Hot and wet weather not expected to dampen blueberry yields

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 3, 2023

Maine’s commercial blueberry harvesters are anticipating a strong season despite an inauspicious start. The state’s signature fruit has proven resilient. Last year’s drought conditions stressed the plants in the first year of their two-year cultivation cycle, slowing and stunting the growth of some. Then, several frosts, including one in mid-May, wiped out several lower-lying blueberry fields entirely. Some worried that heavy rain in June and July would be another strike against blueberries and that growers could face the same disappointing start to the season as strawberry farmers.

Opinion: Saving Maine’s bees to pollinate our native crops

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 3, 2023

It’s easy to view bees and mosquitoes as pests. But ahead of Wild Blueberry Weekend, it’s worth learning about the powerful role they can play in our ecosystems. ~ Susana Hancock is an international climate scientist and polar explorer living in Maine.

Letter: We need to be concerned for Maine’s contaminated beaches

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 3, 2023

Ironically, our own Sen. Edmund Muskie sponsored the Clean Water Act. Fifty years later, many of our beaches remain contaminated. Willard Beach is one, and South Portland city officials continue to ignore or downplay citizen concerns. Extremely high levels in the stormwater runoff from a 36-inch drainpipe empty onto the beach and into the bay. Twice-weekly testing by city staff found contamination 9 out of 12 days. High levels of both dog and human fecal bacteria were found in the stormwater runoff, a catch basin and a drain manhole. Toddlers and day campers daily play in the runoff and surrounding shallow waters. No warning signs are posted. ~ Diane Gotelli, South Portland

Letter: First lesson at aquaculture center

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 3, 2023

The very first lesson students at the future University of Maine Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce and Innovation Center should be taught is the crucial and economically sustainable difference between an environmentally sensitive true RAS (recirculating aquafarm system) and an environmentally wasteful and destructive flow through faux “RAS” system. ~ Sidney Block, Northport

Letter: Encouraged by corridor construction

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 3, 2023

It is great news that construction on the New England Clean Energy Connect corridor is resuming to bring huge amounts of hydropower from Canada to the U.S. to help replace fossil fuel — gas made from petroleum. Fighting climate change is extremely important, and this is a big step in that direction. Many thanks to those who worked tirelessly to arrive at this historic day. ~ Albert Howlett, Yarmouth

Cape Elizabeth Land Trust serves critical role in community

SOUTH PORTLAND SENTRY • August 2, 2023

The Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (CELT) works to conserve and maintain land in the town as well as educate people on conservation and the importance of natural resources. The land trust currently has about 865 acres conserved across 35 properties. The properties are a combination of land CELT owns as well as properties with conservation easements.

Hundreds of thousands of rabies vaccine baits distributed in northern Maine to combat spread of disease

SPECTRUM NEWS • August 2, 2023

State and federal officials are gearing up for the annual rabies vaccine baiting distribution in Maine, to help control the spread of rabies among raccoon populations. The US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services is working with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to distribute a total of 365,000 oral vaccines through parts of Aroostook, Penobscot and Piscataquis counties from Aug. 5-10.  Officials will also distribute another 50,000 in northern Franklin County. The bait will be spread by air and ground. Most bait resembles “a fishmeal-coated cube or sachet about one to two inches in size,” according to a statement. The baits distributed in Franklin County look like “a blister pack with a sweet, waxy coating. Humans and pets cannot get rabies from contact with the bait but should not touch or move them,” the health department said. 

Toxic ‘foaming’ watermelons are showing up in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 2, 2023

The foam emerging from watermelons bought in Maine stores is a sign the fruit inside is actively fermenting — a natural process that started far away. And it’s been affecting more watermelons this summer as the states in which the watermelons are grown have been facing above average temperatures. Most of the watermelons found at Maine stores come from Florida, Arizona, California, Delaware or Texas. At some point in the growing process in one of those states the melons pick up a bacteria. That bacteria combined with the natural sugars and yeast in the melons. Fermentation — the chemical breaking down of the melon’s insides — began. A watermelon that has started foaming or leaking liquid should never be consumed.

Regulators consider whether to bump up baby eel quota for Maine fishermen in 2025

MAINE PUBLIC • August 2, 2023

The eel management board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission announced on Tuesday that it will consider raising the number of baby eels fishermen can harvest in Maine. Maine fishermen harvest baby eels, also known as elvers, from estuaries and rivers, and sell them to aquaculture businesses in Asia. Those companies then raise the elvers to maturity, and sell them as a Japanese delicacy. As the eel population diminished in some waterways near Japan, the price of elvers skyrocketed to $2,000 per pound. Currently, Maine fishermen catch around 10,000 pounds of baby eels per year.

Climate change made July hotter for 4 of 5 humans on Earth, scientists find

ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 2, 2023

Human-caused global warming made July hotter for four out of five people on Earth, with more than 2 billion people feeling climate change-boosted warmth daily, according to a flash study. More than 6.5 billion people, or 81% of the world’s population, sweated through at least one day where climate change had a significant effect on the average daily temperature, according to a new report issued Wednesday by Climate Central, a science nonprofit that has figured a way to calculate how much climate change has affected daily weather. The day with the most widespread climate-change effect was July 10, when 3.5 billion people experienced extreme heat that had global warming’s fingerprints, according to the report. That’s different than the hottest day globally, which was July 7, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.

