The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 10, 2020
Some have suggested the proposed project to build CMP’s New England Clean Energy Connect would be good for Maine’s forests. As a small woodlot owner and winner of multiple forest management awards, I say that is far from the truth because they ignored what biomass management does to improve the forest. Simply stated, the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) would damage Maine’s forests by harming the biomass sector. ~ State Sen. Russ Black, R-Wilton
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 10, 2020
The view from the “Whalesback” on Route 9 in Aurora was one of the iconic vistas in eastern Maine, to the extent the Maine Department of Transportation even included a scenic turnout in their highway planning so people could stop and enjoy it. It is noted as a “Unique Natural Feature” in the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer. What a bitter disappointment when a recent trip through the area revealed several large wind turbines dominating the skyline in the near distance, completely despoiling the once pastoral view. The industrial development of our wildlands continues its march eastward, threatening the existence of the last 100 miles or so of unspoiled land on the eastern seaboard. ~ Larry Balchen, Jonesport
SUN JOURNAL • September 29, 2021
Call it a sad footnote that history somehow forgot, but four years after Press Clay Southworth killed a passenger pigeon in Ohio in 1900, somebody in Bar Harbor gunned down a female passenger pigeon. That bird on Maine’s Mount Desert Island may have been the last passenger pigeon to fly free on this planet. John Josselyn wrote in 1663 that during his second voyage to New England, he saw “millions and millions” of the pigeons in a flock “so thick that I could see no sun.” It is said there were more passenger pigeons than all the other birds in North America combined. Passenger pigeons, to their great misfortune, made for a tasty meal. An old settler in western Maine said they’d kill the birds by digging a long trench, scattering wheat in it and then, when the pigeons came to eat in great numbers, fire at them with “an old flintlock musket loaded with a handful of shot” that could kill as many as 75 birds at once. That the last known wild passenger pigeon’s last moment came in Bar Harbor should be worth remembering.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • August 9, 2020
A long-standing milfoil infestation is spreading downstream from Annabessacook Lake, but a treatment might make future removal efforts more effective. On June 12, a survey team from the Friends of the Cobbossee Watershead found variable-leaf milfoil growing in Jug Stream, which connects Annabessacook Lake and Cobbossee Lake, and removal began 10 days later. John McPhedran, a biologist with the Invasive Aquatic Species Program at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said there are 22 bodies of water in Maine known to have variable-leaf milfoil. Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed and other volunteers, working with the Maine DEP, removed 385 gallons of the invasive plants during cleanup efforts July 2 and July 9.
CHANGE.ORG • August 9, 2020
The illegal trade of red ear sliders has gone too far. They are not only illegally selling the turtles as "cute pets," they are now painting them in order to make them "Cute Souvenirs." The abuse of an already illegally sold animal is unjust and needs to be addressed.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 9, 2020
I was shocked and dismayed to read Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming’s article “ATV sales riding high as Mainers long to get outdoors.” The pandemic has taught us one sure lesson that the scaling back of human activity has lowered pollution levels. All-terrain vehicles are not good for the environment. Not to mention that ATVs and wildlife do not mix. My dogs and horses are frightened by ATVs. I can’t imagine what wild critters are experiencing when the noisy, smelly machines go tearing through the woods, even if they go slowly. Damaging habitats, degrading water quality and scaring wildlife are not letting riders be “able to connect with the outdoors. To connect with the outdoors, take a walk. ~ Doris Luther, Hollis
ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 9, 2020
A pair of Maine institutions is receiving grants totaling nearly $200,000 to help with recovery efforts for stranded marine mammals. Marine mammals such as whales and seals sometimes wash up on New England shores in need of assistance. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is awarding grants to College of the Atlantic and Marine Mammals of Maine to support conservation and recovery efforts for the animals.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 9, 2020
A tiny liberal arts school in western Waldo County that’s known for its environmental focus and small hands-on classes is at a crossroads. Unity College administrators are betting that a move toward online and distance learning is what it takes to keep the school alive — but alumni and former faculty fear the school has already lost its way. The stakes are as high as the emotions right now in the town of Unity, whose leaders founded the college in 1965 to keep the community vibrant.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 9, 2020
Many of our favorite fish species have retreated to the cooler depths at this time of year, and coaxing a few to attack your lure gets tricky. That doesn’t mean you can’t catch ’em. It just means you’ve got to try some new places and tactics. If you’re more of an angler than a beachgoer, you’re in luck: Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife fisheries biologists have compiled their monthly report with all kinds of useful information for dog-day fishing.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 9, 2020
The new tower put up by The Nature Conservancy, which replaces one that had been there from 1931 to 1977, is the latest chapter of an ongoing narrative about development on the edge of Baxter State Park “and other sacred places,” said Jym St. Pierre. “How do we protect the places that are just outside the borders of the places we have preserved,” he asked. That question takes on a different dimension when longstanding views of iconic places are threatened by development, including development intended to help people appreciate nature in different ways.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 9, 2020
Every year vagrants or rarities – those birds that have wandered from their natural range – thrill birders in Maine, and this year is no different. Yet birders say what makes seeing a rare bird so thrilling, chiefly, is the help in finding it, and the excitement shared in the larger community who have seen it.
