Canada’s devastating wildfire season prompts calls for new approach

THE HILL • August 10, 2023

The wildfires that ravaged Canada this summer have some experts calling for a more aggressive approach to the blazes than the country’s historically reactive, case-by-case approach. As of Tuesday, 1,160 fires are burning across the country. This year, nearly 30 million acres have burned across Canada, an area bigger than several individual U.S. states. The area burned — the fourth-most of any season on record — is too large to rely on colder weather and precipitation to do the bulk of the work in extinguishing the blazes.  

Hawaii wildfires burn through Maui, killing at least 36 people

ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 10, 2023

Thousands of Hawaii residents raced to escape homes on Maui as blazes swept across the island, destroying parts of a centuries-old town and killing at least 36 people in one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires in recent years. It’s the latest in a series of disasters caused by extreme weather around the globe this summer. Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of such events.

Biden pitches his efforts on clean energy, infrastructure as key to reviving manufacturing jobs

ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 9, 2023

President Biden declared on Wednesday that his economic policies are reviving U.S. manufacturing as he toured the West to drum up support for his efforts on jobs and inflation in the face of voters’ doubts. The claim from Biden and the White House that the administration has bolstered U.S. manufacturing is backed by a rise in construction spending on new factories.

Maine Warden Service urges paddlers to exercise caution

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2023

The Maine Warden Service is asking canoeists and kayakers to exercise caution when paddling on the Saco River in Fryeburg and Brownfield. Storms that dropped several inches of rain in Oxford County and other regions of the state have caused river levels to rise, currents to flow faster, and caused trees to fall into the river. In mid- to late July, several canoes flipped over or got stuck in debris in the Saco River, necessitating rescues by emergency responders of 17 paddlers.

Brunswick-Rockland train line launching weekend service

TIMES RECORD • August 9, 2023

The latest attempt at a Midcoast passenger train line is steaming ahead. The Coastliner is billed as an excursion experience, connecting a 57-mile stretch from Brunswick to Rockland known as the Rockland Branch in about two hours. Stops in Bath, Wiscasset and Newcastle are planned. The Brunswick-Rockland service will launch in about a month and run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The train car has restrooms, air conditioning and bigger windows than Amtrak. A second 76-seat train car is expected soon after the service launches.

Land trust and Georgetown work to restore Swett Marsh

FORECASTER • August 9, 2023

Swett Marsh in Georgetown has experienced ongoing environmental degradation due to agricultural impacts from centuries ago. Now, the town and Kennebec Estuary Land Trust are collaborating to restore the marsh for the betterment of species that live there and the health of the broader marine ecosystem. Healthy plant life in the marsh is vital to catching sediment before the water filters out to the Kennebec River and eventually the Gulf of Maine.

Brunswick seeks input for climate action plan

FORECASTER • August 9, 2023

Brunswick’s new climate action plan will identify key areas of risk that are most vulnerable to climate change, as well as determining short and long-term actions that can reduce emissions and build resilience to impacts of climate change. The town is looking for feedback from residents, and has posted a survey to gauge how the public feels about climate change and its effects on the area. FMI: brunswickcap-gpcog.hub.arcgis.com/pages/get-involved.  

Column: Fluke or flounder? Consider the season and their eyes when identifying these flatfish

TIMES RECORD • August 9, 2023

Fluke is the common name of a summer flounder, one of the many very flat fish that live in the Gulf of Maine. Their close relative, the winter flounder, which spends the colder months closer to shore and doesn’t do the same type of seasonal migration. One thing they do have in common, however, is that at some point during their development, both fluke and flounder end up with two eyes on the same sides of their bodies. The difference, however, is that flukes end up with their eyes on the left side of their body and flounders end up with their eyes on the right. ~ Susan Olcott

Bureau of Parks and Lands to help stabilize road to Tumbledown trailheads

SUN JOURNAL • August 8, 2023

The state Bureau of Parks and Lands is willing to share the cost with Franklin County and lend its expertise to fix Byron Road where the trailheads to Tumbledown Mountain are located. Byron Road in Township 6 North of Weld is part of Franklin County unorganized territory infrastructure. It was damaged during the June 26 rainstorm. Bill Patterson, deputy director of the state Bureau of Parks and Land, said he envisioned the state pitching in up to $5,000 a year for five years to get the road stabilized.

An invasive weed that grows 6 inches a day has been found in Maine

MAINE PUBLIC • August 8, 2023

Agriculture officials say that they've detected the first occurrence of an invasive weed that can grow up to six inches per day. The Maine Department of Agriculture says it's verified the presence of what's known as "mile-a-minute" weed at a home in Boothbay Harbor. The agency says the landowner found it while cleaning up weeds from new landscape plants. The "mile-a-minute" weed has triangular leaves and small blue fruits and can grow up to 25 feet in only a few months. The agency says the invasive plant can harm reforestation projects and nurseries, and anyone who finds it should report it to the state.

More teen workers in Maine are getting hurt on the job

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 8, 2023

The number of Maine teens injured in the workplace has more than doubled over the last 10 years, with three separate investigations of serious injuries concluding this summer, the Maine Department of Labor said Tuesday. The overall number of violations involving youth workers has also increased. At TD Logging in Fort Kent, a 16-year-old driving a company truck was hurt in a vehicle accident at 4 a.m. in August 2022, and a 15-year-old was allowed to use a logging forwarder roughly two dozen times last summer. Another 32 violations for restricted hours and recorded hours were filed against the logging company. The department places the blame partly on the tight labor market.

