The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MAINE PUBLIC • August 7, 2023
The value of lithium for batteries and other uses has been in the news, particularly after a couple in Maine found a major lithium deposit on their property in 2021. Learn about lithium's unique characteristics and the role that its presence plays in Maine's geological makeup. Panelists: Kate Cough, reporter, Maine Monitor; Myles Felch, staff geologist, Maine Mineral & Gem Museum; John Slack, retired geologist, USGS.
CBS 13 • August 7, 2023
A humpback whale breaching the surface was caught on camera. Darryl Hendricks said he took the photos just past Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg near Popham Beach. Hendricks spotted a lot of small fish jumping from the water and thought maybe there were some seals and that’s right when the whale made its appearance. He said he saw the whale breach a few times.
MAINE PUBLIC • August 7, 2023
Popham Beach Estates is a subdivision that dates back to the late 1800s. Many families have owned property here for generations, including Clark Hill's. But he's suddenly found himself on disputed territory. The Hills are being sued by for trespassing by their neighbors, the Tappens, who claim they purchased three and a half acres of land in 2021 from another property owner. The land abuts the Hill's property and cuts in front of it, extending to the low tide line and in front of other families' cottages. Hill's attorney, Benjamin Ford, says it was a bogus sale at a rock-bottom price, and based on the seller relinquishing claim to the property. If the Tappens' lawsuit is successful, Ford says it would allow unallocated beach land along the coast to be scooped up for purchase. "I disagree," says David Soley, an attorney who represents the Tappens. "I see no wider ramifications in this particular case at all."
MAINE PUBLIC • August 7, 2023
Maine's congressional delegation is asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to end its evaluation of 200,000 acres in western Maine for the possible creation of a National Wildlife Refuge. The department is considering the creation of a 5,000-15,000 acre refuge in the High Peaks region, saying the goal is to protect wildlife and recreational access. Bob Carlton, forester and resident of Freeman Township, has started a grassroots effort opposing the refuge. He says many residents and town leaders are against federal oversight.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 7, 2023
Peak season for tomatoes and corn usually coincides with the height of tourism in Maine this month, but the season’s wacky weather has made for smaller, spottier harvests so far.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • August 7, 2023
Heat waves are already the deadliest weather-related hazard, and they’re getting worse because of climate change. Yet they remain ill-defined and anonymous threats, silent, invisible killers that few people take seriously until it is too late. But what if the most life-threatening heat waves did have names? Would people pay more attention to the risks of a heat wave Zoe or Cleon? Could lives be saved? There is initial evidence it could. ~ Editorial by the Los Angeles Times
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 7, 2023
Central Maine Power employee Kurt Pullman recently wrote a column (Maine Voice, July 28) against government-owned and -run power companies. With a little digging, he would have found that Pine Tree Power will be run by an independent board of 13 elected directors. CMP’s parent company, Avangrid, is pouring millions into a misinformation campaign to defeat Pine Tree Power. Their propaganda machine has $27.4 million in cash to put out their falsehoods, while Our Power has about $800,000 in cash to counter them. CMP (and Versant Power) customers deserve much better. CMP has the most and longest outages, the worst customer service, and among the highest rates in the country. Avangrid is all about the bottom line; their profits in 2022 were $187 million. ~ Pete Hope, Pemaquid
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 7, 2023
Few people would have guessed three years ago that the three-acre property at 154 Limestone St. in Caribou would be a scenic campground. Back then, old tires, car seats and other scrap metal jutted out of the ground, all remnants of an auto salvage yard that closed years ago. But now seasonal campers have reserved all but two of the nine available recreational vehicle spots near the shores of the Aroostook River. Walking paths bring people straight to the shoreline, where they can launch kayaks and canoes, fish or just enjoy the view. The campground, the vision of a local couple, has inched Caribou a bit closer to a revitalized riverfront.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 7, 2023
The Maine Yankee nuclear waste disposal site in Wiscasset is safe from all possible flooding, sea level rise, tornadoes, lightning strikes and other natural disasters. For now. As climate change makes the Atlantic Ocean sea level rise and storm presence unpredictable, the scenarios that Maine Yankee evaluated when preparing for the disposal of the 550 metric tons of nuclear waste in 2001 are in danger of being outdated.
WASHINGTON POST • August 6, 2023
For the Joshua tree – a wild and whimsical internationally recognized symbol of California – fire has become an existential threat. Because its delicate desert habitat did not evolve with major wildfires, the Joshua tree is especially vulnerable to flames. When they burn, they burn fast. And they rarely survive. That’s of particular concern at this Southern California preserve, where fires were once uncommon but are now increasing in frequency and ferocity. Officials at the 1.5 million-acre park are still assessing the latest damage, but it appears to be catastrophic. Rising temperatures and the changing climate have altered the region’s so-called “fire regime,” the pattern of wildfire occurrence. It is now considered a “climate change hot spot.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 6, 2023
There are numerous Maine hiking trails that either lead to or past swimming holes that are bound to be more beautiful and less crowded than most of the public beaches. Here are some of our favorite options.
