The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 26, 2020
Maine’s lobster fishermen braced for a difficult summer this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, but then the unexpected happened. They kept catching lobsters, and people kept buying them. The lobster industry was apparently helped by the fact that many consumers who typically eat lobster in restaurants started buying them retail.
MAINE PUBLIC • September 24, 2020
Featured Speaker: Dr. Andrew Barton , Professor of Biology, UMaine at Farmington.
Panelists:
Bri Bowman, FOR/Maine Program Director, Maine Development Foundation
Mark Berry, Forest Program Director, The Nature Conservancy in Maine
Jared Fong, Relearning Place Program Manager, Southern Maine Conservation Collaborative
Dr. Ruth Kermish-Allen, Executive Director, Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
BLOOMBERG • September 26, 2020
Banning dealers from selling anything but zero-emission cars from 2035, as California Gov. Gavin Newsom decreed this week, sounds radical. Predictably, the Trump administration attacked Newsom’s executive order, and the fossil fuel industry is also unhappy. However, in view of the seriousness of the climate emergency it isn’t very radical at all. The truly eye-catching thing about California’s announcement is that the state will allow the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles, whose emissions contribute to wildfires and heat, for another 15 years. Oil-rich Norway, by contrast, wants to ban cars powered by fossil fuels by as soon as 2025. California is giving the car industry and infrastructure planners time to adapt, but they’ve had plenty already.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 26, 2020
The University of Maine will investigate how various parasites, including the winter tick, affect the state’s moose herd in a three-year project beginning next year. The project will be led by Pauline Kamath, an assistant professor of animal health, who received $148,492 from the Morris Animal Foundation to fund the project.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 25, 2020
A federal judge ruled Friday that President Trump’s leading steward of public lands has been serving unlawfully, blocking him from continuing in the position in the latest pushback against the administration’s practice of filling key positions without U.S. Senate approval. U.S. Interior Department Bureau of Land Management acting director William Perry Pendley served unlawfully for 424 days without being confirmed to the post by the Senate as required under the Constitution. Pendley, a former oil industry attorney, was illegally overseeing an agency that manages almost a quarter-billion acres of land.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 25, 2020
With most of the state in drought conditions, Maine recorded seven fires Friday and has topped 1,000 for the year. The last time Maine eclipsed the 1,000-fire mark was in 2002. The state has between 500 and 600 fires in a typical year. Since the beginning of the year, rangers have recorded 1,009 fires that have burned a total of 997 acres. The leading cause has been debris burning, which is usually allowed if a permit is obtained, and is blamed for 278 of the fires.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 25, 2020
The Portland Water District is planning to remove debris from a landslide on Sept. 16 in the Presumpscot River that could damage water pipes or clog a wastewater outfall downstream. The work most likely will begin Monday, according to the district’s director of asset management, Chris Crovo. It was not clear what it will cost the water district and its ratepayers.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 25, 2020
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated an area about 11 miles off the coast of Kittery as a long-term disposal site for dredging material from Maine, New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts, the agency announced Friday. The Isles of Shoals North Disposal Site meets a need in a region where there are no EPA-designated, long-term disposal sites for dredged material.
MAINE PUBLIC • September 25, 2020
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine’s 1st District, has joined 84 U.S. House members in opposing the appointment of a longtime climate denier to a top post at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In a letter to the Secretary of Commerce, Pingree and the other signatories write that the appointment of David Legates could undermine the agency's scientific integrity. Legates is a professor with a long history of casting doubt on climate science and discrediting climate researchers.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 25, 2020
Come this time of year, the woods are a great place to be. Some of us take trusty bird dogs along, while others choose to slow-roll their way through the vast network of woods roads that lead us to the spots we’re likely to see a ruffed grouse standing in the sunlight, trying to get warm in the morning sun. Brad Allen, bird group leader for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, says, “I’m expecting a pretty good year.”
