The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 30, 2020
State officials placed new swimming restrictions at four state beaches in response to reported shark sightings Wednesday at Popham Beach State Park. The Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands is now restricting Popham Beach State Park to ankle-deep water access and Reid State Park to knee-deep water. Water access at Ferry Beach State Park and Crescent Beach State Park is limited to waist-deep water.
TIMES RECORD • July 30, 2020
Whether a recreational vehicle park will be allowed at Popham Beach in Phippsburg may depend on a second opinion from a sound engineer. David and Tracy Percy, prior owners of Percy’s General Store in Phippsburg, want to create a nine-unit RV park on the former site of the store, which was demolished last year. The Phippsburg Planning Board tabled its decision of whether to approve the proposed park for a third time Tuesday evening.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 30, 2020
The Maine Center for Disease Control is investigating a second outbreak of COVID-19 within Maine's wild blueberry industry. Public health officials say three cases have been detected at Merrill Farms in Ellsworth. This after eight cases were reported earlier in the week at Hancock Foods, a blueberry processor in Washington Junction. Eric Venturini executive director of the Maine Blueberry Commission, says growers and processors who rely on migrant workers are following protocols developed this spring.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 30, 2020
The University of Maine has received a patent for a process to create more environmentally friendly construction materials using a slurry of tiny cellulose fibers derived from wood. “In a way it's like wood gluing wood together,” says UMaine Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Professor Doug Bousfield. Bousfield is the co-inventor of the process, and he says that, when dried, this combination of wood chips and cellulose nanofibers becomes a hard material that can be shaped into boards without the use of formaldehyde.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • July 30, 2020
The Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation has elected seven new board members. Bob McIntosh, AWWF Board President, noted that the members “bring specialized skills, local knowledge, and a range of experiences with the Waterway that will significantly benefit the Foundation in the years to come.” The seven new members joining the existing AWWF board are:
• Kaitlyn Bernard, Gray, Maine, The Nature Conservancy
• Thomas Gerard Madawaska, Maine, Madawaska Middle High School
• Chace Joe Jackson, Allagash, Maine, American Heart Association in Maine
• Jana L. Kenney, Westbrook, Maine, Richardson, Whitman, Large & Badger
• Leslie Marquis, Fort Kent, Maine, Fort Kent Middle High School
• Jason Perkins, North Yarmouth, Maine, Allagash Brewing Company
• Jenny Ward, Greenville Junction, Maine, Appalachian Mountain Club in Maine
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • June 30, 2020
Officials in Manchester say they plan to take measures to discourage use of the popular Outlet Bridge swimming spot. Accordingly, officials are looking for other places where town residents can take a dip. Safety concerns stem from the number of people gathering and swimming there, and what residents say is unruly behavior, including drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana.
FRANKLIN JOURNAL • July 30, 2020
The Franklin County Agricultural Society (FCAS) operates the Farmington Fair and this was to be the 180th fair. When officials announced earlier this month that the Farmington Fair was canceled, for many it meant a loss of income and no chance to show off their accomplishments this year.
NATIONAL AUDUBON • July 30, 2020
Located 21 miles off the coast of Maine on Seal Island, this live puffin cam gives an intimate glimpse inside a puffin burrow, where puffins nest and breed during the spring and summer months.
FORECASTER • July 30, 2020
Cape Elizabeth town officials are moving forward with a new solar panel project that is expected to provide three-quarters of municipal electricity needs and save the town $900,000 in energy costs over the project’s 20-year lifetime.
MAINE CONSERVATION VOTERS • July 30, 2020
Each year, Maine Conservation Voters issues an Environmental Scorecard to showcase how our lawmakers measure up. Here is the MCV Environmental Scorecard for the 129th legislative session.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 30, 2020
There are signs that conditions for Maine’s mammoth tourism industry improved over the past month, but many businesses remain on life support coming into the second half of the critical summer season. Out-of-state traffic on the Maine Turnpike has jumped and hotel occupancy has grown substantially over the past month. But testing and quarantine requirements for many visitors, including those from Massachusetts, are still keeping tourist traffic down, and the overall suppressed demand means business in Maine’s tourism epicenters is anything but normal.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2020
On July 23, when 10-year-old Ariana Jenkins of Limestone spied an odd-looking caterpillar during a family hiking trip in Fort Kent. She searched caterpillar images online to discover that it was likely an American dagger moth caterpillar. It has been reported that toxins found in the caterpillar’s hair can cause a stinging sensation and rash, so her mother, Lisa Burress, is glad that they adopted a hands-off approach to inspecting it.
TIMES RECORD • July 30, 2020
I’m much more knowledgeable writing about the living components of the ocean ecosystem than the non-living parts, but when my cousin came up for a visit last summer and showed me garnets in the rocks along the shore, my interest was sparked. He’s a retired geologist with a great depth of knowledge about rocks and an ability to explain it in a way that made it seem magical. While you don’t eat garnets in your food, you do consume many of the same minerals in your food that are found in the rocks along the seashore. ~ Susan Olcott
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • July 29, 2020
The return of great white sharks to New England over the past two decades is both a conservation success story and an emerging public safety concern. Though it is extremely rare for a shark to attack—much less kill—a human, incidents are on the rise in New England. Scientists say they have no reason to believe there will be a spike in shark attacks in Maine.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2020
Portland Water District has begun looking to sewage for clues on the ever-evolving coronavirus situation in what has been one of Maine’s consistent hotspots for COVID-19 cases.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2020
Earlier this month, the Mills Administration updated its COVID-19 guidance for retailers to permit the use of reusable bags. But John Hite from the Conservation Law Foundation says some Hannaford locations still don't allow them. "It's time to clear through this myth that reusable bags are a threat to public health." Hite says states such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire have lifted their restrictions on reusable bags.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2020
About two dozen current and former Maine legislators are calling on Hydro-Quebec to stop its campaign to influence November's ballot referendum on a proposed transmission line through the state. In a letter to both the company and the province of Quebec, the group says that the company should not be "meddling" in elections in Maine, and that it is exploiting a loophole in Maine's campaign-finance laws. A ballot committee representing the company has spent more than $6 million thus far on the referendum campaign.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2020
The Maine Center for Disease Control is working with U.S. Wildlife Services to distribute an oral vaccine to prevent the spread of raccoon rabies. During the first week of August, 385,000 baits will be distributed primarily in rural, wooded areas of northeastern Maine. The vaccine distribution is part of an ongoing program to prevent the westward spread of raccoon rabies. A state database shows that more than 40 wild animals have tested positive for rabies in Maine so far this year.
MORNING SENTINEL • June 29, 2020
Overheating machinery is thought to be the cause of a minor fire at Sappi’s Somerset Mill on Waterville Road. Firefighter Joe Almand of the Skowhegan Fire Department said that crews responded as a precautionary measure when a bearing overheated at the mill, causing concern. By the time the fire department got there, Almand said that the situation was mostly under control.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2020
Maine Marine Patrol says it is conducting targeted searches around the coast of southern Maine to locate the great white shark that killed a New York City woman here on Monday, and any other sharks in the area that might pose threats. In the U.S., the odds of a beachgoer being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million, according to the International Shark Attack File, which monitors shark activity around the world. A person’s chance of getting killed by a shark is less than 1 in 264.1 million.