MORNING SENTINEL • August 9, 2020
Central Maine Power’s plan to place a power line through one of the last wild places in Maine is a shell game. That line will benefit only Hydro-Quebec, rewarding them for destroying thousands of acres of land in Quebec and harming the indigenous people who lived on them and Iberdrola, the Spanish company that owns Central Maine Power. Equipment used to build a new line will emit a very large amount of CO2 , and remove many thousands of CO2-sucking trees. This line should not be built. Let’s leave something to future generations. ~ Edward Riggs, Albion
SUN JOURNAL • August 9, 2020
Call it a sad footnote that history somehow forgot, but in 1904, somebody in Bar Harbor gunned down a female passenger pigeon. Less than a century earlier, John James Audubon reported watching in awe as a flock of more than a billion passenger pigeons winged overhead. It is said there were more passenger pigeons in those days than all the other birds in North America combined. Passenger pigeons, to their great misfortune, made for a tasty meal. And by the turn of the century, no more than a smattering were left anywhere. One of them, though, flew above the rocky Maine coast until 1904, when somebody gunned it down, too. That the last known wild passenger pigeon’s last moment came in Bar Harbor should be worth remembering.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 8, 2020
The EPA is giving the money to the University of Southern Maine in support of the university’s Casco Bay Estuary Partnership and its Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The partnership’s goal is to reduce nutrient pollution in the bay, which is a major driver of tourism, recreation and fisheries in southern Maine. Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King say the investment will help USM “preserve the waters around these beautiful islands for generations to come.”
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • August 8, 2020
On August 8, 1942, the animated Disney film Bambi was premiered in London. It was released in the U.S. later that month. The movie was based on "Bambi, A Life in the Woods," a novel about a roe deer by Viennese author Felix Salten published in 1923.
The look of the movie was based on reconnaissance trips to the Katahdin region by Maine artist Maurice “Jake” Day. Bambi was changed to a Maine white-tailed deer (some online reports wrongly say mule deer). The film has a worldwide gross of $267 million. In January 2020, it was announced that a live-action styled adaptation was in development by Disney.
Soon after the film’s original release, Walt Disney allowed his characters to appear in fire prevention public service campaigns. However, Bambi was only loaned to the government for a year, so a new symbol was needed, leading to the creation of Smokey Bear.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • August 8, 2020
Working on the New England Clean Energy Connect has provided me with so many wonderful opportunities to travel around our great state and talk with Mainers about the significant benefits the project will bring us— lower energy costs for Maine families and businesses, reductions in greenhouse gases threatening our way of life, and a more reliable electric transmission system to keep us safe. Thanks to the valuable advice we received from Mainers in every corner of our state, coupled with the leadership of Gov. Mills, we have been able to take a good project — one that will bring clean, renewable and more affordable energy to Maine — and make it even better. ~ Thorn Dickinson, president and CEO of NECEC Transmission LLC
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 8, 2020
My life is at its most harmonious floating in Middle Bay, settling my heart rate after the swim from the mainland. I am a biologist so, in the aftermath of the recent fatal attack, I turned to the scientific literature to understand white sharks. The white shark recovery can probably be attributed to legal protections for the sharks themselves combined with gains in the populations of seals and other prey. Thus, any recent increases in our white shark numbers are the result of the success of conservation measures and humankind’s inability to limit global change that warms our waters, creating more favorable habitat. Human communities live among apex predators the world over. We can look to communities elsewhere for guidance on how we can come to terms with the associated risk and respect white sharks for the extraordinary creatures they are. ~ Barry Logan of Brunswick is a professor of biology at Bowdoin College
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • August 8, 2020
The Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands has announced that its 2021 State Park Passes go on sale Aug. 15. The 2021 Park Pass is good for the remainder of 2020 and all of 2021; that’s 16 months for the price of 12 months. Passes can be purchased at a Maine State Park. View the list of participating parks and their day-use fees at maine.gov. Maine State Park Passes are not accepted at Acadia National Park, Allagash Wilderness Waterway, Baxter State Park, Maine Wildlife Park, Peacock Beach, Penobscot Narrows Observatory, Penobscot River Corridor, Scarborough Beach, the Songo Lock, or Swan Island, and for day-use only and does not include camping.
LINCOLN COUNTY NEWS • August 7, 2020
Waldoboro is considering whether to stop leasing its blueberry fields at Quarry Hill Farm to commercial harvesters and instead make the fields available to residents for blueberry picking.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 7, 2020
House Speaker Sara Gideon unveiled a “climate agenda” on Friday largely hewing to state efforts from fellow Democrats as she looks to carve out differences on the issue with Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in their massive race. The eight-point document would endorse a national goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, similar to a pledge made by Gov. Janet Mills in a September address to the UN. Two independents, former Green candidate and educator Lisa Savage of Solon and former third-party Florida gubernatorial candidate Max Linn, are also on the ballot. Savage supports an aggressive version of Green New Deal. Linn has highlighted his opposition to the proposed Central Maine Power corridor, which Gideon and Savage also oppose.
