Column: China’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions is hardly reason to celebrate

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September x, 2020

Last Tuesday. President Xi Jinping, addressing the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, for the first time committed China to a hard target for future greenhouse gas emissions. By 2060, he promised, his country will be carbon neutral (“net zero”). After that, China will put no more carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere than it takes out. Xi also promised that China’s CO2 emissions would actually stop rising by 2030, only 10 years from now. Xi’s promises, while long overdue, nevertheless mean the world will miss the goal of holding the rise in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Emissions are still rising, and there’s no chance that they will start heading down soon. ~ Gwynne Dyer

There are thousands of varieties of beetles in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2020

While it may be tempting to dismiss beetles as just another creepy-crawly bug scuttling through Maine. That would be a huge mistake. Like all the members of the scientific class Insecta, beetles play an important role in the state’s ecosystem. And beetles also play a big role in the ecosystem in terms of sheer mass, too. Thousands of species of beetles live in Maine alone. Of all the animals on Earth, a quarter of all species walking, flying, swimming or burrowing around us are beetles.

Hiker dies after falling from waterfall in White Mountains

ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 28, 2020

A hiker was killed Saturday after falling from a waterfall in the White Mountains, according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. It was the second fatal fall in the White Mountain National Forest in as many days. A rock climber died Friday after falling 55 feet when his equipment malfunctioned.

Editorial: Congress comes together finally to help national parks

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 28, 2020

Congress this summer passed, and President Trump signed into law, the Great American Outdoors Act, providing billions of dollars for a popular conservation project and much-needed maintenance for national parks. The legislation will provide about $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, double the current spending. The LWCF has invested more than $190 million in projects in Maine, including work at Acadia National Park and on the Appalachian Trail, plus projects in communities of all sizes throughout the state. The law also provides $1.9 billion a year over five years for improvements at national parks, wildlife refuges and rangelands. The funding is good news, but it doesn’t meet the backlogged work needed on federal lands. Voters should make sure Congress knows how much the Great American Outdoors Act is appreciated, and how the bipartisan support of our public lands should not stop there.ance for national parks.

Maine Voices: Maine can’t wait for action on climate change

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 28, 2020

The Gulf of Maine is warming 99 percent faster than the global ocean average, which means Maine’s aquatic ecosystems are being devastated. These increased ocean temperatures harm fisheries, cause more destructive storms, and accelerate sea level rise. Time is running out. Yet, tragically, while these impacts will be felt right here at home, politicians in Washington, D.C. are doing the exact opposite of what needs to get done. The Trump administration recently finalized a catastrophic methane rule that will turbocharge the disastrous impacts of climate change. The methane rule is just one of a long list of hazardous environmental policies under the current administration. Let’s use our voices to speak truth to power. ~ Anya Fetcher, Environment Maine

Letter: Science should inform policy

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2020

In a column titled “Science and politics don’t mix,” Matthew Gagnon misinterprets the phrase “we believe science is real.” Scientific research is our best source of knowledge on those topics where science can be applied. Science does not tell us what our values and goals should be. But it has a lot to say about how to reach those goals. Where scientific knowledge is relevant, public policy decisions should be based on that knowledge. Inconvenient truths should not be denied because they conflict with what one wants to be true. The problem is that some politicians and others deny scientific findings that conflict with their personal needs and goals. ~ Bill Farthing, Bangor

Stormy forecast: Preparing Maine for climate-fueled winds and flooding

MAINE MONITOR • September 27, 2020

Maine’s climate plan will need to address marked disparities in storm preparedness within the state, and better support the communities that are most vulnerable and least prepared.

As Election Nears, Trump Expands Moratorium On Exploratory Drilling In Atlantic

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • September 27, 2020

This week, President Trump expanded a ban on exploratory drilling off the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia. The memo makes clear that the ban on leasing does not apply if it's for "environmental conservation purposes, including the purposes of shore protection, beach nourishment and restoration, wetlands restoration, and habitat protection." But even as he announced the action, Trump immediately indicated a willingness to walk things back. The oil industry, which has been blindsided by Trump's shifting environmental policies, decried the expanded moratorium.

Reading the wild food forager’s calendar in Augusta

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 27, 2020

The mission of the Maine Primitive Skills School on Church Hill Road in Augusta is to teach and share outdoor education, nature literacy and field craft skills from its own wooded campus and a nearby, 4,800-acre wildlife management area, incorporating primitive skills, survival education and ancestral knowledge, among other things. In this pandemic year, during which many people are working to become more self-sufficient by cooking at home more and making bread, the students are experiencing a more basic level of self-sufficiency by finding what they need in nature rather than in aisles of a supermarket.