• Tumbledown Mountain in Weld
• Gulf Hagas near Brownville
• Shore Trail near Flagstaff Lake
• Morse Mountain and Seawall Beach in Phippsburg
• Tunk Mountain near Franklin
ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 6, 2023
The U.S. government’s most ambitious plan ever to slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles faces skepticism both about how realistic it is and whether it goes far enough. The Environmental Protection Agency in April announced new strict emissions limits that the agency says are vital to slowing climate change as people around the globe endure record-high temperatures, raging wildfires, and intense storms. The EPA says the industry could meet the limits if 67% of new-vehicle sales are electric by 2032, a pace the auto industry calls unrealistic. However, the new rule would not require automakers to boost electric vehicle sales directly. Instead, it sets emissions limits and allows automakers to choose how to meet them.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 6, 2023
Federal auditors have accused Maine of diverting $2.6 million in federal grants meant to fund popular fishing, hunting and wildlife protection programs into its underfunded pension and retiree health care system instead. The investigative arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior has issued several recent audits, the latest released July 28, questioning the practice of using new grants to pay down old pension liabilities within Maine’s Department of Marine Resources and Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife between 2017 and 2019.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 6, 2023
Exposure to chlorpyrifos has been linked to many harmful effects, including attention difficulties, autism, intelligence declines, problems with working memory, and increased odds of tumor growth. This acutely toxic pesticide was used nationally for decades and applied to some Maine crops. A bill I sponsored to ban it passed in 2021. About a week ago, an Aroostook County resident was concerned that a farm was illegally spraying a chemical on crops destined for dinner tables. A Board of Pesticide Control environmental specialist gathered samples. Sure enough, chlorpyrifos was found on broccoli that was already loaded on refrigerated trucks and ready for shipment. The crop was deemed unsafe for human consumption and destroyed. Thankfully, our government responded swiftly, taking significant steps to restrict the use of this hazardous chemical. ~ Rep. Vicki Doudera
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 6, 2023
The Maine mystique includes a vision of rugged individualism, of stoic and frugal folks who deal with whatever life throws at them with perseverance and common sense. Spending money on something that has the same effect as a free ocean breeze or wind through the trees is definitely not part of that. It’s a point of pride with some Mainers to bravely battle the elements, whether that means keeping the furnace off until December or sweating through a hot spell with a couple of box fans in August. Mainers’ reluctance to get air conditioning – or any cooling system – may be changing as summer temperatures get hotter each year and people spend more time working from home instead of in air-conditioned offices, especially since the pandemic.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 6, 2023
“Where are the bugs?” Heat can often help insects by speeding up their metabolism and make parts of their life cycles go much quicker. On the flip side, when it is too hot, some insects need to protect themselves and will be less active. It is important to be aware that we are seeing significant population declines across our insects on long-term scales. Some of our short-term observations may be because of how the weather is affecting both them and us! ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 6, 2023
We loved Central Maine Power when it was locally owned and operated. But we all know that today’s CMP is not the CMP of 1998, and that can be traced back to when it was bought by Iberdrola, a multinational corporation whose primary shareholders are the governments of Norway and Qatar, as well as the investment company Blackrock. Versant Power is owned by Enmax, which is owned by the city of Calgary, Alberta. I have nothing against Norway, Qatar and Calgary, but providing Mainers with the cheapest, most reliable electricity possible is not in their best financial interest. I don’t think Pine Tree Power will fix all our electric woes. But I keep thinking about how, in 2022, CMP made $187 million in profit. What could that $187 million have done if it had been left here in Maine? Improved the grid so that power doesn’t go out as much? Hired more line workers so power could get back on more quickly? Invest in renewable energy, which will save both money and our planet in the long term? ~Victoria Hugo-Vidal
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 6, 2023
The Mahoosuc Land Trust in Bethel has a broader mission than many land trusts. It is trying to protect property that is literally closer to home and lure more people to try gardening. While Mahoosuc does traditional land trust work, too, it puts more emphasis on local gardens and landscapes. ~ Tom Atwell
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 6, 2023
Roosevelt Campobello International Park encompasses 2,800 acres on the southwestern end of Campobello Island. From Friar’s Head and Cranberry Point to Liberty Point and Con Robinson’s Point, the expansive park is home to rocky headlands, secluded coves, sand and pebble beaches, maritime spruce and fir forests, grassy meadows and sphagnum bogs. Pack your rucksack, hiking shoes and camera, because there’s plenty to see and do. ~ Carey Kish
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • August 6, 2023
The National Park Service is in the forever business, and we have a responsibility to future generations to leave our national parks better than we found them. Park rangers regularly find ways to be good stewards of our public lands with extraordinarily limited resources. As the Department of the Interior celebrates the anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act’s initial $6.5 billion investment in national parks over a five-year period, we cheer the critical foundation it provides for national parks across the country to address maintenance repair backlogs. The Act has funded two major projects in Acadia National Park: construction of a new maintenance facility and repair of a water and wastewater system on the Schoodic Peninsula. ~ Kevin Schneider, superintendent, Acadia National Park
