Maine’s cannabis boom is leaving behind Aroostook growers

THE COUNTY • August 22, 2023

As Maine’s vigorous cannabis scene explodes in retail markets, Aroostook County growers say the boom means more work for less money. Safe Alternatives of Caribou was the first medical marijuana shop on the East Coast when it opened in Frenchville in 2011. Now The County has nearly 20 medical and adult-use storefronts from the St. John Valley to Houlton. Medical and adult-use cannabis sales in Maine netted more than $460 million in 2022. That’s nearly double the $258 million potatoes brought in last year. Potatoes are still the state’s No. 1 food crop, with around 90 percent of them grown in northern Maine. But unlike potatoes, little of the state’s cannabis comes from The County.

Lavish and looming, gigayacht bobbing in Portland harbor attracts curiosity and contempt

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2023

Rising Sun, a five-story, 82-room, $381 million gigayacht owned by billionaire David Geffen, was docked in Portland on Monday. Geffen is No. 229 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $9.14 billion. Rising Sun has a gym, a wine cellar, a spa, a movie theater and can accommodate up to 16 guests and 45 crew members, according to superyachtfan.com. It was built in 2004 by a German shipyard for Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison. Geffen bought it from Ellison in 2010. The Rising Sun’s environmental impact? The diesel engines powering the gigayacht belch an estimated 16,320 tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent gases into the atmosphere annually, almost 800 times what the average American generates in a year, according to a New York Times report citing the journal Sustainability.

State proposes more quarantines to slow spread of tree-killing invasive species

MAINE PUBLIC • August 22, 2023

State officials are considering proposals to expand several quarantine zones for firewood and other tree parts to slow the spread of three invasive species that kill trees. York and Cumberland counties as well as parts of Oxford and Aroostook counties have been under quarantine for several years to prevent further spread of emerald ash borers. The small beetles burrow under ash bark and eventually kill the trees, which occupy important ecological, cultural and economic niches in Maine. But now the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry wants to expand that quarantine to all of Androscoggin, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties as well as parts of Penobscot, Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties.

A $35 million biosolids facility in Norridgewock could be answer to state’s sludge disposal crisis

MORNING SENTINEL • August 22, 2023

Waste Management Disposal Services is working to secure approval for a $35 million biosolids processing facility at its landfill in Norridgewock that would offer a long-term solution to the state’s sludge disposal crisis. The town’s planning board last week approved a site plan for a plant that each day would dry, treat and landfill 200 wet tons of wastewater sludge sent there by cities and towns across the state. The 18,000-square-foot facility would be constructed at the Crossroads Landfill operated by Waste Management on Mercer Road. The intention is to have it operational by the end of 2025.

Borealis: At Outcast Camp, fly fishing is for everyone

MAINE PUBLIC • August 22, 2023

Reporter Murray Carpenter heads to the Wild River in Bethel to meet with organizers and guests of "Maine Outcast Camp," a program hosted by the Confluence Collective. Attendees discover creative and informed ways of approaching how to tie a fly, and along the way, they uncover new things about themselves.

Unmanned robotic sailboats will be deployed to the Gulf of Maine for seafloor mapping project

MAINE PUBLIC • August 22, 2023

Fishermen are being asked to watch out for two robotic sailboats that will be cruising in the Gulf of Maine starting next week. The wind and solar-powered boats, called Saildrone Voyagers, will operate at low speeds between a series of predetermined survey lines. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the 33-foot unmanned boats, which are bright orange in color, will collect data needed to make high resolution maps of a 1,900 square mile stretch of seafloor in the Gulf of Maine. NOAA officials said the area is known to contain deep sea coral habitat, and it's also of interest to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as a potential site for commercial offshore wind development.

Invasive zebra mussels are on Maine's doorstep

MAINE PUBLIC • August 22, 2023

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has issued a warning that invasive zebra mussels have been found less than 30 miles from the state's border with Canada. Infestations have been found in a lake in Quebec that flows into the Madawaska River, which flows into the Saint John River. IF&W spokesperson Mark Latti says it's urgent that boaters in the Saint John River watershed take precautions to prevent spreading the mussels, which are often transported at their microscopic larval stage , when they aren't visible. "The best thing to do is to clean, dry, and drain your boat or your watercraft after being in a water body," he says.

