and the Natural Resources Council of Maine will lie to us in a campaign with millions spent on slick advertising. ~ Former Rep. Heather Sirocki (R), Scarborough
PISCATAQUIS OBSERVER • June 21, 2020
A fifty-three year old Massachusetts woman was rescued by a Maine Army National Guard (MEARNG) Black Hawk helicopter Monday morning after suffering from medical issues that forced her to shelter in place Sunday night on the Hunt Trail. Baxter State Park Rangers responded to the call Sunday night and sheltered in place with the woman and her husband before the MEARNG could fly Monday morning.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 21, 2020
East Millinocket closed on a deal on Tuesday to purchase the former Great Northern Paper Co. LLC mill site, for generations the home of the town’s single largest employer, on Main Street for $1.4 million in grant funds. Town ownership of the land will place in public hands one of the Katahdin region’s storied papermaking areas, where 212 workers lost their jobs when the East Millinocket mill closed for good in 2014. The sister mill in Millinocket closed in 2008, resulting in the loss of 208 jobs. Town officials consider the 215-acre site ideal for industry.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 21, 2020
Attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia, including Maine, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, alleging that new federal rules undermine their ability to protect rivers, lakes and streams within their borders. They say that new rules issued last week alter a practice dating back more than 30 years giving state governments the authority to review, block or put conditions on federally permitted water projects. The changes are among several steps the Trump administration has taken to roll back the Clean Water Act, including ending federal protection in January for many of the nation’s millions of miles of streams, wetlands and arroyos and wetlands.
TIMES RECORD • July 21, 2020
Central Maine Power next week will start installing a radar system on two transmission towers near Chops Point to control lights on the towers that continue to pester local residents. The radar system will sit on top of the towers and turn on the lights only when an aircraft is within 1,000 feet of the towers, according to Catharine Hartnett, CMP spokesperson. When the aircraft is out of range, the lights will turn off.
MAINE PUBLIC • June 21, 2020
The next new passenger boat for Casco Bay Lines will run almost completely on electricity. A $3.2 million federal grant will aid in the purchase of a cutting edge diesel-electric hybrid engine for a ferry that will make the run from Portland to Peaks Island. Transit District General Manager Hank Berg says the move will save some 800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. Diesel engines will act mainly as backup or for trips longer than the two and a half mile ride to Portland.
SUN JOURNAL • July 21, 2020
People who toss trash into the streets, to me, are on par with those who park in handicapped spaces or who go to national parks and spray-paint graffiti on the rocks. That is to say, they are selfish and unrepentant weasels. And with all that said, I guess I should point out that when I encountered a chow-mad litterbug on East Avenue, I never went back to pick up what he had so carelessly tossed into the street. I guess, like everybody else, I figured someone else would clean it up. I suppose this means that when Woodsy the Owl makes his next enraged flyover, I should expect my own dose of punishment from above. ~ Mark LaFlamme
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 21, 2020
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed that an algae bloom in two ponds in Hinckley Park is a cyanobacteria that is toxic to animals and humans. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department posted warning signs around the ponds and closed them to public use in early July.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 21, 2020
A bill that would replace Maine’s dominant investor-owned electric utilities with a consumer-owned authority for power distribution faces a key action Friday, when the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee is set to vote on whether to send the measure to the full Legislature. The Maine Power Delivery Authority would replace Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power, formerly Emera Maine, with an entity that would operate much like Maine’s smaller, consumer-owned utilities.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 21, 2020
East End Beach in Portland was reopened Tuesday after test showed contamination levels are well within state safety standards and pose no threat to swimmers. The popular beach was closed Sunday afternoon following a malfunction at the East End Wastewater Treatment Plant that resulted in the discharge of an undetermined amount of wastewater into Casco Bay. Sunday’s discharge happened after a Central Maine Power line that feeds electricity to the plant shut off around 8:15 a.m. A backup generator at the plant failed at the same time sending partially disinfected wastewater into the bay.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • June 21, 2020
In a rare, welcome display of bipartisanship, Congress is poised to approve the most important conservation law passed in the United States in 40 years. The legislation, known as the Great American Outdoors Act, would provide $9.5 billion over the next five years to repair America’s national parks. It also would provide $900 million a year in perpetuity from offshore oil drilling royalties to fund maintenance, repairs and expansion of national parks, state parks and city parks across the nation. ~ Editorial by The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 20, 2020
Buxton police have charged 40 people with trespassing in a riverfront park that had been closed because of large gatherings, illegal drinking and dangerous behavior. Town officials closed Pleasant Point Park on Friday after several weeks of increased disregard for park rules and dangerous behavior that included underage drinking and throwing objects at boaters on the Saco River. The gate to the park was locked, “closed” signs were posted and a chain was hung across the parking area, but dozens of people entered the park anyway on Saturday and Sunday. All of the people who were arrested or summonsed were from outside Buxton and came from as far away as New York and Indiana.
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • July 20, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic slows international shipping and keeps cruise ships docked, scientists are finding measurably less noise in the ocean. That could provide momentary relief for whales and other marine mammals that are highly sensitive to noise.
WCSH • June 20, 2020
Will Greene’s time-lapse of Acadia National Park.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 20, 2020
In this pandemic summer, when staycations are preferred by many, there’s no reason why a day trip to a nearby island can’t feel exotic, or at least restful and rejuvenating. It’s a luxury we Mainers probably don’t take advantage of enough. You can start your island-hopping planning by checking out the website of Casco Bay Lines, which runs ferries from Portland to about a half dozen Casco Bay Islands daily. If you’d rather not wait at a ferry terminal and then sit with others on a ferry, you can always drive to Bailey Island.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 20, 2020
Even for an industry known for difficult labor without great rewards, these are particularly hard times for Maine’s loggers. Wood prices were low going into a winter that was relatively brief and mild, which made it hard for loggers to harvest trees – long stretches of cold to freeze the ground solid is best for getting heavy equipment in and out of the woods, while tearing up soft soil can mean fines for environmental damage or stuck machinery. Then the coronavirus hit and demand dropped further as orders to paper mills were canceled and shipments of wood pulp to Asia scuttled when paper plants halfway around the world closed their doors.