Drought brings early acorn showers, other tree threats

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 27, 2020

It’s “raining” acorns across Maine, pounding rooftops and pummeling decks, and the state’s worsening drought is likely to blame. Heavy masting typically occurs every two to three years, and other trees may suffer through the winter if they don’t get more water this fall. While some acorns falling now are brown, ripe and fully formed, others are smaller, green and underdeveloped. The latter indicates many oaks are stressed following a dry summer that has caused moderate to extreme drought conditions across Maine.

On this date in Maine history: Sept. 27

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 27, 2020

Sept. 27, 1962: The publisher Houghton Mifflin releases aquatic biologist, nature writer and conservationist Rachel Carson’s seminal book “Silent Spring.” Carson (1907-1964) was a summer resident of Maine’s Southport Island, where she owned a cottage overlooking Sheepscot Bay. The chemical industry was aghast about it because of its conclusion that pesticides, while necessary at some level, are harming the environment and endangering people. The New Yorker published three long advance excerpts from the book in consecutive issues in June, raising public alarm and prompting the chemical companies to launch a campaign to discredit the book and destroy Carson.

Scent dog takes on a new role: Finding imperiled turtles

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 27, 2020

The use of tracking dogs to find wood turtles is part of new research being conducted in Maine by biologists and Lindsay Ware, an Ellsworth dog trainer and handler. Ware has used her four scent-tracking dogs for years to help hunters find wounded big-game animals, such as white-tailed deer and black bear. But in the past several months she has helped her year-old Lab learn to locate smaller species for conservation research, specifically wood turtles.

Insight: Smokey Bear steered us wrong

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 27, 2020

Firefighters were only beginning to gain ground against Western wildfires that have destroyed vast swaths of forestland and choked the skies when observers started looking for explanations. It doesn’t especially matter what caused these wildfires. Smokey Bear left generations of Americans with an outsize sense of individual responsibility: It was never true, as he famously said, that only you can prevent forest fires. Forests catch on fire as surely as rain falls from clouds and rivers run to the sea. Wildfires sparked by human activity and dramatically worsened by climate change are a permanent emergency we’ll be dealing with for the rest of our lives. We need to act like it. Making wildfires events we can live with – quite literally, disasters we can survive – must be the goal.

Letter: Readfield trails a thing of beauty

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 27, 2020

Who could have predicted that Readfield’s outstanding trails system would — many years after its completion — become an important balm to so many local residents during these months of social isolation, due to the havoc wrought by the COViD-19 pandemic. Although we are not your typical exercise fast walkers, we have enjoyed ambling along the well-designed trail, meeting neighbors with dogs, joggers and new friends. On behalf of ourselves, along with the multitude of walkers, a well-deserved and huge thank-you to all who have made these great trails available. ~ Marianne and John Perry, Readfield

Kudos: Wil Libby stewards trail-building at Mount Apatite

SUN JOURNAL • September 27, 2020

In more ways than one, the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for the trail system at Mount Apatite. More people than ever have been taking to the outdoors for fresh air and exercise, and in Auburn, professional trail-builder Wil Libby has been able to devote himself to trail maintenance and stewardship at Mount Apatite Park. Libby, now 42, grew up on the trail network there — a self-described “BMX kid” who went on to build trails professionally in places like the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and on the Appalachian Trail.

Long Pond watershed survey looks to control erosion at landmark Belgrade shoreline

MORNING SENTINEL • September 26, 2020

Due to 30 years of declining water quality, Long Pond is at risk for impact by algal blooms, which are a rapid accumulation in algae population in freshwater. A group of more than 50 people, clad in neon yellow shirts, took the initial steps to fixing it Tuesday. Each pair of people went from property to property looking to identify and categorize sources of soil erosion and stormwater runoff on developed land in the watershed. Lynn Matson, water quality committee chair for the Belgrade Lakes Association, said 40% of algal bloom causing phosphorus comes from sources in the watershed, like erosion from driveways, yards, parking lots and more.

Buckfield farm named Maine Dairy Farm of the Year for 2020

TURNER PUBLISHING • September 26, 2020

The Lowell Family Farm, of Buckfield, has been named Dairy Farm of the Year and winner of the Green Pastures award for 2020 by the UMaine Cooperative Extension’s New England Green Pastures program.

Column: The facts — or fiction — about lead ammunition

SUN JOURNAL • September 26, 2020

In a recent press release, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife urged in the strongest terms for Maine hunters to buy and use copper bullets and say goodbye to lead bullets forever. The entreaty to hunters and recreational shooters to rethink their purchase of lead ammo falls short because of its lack of scientific data and somewhat sweeping generalizations. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is dead-set against the no-lead bullets push and, in fact, believes that underneath it all is a piecemeal assault on guns and hunting. The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) says, “We oppose any position but a personal choice. We oppose any attempt to make lead illegal for hunting.” Personally, I am yet to be convinced. ~ V. Paul Reynolds