Deer Isle causeway will take years to rebuild, despite climate change concerns

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 2, 2023

After years of hearing concerns about the damage caused by climate change, the state has decided to rebuild the Deer Isle causeway. The low-lying causeway connects the islands of Deer Isle to Little Deer Isle, which is connected to the mainland by a bridge. The Route 15 causeway is the only way to get to and from the mainland other than by boat. Officials with the Maine Department of Transportation are beginning to study alternatives. Because the causeway winds for nearly a mile across the mudflats between Little Deer Isle and Deer Isle, and because island residents still will have to be able to drive on and off island while the project is underway, the full project is likely to last several years.

Column: Maine’s beach and trailside stones should be left alone

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 2, 2023

When someone comes to Maine for a visit, they usually leave with a rock or two — or 50. Though taking them is discouraged and may even be against the law, whether the visitor stops at a coastal beach on a hiking trail, a special memento often finds its way into their pocket. At Green Point there is a stunning view of the ocean and spires of hand-laid stone cairns built by visitors. The cairn left by a visitor is a bane for park rangers, as they can confuse hikers by being mistaken for trail markers. To hold a wave-washed stone in your hand is to hold a timepiece. It is a keepsake that should be left behind for another visitor to find, hold and add to its story, then place it back to be found again and again. ~ RJ Heller

EV chargers are coming to 13 new locations in Maine

MAINE PUBLIC • August 1, 2023

More public electric vehicle chargers are coming to Maine. Seven new chargers will be installed at grocery stores, gas stations and shopping malls in Bangor, Augusta and along Route 1 from Freeport to Ellsworth. Six others will be installed along well-traveled routes in Aroostook County, and in Machias. The chargers will be paid for through federal infrastructure and Maine Jobs and Recovery plan funding. The Maine Department of Transportation said the chargers should be up and running some time next year.

Opinion: The farm bill is about more than farmers

TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY • July 31, 2023

Each time Congress debates its priorities for the farm bill every five years, as it is doing this year, it faces legislation that profoundly affects the economic well-being of Americans nationwide. The farm bill’s implications go well beyond farms. These policies made by Congress will show up at kitchen tables and green spaces across the country. Programs that conserve wildlife habitats, clean water and open space are oversubscribed, while more private landowners want to conserve their forests and pursue climate-smart practices. The farm bill also funds existing, crucial rural development programs, providing a unique opportunity to align conservation and climate investments. ~ Lily Roberts, Center for American Progress

State agencies are reporting more salmon returning to the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers this year

MAINE PUBLIC • August 1, 2023

State officials say that an increase in the number of alewives returning to Maine's rivers could be helping to boost populations of Atlantic salmon. The Maine Department of Marine Resources says nearly 1,500 salmon have returned to dams in Orono and Milford along the Penobscot River this year, and about 150 have been counted at two dams along the Kennebec. Both numbers are the most since at least 2015.

When snails invade, locals take matters into their own hands

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • July 29, 2023

A small group of locals gathered Saturday with paddle boards, buckets and boats to collect and dispose of invasive snails threatening the ecological balance on Washington Pond. When startled, experts say they release smaller snails out of their bodies, sometimes dozens at once. The snails are successful invaders because can survive in any habitat as they overwhelm the native species. To get rid of the snails, the members catch them and store them in freezers and then give them to a local composter in town. The snails are then layered with fresh horse manure and utilized as fertilizer. Chinese Mystery Snails were first spotted in Maine in 1965. They have been found in multiple locations across Maine, including in Clearwater Pond in Franklin, Annabessacook Lake in Winthrop, Sand Pond in Litchfield, and numerous other water bodies across the state.

Regulators to consider allowing Maine fishermen to catch more valuable baby eels

ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 1, 2023

Regulators voted Tuesday to consider raising the amount of a valuable baby eel that can be harvested from Maine’s waterways, though conservationists say the eel populations are declining and need better protection. Maine’s rivers and streams are home to the country’s only significant commercial-scale baby American eel fishing industry. American eels are also a species of concern for conservationists. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them to be endangered.

Opinion: Janet Mills wrong to veto farmworker protection bill

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 1, 2023

The systemic exploitation of farmworkers — who are disproportionately people of color — hurts us all. Agricultural workers in Maine have historically been excluded from labor laws through exemptions at both the state and federal levels. After a scaled down version of LD 398, “An Act to Make Agricultural Workers and Other Related Workers Employees under the Wage and Hour Laws,” was enacted by the Maine Legislature, the governor was lobbied by the Maine Potato Board and their allies to veto the bill. Maine is one of 19 states that does not apply its minimum wage laws to most farmworkers. Farmworkers would have gotten crumbs from LD 398, but even those were considered too much for the people who do backbreaking work to put food on our tables. ~ Ariel Ricci and Morgan Pottle Urquhart, Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations; Juana Rodriguez Vazquez, Mano en Mano

Opinion: Are heat pump consumers getting the benefit of federal, state incentive programs?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 31, 2023

As the popularity of heat pumps has grown in the state, so has the heat pump sales and service industry. Heat pumps offer one of the most cost-effective means of carbon reduction. When compared with solar panels, heat pumps reduce carbon emissions eight times more cost effectively. The federal government has created an incentive of a 30% tax credit up to $2,000, in addition to the $800 rebate available from Efficiency Maine. As a result, Maine’s heat pump installers are poised to see even more growth. But are their customers getting the benefit of these new incentives, or are installers pocketing these incentives in the form of higher prices? The rebates are for consumers, not for installers. Customers should be cautious of price gouging. ~ Gerry Chasse, past president, Bangor Hydro and Emera Maine