The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
SUN JOURNAL • August 19, 2020
Maine should not allow Wolfden Resources to open metal mining at Pickett Mountain near Patten. Doing so would destroy a lot of Maine’s beautiful scenery with all the acid and commercial pollution. Mining would destroy lots of trees and possibly poison groundwater resources for many miles around. ~ Mary Ann Michaud, Lewiston
SUN JOURNAL • August 19, 2020
At the Poland town meeting, Aug. 25, the voters will be asked to vote on Article 11, to approve the purchase of the Laliberte Lot (Map 15, Lot 1-6), located westerly of Route 26 and southerly of Tripp Lake Road. That 2.25 acre lot is needed by the town to complete the ownership of The Heart of Poland Conservation Area, which the town has put together through several years to provide hiking trails and protect forest lands. ~ Fred Huntress Jr., Poland Spring
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2020
The Baxter Youth Conservation Corps, a program organized and funded by Friends of Baxter State Park, hires Katahdin area teens every summer to conduct trail work in Baxter State Park. But this year, instead of working on a trail crew — which would have been impossible while practicing safe social distancing — the teens were asked to select one aspect of the park to study independently. The topics they chose ranged from mushrooms to native culture to fisheries biology.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 18, 2020
Police are warning residents to bring in trash cans and take down bird feeders after a large black bear was spotted prowling through a Wells neighborhood Tuesday morning. “This bear is probably out looking for food. Bring in or secure your trash cans and take down your birdfeeders. Don’t give a bear a reason to come into your yard,” Wells police said in a Facebook post. “From sharks to bears. Wells seems to have it all in 2020. Any bets on what our next sighting will be?”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2020
Finishing a task that a Republican-controlled Congress gave it three years ago, the Trump administration has finalized plans for new oil and gas leases in one of the most pristine stretches of the world: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a manifestly bad idea that Congress was wrong to slip into the 2017 budget bill, and in its rush to craft the new rules the administration has likely opened a door for legal challenges. But Congress should not defer to the courts on this — it must fix the problem it created. ~ Scott Martelle, a native of Maine, is a member of the Los Angeles Times editorial board
ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 18, 2020
The Trump administration gave final approval Monday for a contentious oil and gas leasing plan on the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where critics worry about the industry’s impact on polar bears, caribou and other wildlife. The next step, barring lawsuits, will be the actual sale of leases.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2020
At a minimum, we need to protect the large concentration of shore-spawning brook trout in the Lily Bay narrows. And we need to consider providing some additional protection to the high-quality fishery that has developed lake-wide. I will get into the details of what the department arrived at for a final regulation proposal in the next two reports. ~ Tim Obrey, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 18, 2020
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed the presence of an algae bloom on Damariscotta Lake that could become potentially dangerous to humans and pets. But the DEP says there doesn’t seem to be enough cyanobacteria in the lake to create toxic conditions at this time.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 18, 2020
It took firefighters from several towns about four hours Tuesday afternoon and evening to bring a forest fire in Berwick under control. The cause of the fire, which started in a heavily wooded area off Long Swamp Road, remains under investigation by the Maine Forest Service. About 3.5 acres of woods were destroyed by the fire, which was fought by firefighters from eight neighboring towns. Extremely dry conditions likely helped the fire spread over a broad area quickly.