The future of East Coast wind power could ride on this Jersey beach town

WASHINGTON POST • August 8, 2023

Residents of Ocean City and surrounding Cape May County, helped by an outside group opposed to renewable energy, are mobilizing to stop Ocean Wind 1, a proposal to build up to 98 wind turbines the size of skyscrapers off the New Jersey coast. The future of East Coast wind energy could hang in the balance. If opponents succeed, they hope to create a template for derailing some 31 offshore wind projects in various stages of development and construction off the East Coast, a key part of President Biden’s plan to reduce greenhouse emissions that are driving global climate change.

Antarctica risks ‘cascades of extreme events’ as Earth warms, study says

BLOOMBERG • August 8, 2023

Extreme weather in Antarctica, including ocean heat waves and ice loss, is set to become more intense unless urgent policy action reduces the burning of fossil fuels, a new study has found – the latest to sound the alarm on the damage climate change is unleashing. Scientists have become increasingly alarmed about how the Antarctic ice has struggled to grow back after hitting an all-time low in February – a deviation so extreme from the normal that it’s been dubbed a once-in-a-7.5-million-year phenomenon. The Arctic, too, is expected to be ice-free in summers by 2030, underscoring the rapid pace at which global warming is damaging the planet’s ecosystems.

Why visits to Acadia National Park dropped in June

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 8, 2023

The number of tourists who have visited Acadia National Park this year was on pace to exceed last year’s high numbers, but then June happened. Acadia had nearly 38,000 fewer visits this June than it did for the corresponding month a year ago, when it had more than 600,000 visits. With the year’s lower June numbers, Acadia’s running total was set back more than 11,000 visits behind where it was on July 1, 2022. The excess of rain in June is likely why visitation to the park slowed down.

Opinion: It’s time to tax private jets to pay for climate change mitigation

TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY • August 8, 2023

As wealth gets more concentrated in the hands of the global billionaire class, there has been a surge in consumer demand for luxury goods. In the last two decades, the private jet fleet has increased by 133%, from 9,895 planes in 2000 to 23,133 in mid-2022. On a planet experiencing disruptive climate change, private jet travel is one of the least defensible forms of luxury consumption. Private jets emit 10 to 20 times more carbon pollution per passenger than commercial airliners. We should steeply tax private jet travel and direct those funds toward climate mitigation and green infrastructure. A new bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, the Fueling Alternative Transportation with a Carbon Aviation Tax Act of 2023, would do precisely this. The powerful private jet lobby will do everything in their power to block such common-sense legislative proposals, but luxury private jet travelers should pay the real financial and environmental costs of their luxury travel choices. ~ Chuck Collins, Program on Inequality, Institute for Policy Studies

Opinion: Powerline should not cut through central Maine farms

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 8, 2023

About a month ago we, along with hundreds of other Mainers, received a letter informing us that our land would be impacted by a proposed transmission line project. The Aroostook Renewable Gateway project being developed by LS Power Grid Maine will deliver electricity from a new wind farm in Aroostook County to the New England power grid. To the extent this project will produce renewable energy, reduce CO2 emissions and benefit the citizens of Maine, we support it. But we do not support creating a new transmission corridor through beautiful and productive farmland that is a valuable community resource in many different ways. We call on LS power and the state of Maine to return to the drawing board and create a plan that will reduce the impact of this project on farmland that we and our community hold so dearly and that provides you and your loved ones with wholesome, nutritious food. ~ Mark Guzzi, Peacemeal Farm in Dixmont, and Jesse Haskell, dairy farmer in Palermo

Body of missing kayaker recovered off Campobello Island

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 7, 2023

The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday that it recovered the body of a kayaker who was reported missing Sunday off the coast of Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. The Coast Guard identified the kayaker as Martin Spahn of Augusta.

Maine sludge crisis is over – for 2 years, at least

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 7, 2023

Maine’s sludge disposal crisis is over for now, but the search continues for a permanent solution. Maine communities are once again burying sewage sludge in the state-owned landfill at Juniper Ridge near Old Town and no longer have to pay extra to haul the waste to New Brunswick. Casella started hauling sludge to Canada in February after it concluded that the landfill could no longer safely accept sludge from its three dozen municipal customers. That much wet material posed a threat to the landfill’s structural integrity, putting the pit itself in danger of collapse, Cassella said. Casella blamed the sludge crisis on two new laws intended to protect Maine’s environment: one prohibited the use of sludge as an agricultural fertilizer due to elevated levels of potentially dangerous forever chemicals and the other banned out-of-state waste from Maine landfills. In June, lawmakers reluctantly reached a compromise. The Legislature passed a bill allowing Casella to accept up to 25,000 tons of out-of-state waste a year for the next two years so it can bulk up sludge so it can be safely landfilled at Juniper Ridge.

Amtrak Downeaster ridership rebounds from pandemic slowdown

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 7, 2023

New passenger transportation numbers released Monday by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority are showing that ridership on the Amtrak Downeaster has mostly rebounded from the pandemic-related disruptions that started in 2020. The rail authority reported that the Amtrak Downeaster transported 516,723 passengers in fiscal year 2023, which ended June 30. That is the first time that annual ridership has exceeded a half million riders since fiscal 2019.