Rural towns invited to propose project for Maine Service Fellow by Sept. 8

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • August 22, 2023

Maine Service Fellows are recent college graduates (within last five years) who commit a year to living and serving in a community as the additional human resource needed to address a community issue. Volunteer Maine is now accepting letters of intent from communities in Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, Piscataquis, Aroostook, Washington, Hancock, Waldo, Knox, and certain parts of Penobscot counties. The deadline for submitting for the 2023-24 year is Friday, Sept. 8.

Mosquitoes in southern Maine test positive for Jamestown Canyon virus

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2023

Mosquitoes collected in York County have tested positive for a virus that can be transmitted to people and was last detected in Maine four years ago, the state said Tuesday. It is the first time since 2019 that Jamestown Canyon Virus, or JCV, has been detected in the state. The virus is more common in other parts of the country, especially the upper Midwest. It causes a fever and flu-like symptoms.

Editorial: ‘Then came the fires’: Dire warnings about climate change from Canada

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 22, 2023

A recent article in Maclean’s magazine offered a description of a heatwave – and its consequences – in British Columbia that sounds like it came from a horror movie. Dealing with the climate havoc will be expensive, costing the country $100 billion a year, every year, the magazine reported. As we’re seeing more and more, these aren’t scare tactics. They are the reality of a planet that is rapidly warming. Data, and the reality of the devastation of wildfires in British Columbia, and Hawaii, should alarm us all. They should also spur more comprehensive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also building resilience to the environmental changes that we know are coming, and in some cases, are already here.

Opinion: Our ‘backyards’ should not be shared without our permission

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 22, 2023

In October 2022, the Maine Public Utilities Commission approved a bid from LS Power Grid Maine (a subsidiary of Missouri-based LS Power), to construct a new 140 to 160 mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line. It had also approved an Aroostook County wind farm (King Pine Wind Maine, LLC, a subsidiary of Boston-based Longroad Energy). On June 13,  the Maine Legislature passed LD 924 “to Provide Legislative Approval of the Transmission Project.” We need to make clean energy a reality in Maine but we need to work together for a fair plan. Maine’s “Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program” says the PUC shall give preference to proposals that: “Favor use, where practicable, of existing utility and other rights-of-way.” Are other corridors and rights-of-way available? We stakeholder taxpayers and voters care about what happens in our Maine “backyards” when lawmakers serve it up without asking us first. ~ Carole L. Getchell and her husband own property in Corinth that potentially abuts the proposed transmission line corridor

Down East town likely to delay towering flagpole proposal again

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 21, 2023

Columbia Falls might extend by another six months a temporary ban on major developments, including a potential 1,400-foot tower that would double as a gigantic flagpole. Voters in the small Washington County town adopted a six-month moratorium in March to give the town time to adopt development ordinances that would apply to the enormous structure that would fly an American flag larger than a football field. The tower would anchor a sprawling veterans’ memorial park spread out over 2,500 acres that the Worcester family has said it wants to build in Columbia Falls. Aga Dixon, an attorney hired by the town to help it prepare for a possible formal application to build the park, said Monday that selectmen can decide on their own to extend the voter-approved moratorium for another six months.

Ellsworth wants to block long-term moorings in lakes

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 22, 2023

Ellsworth is moving ahead with implementing rules for mooring boats and other floating structures in its lakes. The City Council voted 4-2 Monday night in preliminary support of implementing rules that would prevent people from mooring boats or floats in local lakes and leaving them there for extended periods of time. The intent of the rules is to bar people from essentially claiming parts of the lakes for themselves by putting in moorings and tying up boats or floating docks for their private use. The issue of setting moorings in local lakes became an issue in 2021, when a couple of local residents who are not lakefront property owners moored what they called a “house float” in Green Lake.

Research at Baxter seeks to identify plants that will adapt to global warming

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2023

A University of Maine professor wants to know if ancient DNA left behind in the mud and clay under Chimney Pond in Baxter State Park can tell us what kind of plant is most likely to survive global warming, and which ones may need a helping hand to avoid extinction. A team of researchers led by paleoecologist Jacquelynn Gill will examine 13,000 years’ worth of lake sediment found at four Northeast mountain ranges to determine which alpine plants carried here by glaciers in the last ice age are still around today, and which ones have been lost.

