Opinion: Let Mainers run their electric power grid

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2020

Maine can revoke the monopoly franchise it granted Central Maine Power because CMP is failing to uphold its end of the bargain. This franchise is not a permanent entitlement — it’s a privilege contingent upon providing quality service, respecting customers, and behaving in good faith. CMP falls well short in all three areas. Maine should replace CMP, as well as Maine’s other investor-owned utility, the foreign-owned Versant (formerly Emera), with a consumer-owned utility while leaving Maine’s existing consumer-owned utilities intact. ~ Ed Geis, Camden

House OKs Golden, King bill to give Gold Star families free national park access

ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 23, 2020

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a proposal from two Maine lawmakers to give families of fallen military service members free access to national parks. Independent Sen. Angus King and Democratic Rep. Jared Golden introduced the Gold Star Families Park Pass Act, which passed Tuesday as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

East Millinocket buys former paper mill site

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2020

East Millinocket has purchased the site of the former Great Northern Paper Company mill. The town purchased the site for $1.45 million, using federal grants. The sale closed on Tuesday. The town plans to demolish the steam plant/biomass facility and then lease the site to industrial users.

Staycationers and first-time campers are flocking to Piscataquis County

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2020

Visits to Maine’s state parks by residents are up by 35 percent so far this year compared to 2019, and while much of that increase is attributable to sites in the more popular southern part of the state, the trend toward “staycations” has not escaped inland parks farther north, including two in Piscataquis County. Lily Bay State Park, a 924-acre preserve on the southeast shore of Moosehead Lake near Greenville, has seen its use for camping and day visits by Maine residents increase by 30 percent. Peaks-Kenny State Park, an 839-acre parcel along Sebec Lake, has enjoyed similar increased use from Maine residents, with a 23 percent rise in camping and day use from 2019.

A new $9.7M ‘glamping’ resort is set to open on MDI

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 21, 2020

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its sobering impact on Maine’s 2020 tourism season — including on generally tourist-rich Mount Desert Island — Kampgrounds of America is planning to open its first-ever “glamping” campground on Aug. 1. Dubbed “Terramor” — combining the latin words for “land” and “love” — the $9.7 million resort is a complete, luxury-oriented rehab of the former KOA-branded Woodlands Campground in the local village of Town Hill. 

A Maine bear hunt might be just what you need this summer, whether you’re a hunter or not

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2020

For years, there haven’t been enough bear hunters killing enough bears in Maine, so the number of bears in Maine has doubled over the past 35 years, and is now estimated at 35,000. Last week, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife sent out a notice to prospective bear hunters, urging them to take part in this year’s hunt, and to consider hiring a Maine guide to help them have a successful hunt. Bear hunting — even with a camera instead of a gun or bow — can be a perfect outlet for people looking to get outdoors and enjoy nature.

Column: If you miss the theater, try backyard birdwatching instead

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2020

Ever since we’ve been staying at home more, this column has accidentally veered off onto a recurrent theme: Nature as theater. It’s simply because many of us are spending less time with people, and more time with unmasked backyard creatures. OK, raccoons are masked, but they don’t complain about it. Let’s step into your backyard for a little three-act theater. There’s a lot of interaction happening in your backyard. The curtain is going up. ~ Bob Duchesne

Maine spending $2M to market itself as safe tourism destination amid pandemic

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2020

The Maine Office of Tourism revealed details Wednesday of a $2 million advertising campaign aimed at attracting tourists by highlighting the state’s low coronavirus case count to help offset heavy losses incurred by hospitality businesses amid pandemic restrictions. The campaign includes television, radio and social media ads that cast Maine as a place where visitors can social distance in scenic locations that are safe. It currently focuses on Mainers traveling within the state and tourists from the five states that are exempt from testing and 14-day quarantines: Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Dancing bear caught on video surprises amateur photographer

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 22, 2020

Colin Chase, who lives in Gray, is a semi-professional photographer. He has eight trail cams set up around Maine to capture images of wildlife, just for fun. He also likes to record lynx, fisher cats and moose. If bears could dance, the results would probably look just like the images Colin Chase captured on his trail camera.

Maine’s high court backs town in Cape Elizabeth waterfront street fight

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2020

Maine’s highest court has backed the town of Cape Elizabeth in a yearslong dispute over seaside access in the Shore Acres neighborhood. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld a July 2018 Superior Court ruling that found several residents of Pilot Point Road failed to prove they had established ownership of an undeveloped portion of Surf Side Avenue. The so-called paper street runs along the rocky Atlantic shore, between their multimillion-dollar homes and Broad Cove. In its decision issued Tuesday, the Law Court also agreed that the waterfront residents had no standing to ask the court to block the town from developing a recreational path in the area of the paper street.

Congress passes sprawling plan to boost conservation, parks

ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 22, 2020

A bipartisan bill that would spend nearly $3 billion on conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands is on its way to the president’s desk after winning final legislative approval. Supporters say the measure, known as the Great American Outdoors Act, would be the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century. The House approved the bill 310-107 Wednesday, weeks after it won overwhelming approval in the Senate. Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King were among the bill’s sponsors. 

Four potential buyers express ‘serious’ interest in Hampden waste plant

MORNING SENTINEL • June 33, 2020

The Municipal Review Committee, which represents the waste disposal interests of 115 Maine municipalities, reported Wednesday that four entities expressed interest in buying the Coastal Maine LLC recycling and waste-to-energy facility. Coastal closed its facility temporarily May 28 because of financial issues. Solid waste was diverted from Coastal to Crossroads-Waste Management in Norridgewock, to Juniper Ridge in Alton, near Old Town, and to Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington.

Liberal, progressive – and racist? The Sierra Club faces its white-supremacist history.

WASHINGTON POST • July 22, 2020

No one is more important to the history of environmental conservation than John Muir – the “wilderness prophet,” “patron saint of the American wilderness” and “father of the national parks” who founded the nation’s oldest conservation organization, the Sierra Club. But on Wednesday, citing the current racial reckoning, the group announced it will end its blind reverence to a figure who was also racist.

When it comes to browntail moths, kill them any way you can

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.

Column: Within a budding grove of buttonbush

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

On this date in Maine history: July 22

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.

Also on this date in Maine history: July 22

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.

Opinion: Power line is a good deal for Maine, and here’s why

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 

Exhausted hiker air-lifted off Katahdin Hunt Trail

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.

East Millinocket purchases former GNP mill site

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.