FRANKLIN JOURNAL • September 25, 2020
“Unfortunately with this increased activity, we have received increased reports of vandalism, littering, public intoxication, underage drinking and other illegal activities” along the Sandy River in Farmington, University of Maine at Farmington Director of Public Safety Brock E. Caton said. The section of the river that runs along the Prescott Athletic Fields, which includes the trails leading to Trestle Beach, is owned by the University of Maine at Farmington and patrolled by campus police.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 25, 2020
Since it seems the Legislature is going to engage in a study for the viability of purchasing Central Maine Power to make a true public utility, I think there should be a moratorium on the new, hotly debated, destructive and ugly power corridor through Maine’s forest. The moratorium should last at least until the Legislature has decided whether or not to proceed with and complete the purchase of CMP’s assets. If Maine decides to purchase CMP then the state will be able to decide what needs to be done, not investors in Spain. If Canadian power still wants the corridor, they can surely bury the contentious portion of the corridor. ~ Fred Drew, West Gardiner
MORNING SENTINEL • September 25, 2020
The ever more numerous, expansive, and deadly fires in Western coastal states are, after decades of strong warnings, yet another “wake-up call” regarding the proven science of swiftly advancing climate change. Meanwhile President Trump, the creator of many adulation-seeking gatherings of largely maskless worshipers, keeps providing the assembled with a couple of hours of misinformation along with possible COVID infection. We lose precious time by his efforts against science, which makes it more and more likely that human life may struggle mightily to survive into the next century. ~ Abbott Meader, Oakland
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 25, 2020
Parts of York and Cumberland counties are now experiencing extreme drought conditions after months of unusually warm and dry weather, according to an update posted Thursday by the United States Drought Monitor. The drought is now threatening fall crops and causing record-low river levels and scattered reports of dry wells. And, with no major rainstorms expected soon, the drought is fueling concerns about groundwater supplies falling through the winter.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 25, 2020
In what can only be described as the ugliest and most divisive Senate race in the history of Maine politics, Republican Sen. Susan Collins is having her whole public career redefined by hostile partisans from California and New York determined to disparage and mislead voters on her record. Truth be told, nearly every recent, major conservation project in the state has her fingerprints on it. ~ David Trahan, Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine
SUN JOURNAL • September 25, 2020
These days the importance of restoring the environment seems to me to surpass all the other pressing crises: Without a functioning planet, all our other problems are moot. So when I learned that state Rep. Randy Hall (Chesterville, Wilton, New Vineyard, Strong, Industry, Temple) voted against virtually every environment-related bill in his first term of office, I was quite dismayed. I will definitely vote for his challenger, Greg Kimber, who, in addition to prioritizing the environment, is a strong defender of civil rights, workers’ rights, voting rights, women’s rights, and lower property taxes, all of which Hall has voted in opposition to. ~ Cynthia Stancioff, Chesterville
THE REVELATOR • September 24, 2020
A plan to import hydropower from Canada through the North Maine Woods to Massachusetts begs the question of whether big hydro along with its reservoirs and dams, is green enough to be worth the cost.
MAINE PUBLIC • September 24, 2020
After years of fitful efforts to strengthen its status as a year-round recreation destination, rural, western Maine is having a moment. New data show home sales prices up by double digits in many parts of the state, with eastern and western Maine leading the way. In Franklin County prices jumped by nearly 30 percent. That's despite the challenges brought by the pandemic — and maybe even be because of them.
MAINE CONSERVATION VOTERS • September 24, 2020
While this year’s Evening for the Environment on September 23 was different than years past, it was still be a wonderful opportunity to come together with our vibrant, deeply engaged community to continue moving forward in pursuit of a healthier state and planet. Here is a recording.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2020
This summer has seen a surge in outdoor recreation across the state, including at Aroostook State Park in Presque Isle. Day use is up 18 percent and camping up 41 percent since last year at Maine’s first state park. Park Manager Scott Thompson said that many were itching to spend time outdoors after spending countless hours inside their homes during the first few months of the pandemic.