Opinion: Maine is not ready for an electric vehicle mandate

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2023

While EVs are an awesome improvement in automotive technology, don’t tell me and other Mainers that we’re required to purchase one. Supporting the innovation behind EVs and forcing people to buy them are two different concepts. There is no need to suppress consumer choice and compel the transition to electric vehicles that is already underway in the marketplace without government coercion. Unfortunately, our state is now in a position to adopt California-style vehicle regulations pushed by special interests. Their intent is to eventually ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles in Maine as California has planned to do by 2035. EVs remain more expensive than their gas-powered counterparts and EV batteries lose substantial range in cold temperatures. ~ Jessica Nickerson, Maine Policy Institute

Commentary: Inflation Reduction Act protects Maine’s waters – and way of life

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2023

Our state is for its long, cold winters, but the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 97% the world’s ocean surface. That spells trouble for Maine’s seafood industry, tourism and our livelihood. Lobster and cod are moving farther north and east. Climate change is also making the waters more acidic. As our waters get warmer, they are rising, making our coastal towns more vulnerable to storm surge and flooding. We must move quickly to reduce emissions now – while recognizing that even if we eliminated all emissions today, sea levels will still rise and the ocean is going to continue to warm for decades. Locals are coming up with ways to address these problems to conserve and protect our ocean. The Inflation Reduction Act is also helping our fishing industry become more resilient through marine debris cleanups. State and federal decision makers must continue to invest in ocean climate action so we can fight for the future we deserve. ~ Michelle Kaufman, Inland Ocean Coalition

Letter: Letter highlighted failures of leadership on climate

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2023

I applaud the question succinctly asked by a recent letter writer (“Who do you trust on climate policy?”Aug. 17). Much of the world is experiencing ongoing environmental disaster due to irresponsible leadership of our country that has put our planet in peril. The letter writer put the Republican thought process, denying climate change, in sharp relief for us. I hope this will be a reminder to the news media to reach for the global perspective in its reporting, to reach for the higher perspective: the clear skies of cause and effect – and of reason. ~ Abbie Sewall, Brunswick

Letter: There’s more than one incentive to defend our climate

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 22, 2023

An Aug. 17 letter (“Who do you trust on climate policy?”) brought up a good point: There is too much misinformation out there for people to digest. Big Oil is certainly in no rush to give way to a renewable energy economy. Therefore, they spread distortions and half-truths, as well as green wash their own business. They remind me of the tobacco companies that didn’t want people to know nicotine was addicting and cigarettes could lead to cancer. How many times can we be led down the wrong path by greedy executives and politicians? It’s possible to have cheaper alternatives and save the climate at the same time, whether people believe in the latter or not. ~ Jonathan Light, Laguna Niguel, Calif.

This Maine guide and former boxer became the ‘greatest outdoor cook in America’

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 22, 2023

There’s a long history in Maine of larger-than-life outdoorsmen and women. Add to the list a lesser-known but still one-of-a-kind character who helped bring the Maine outdoors to the national masses: Charley Miller, a Bangor native, Maine guide, boxing trainer, occasional writer and lecturer, and the self-proclaimed best outdoor cook in America. When he wasn’t training boxing legends at his gym near Moosehead Lake, or taking celebrities and locals alike on canoe or fly-fishing trips, Miller was hauling his portable outdoor kitchen around in his custom-outfitted station wagon to sportsmen’s shows, Boy Scouts gatherings, private parties and other events.

Mainer turns his passion for hunting into bear scents and traps business

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 22, 2023

A blueberry attractant spray is one of many products Tyler Dodge makes for Wilderness Freaks, a business he owns with his wife, Bailie. “When I started using his scents three or four years ago, I shot a bear every year after,” he said. “That’s why I loved it so much.” It has been a busy 14 months since the Dodges acquired Wilderness Freaks attractants. Tyler Dodge loves hunting, so spending some of his spare time blending scent formulas and creating new ones is a perfect way for him to immerse himself in the sport even further. “Deer hunting’s fun. It’s a blast,” he said. “But bear hunting, there’s nothing like it.” Youth Bear Day is Saturday, Aug. 26, and the regular four-week bait hunting season begins on Aug. 28. Bear trapping runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31.