MORNING SENTINEL • August 18, 2020
About two weeks after announcing its planfor a fully remote learning model in the 2020-21 academic year, Unity College reported record enrollment Tuesday. College officials said 1,170 students have enrolled between the two academic programs being offered this fall. The 3-year-old Distance Education program has 770 students, and the college’s first hybrid term has 400 students. In early August, Unity announced it would lay off 15% of its staff and explore a sale of its main campus at 90 Quaker Hill Road as the college faced a $12 million budget deficit.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 18, 2020
Last week the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the proposed referendum against Central Maine Power’s New England Clean Energy Connect is unconstitutional on its face. Still, we may expect to hear more Chicken Little arguments about this project from the Natural Resources Council of Maine. What is most striking about NRCM’s claims (“Commentary: Don’t fall for CMP’s, Hydro-Quebec’s climate change claims,” July 28) is less their baselessness than their revelation of just how many Maine experts must be wrong for NRCM to be right. ~ Richard Barringer, former Maine conservation commissioner, and Ellen Pope, retired COO of Maine Community Foundation
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 18, 2020
I met Sara Gideon as a fellow parent of our school-age children. We spoke about seeing our children participate in more outdoor activities. With her partnership, I launched Old Mast Landing Outdoor Club, which engaged kids in outings. I was impressed by the ease with which Gideon spoke with clammers about green crabs and their impact on the clammers’ livelihoods, and the insight she brought to her conversations with lobstermen about the impact of warming on the Maine Gulf. Maine is my home and that of my ancestors going back 10 generations. We have an enormous investment in the ecology of our state and are gravely concerned about the disturbing changes that climate change is bringing about. But we are proud that our town of Freeport has put forward a candidate who can challenge the uninspiring tenure of Susan Collins. ~ Joseph Coleman, Registered Maine Guide, Freeport
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS • August 17, 2020
The century began with a great deal of optimism around marine protected areas as tools to protect the oceans. Two decades later, conservation goals and fishing interests remain at odds.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 17, 2020
The deadline to apply for a permit to participate in a deer hunt that promises a high level of participation has arrived in Maine. Maine biologists proposed offering nearly 110,000 "any deer'' permits this year, and an advisory panel recently approved the total. That's the most in state history. The deadline to apply for a place in the permit lottery is Monday at 11:59 p.m. Biologists have said they want to encourage more deer hunting because the deer have exhibited strong survival over winters. The state uses the deer hunt to control the population of the animals to help prevent health hazards such as car accidents and disease.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 17, 2020
The $9 million in federal funding announced earlier this month to help pay for a second phase of development at the Acadia Gateway Center is part of a broader plan of nearly $50 million worth of projects aimed at better managing the increasing number of visitors at Acadia National Park, which attracts millions every year. Combined with an expected redesign of the existing visitor center property in the Bar Harbor village of Hulls Cove, and the removal of the information center on Thompson Island, where the causeway connects Mount Desert Island to the mainland, the planned expansion at the Trenton facility is “a key piece” to the Acadia’s new plan for how it will manage motor vehicles inside the park
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 17, 2020
As fans of Land for Maine’s Future, we are concerned that Maine people haven’t been given a chance to vote for a new Land for Maine’s Future bond in eight years. The program has run out of money and needs to be replenished. It’s not a given that remote places in Maine will stay the same forever. Development, climate change and pollution threaten the health of Maine’s rivers and woods. Land preservation is one common sense way of sequestering carbon pollution and reducing our climate impact while also protecting our outdoor heritage and supporting the outdoor economy. ~ Rob Bryan, Harpswell, board member of New England Backcountry Hunters and Anglers; Jeff McEvoy, owner of Weatherby’s Lodge, Grand Lake Stream and a Master Maine Guide
ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 16, 2020
The U.S. Senate has approved a request to designate July as “National Blueberry Month” at the urging of senators from one of the country’s most important blueberry growing states. Maine Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent, called for the designation. Maine is America’s top producer of wild blueberries.
MORNING SENTINEL • August 16, 2020
It is not definite Unity College will sell its main campus, but real estate experts say such a move could open many options. Buyers or developers, including some from other states, might have interest in site for a variety of uses, according to experts.
SUN JOURNAL • August 16, 2020
I have been living locally for 59 years and operating my business in Oxford for 23 years. It’s not often that I chime in on local town politics, but a situation has come to my attention and I believe that there is an opportunity to save the town of Oxford a significant amount of money while also protecting the property value of an important and valued group of Oxford taxpayers: the landowners on Hogan and Whitney ponds. The issue at hand is the Welchville Dam. ~ Scott Stones, Oxford
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • August 16, 2020
Amid pressure from Democrats and some Republicans, the Trump administration is planning to withdraw its controversial nominee to head the federal Bureau of Land Management. The sprawling public lands agency, which manages roughly a tenth of the landmass of the United States, has not had a permanent, Senate-confirmed director for the entire Trump era. The nominee, William Perry Pendley, has been leading the agency since last August through a series of controversial continued appointment extensions. Prior to coming to Washington D.C., the Wyoming native had spent much of his career at the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation challenging the very agency he now leads.
