The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MAINE PUBLIC • September 5, 2023
In this Borealis story, follow along with biologists and their super sniffer yellow lab, June, as they search for the elusive and "at risk" wood turtle on the grounds of historic Loring Air Force Base in northern Maine.
COURIER-GAZETTE • September 5, 2023
A former Dragon Products cement plant executive died Sunday afternoon after suffering a medical event while swimming off the Rockland Breakwater, Rockland police said Monday. Martin Turecky, 57, of Florida, an experienced swimmer in good physical condition, died during a training session.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 5, 2023
It’s happening more and more these days. Large pieces of property are being bought up, posted and erased from the list of once accessible hunting grounds, forcing more and more hunters onto less and less land. Some are hunters themselves, just trying to escape a fate so many others face. Some are nonhunters who want to own a piece of our beautiful state to enjoy in peace and quiet with no interest in allowing any type of access. And when you think about it, who can blame them? It’s their land and their right, but is it right? There’s no way around it. Finding good places to hunt and trap in our state is getting harder and harder.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 5, 2023
A boat crew pulling lobster traps off the coast of York on Monday rescued a fisherman who had fallen from a cliff and was clinging to a buoy. The man, who has not been publicly identified, was fishing from Bald Head Cliff with another person around 8 a.m. when he slipped and fell into the water. The tide was low at the time, making the rocks in the area “really, really slippery.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 5, 2023
It remains unclear whether the proposed takeover of Central Maine Power and Versant’s infrastructure will improve customer service, reliability and the state’s progress towards its climate goals, Public Advocate William Harwood said Tuesday. Harwood’s office released an overview Tuesday of “some of the more significant issues and questions” facing Question 3 on the November ballot, which would place the infrastructure of Maine’s two largest electric utilities under the control of an elected board.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 5, 2023
The Schoodic Peninsula, on the eastern side of Frenchman Bay, has long been considered the quiet part of Acadia National Park, far removed from the summer crowds that fill parking lots of Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island. But this year the Schoodic section of the park, and its abutting towns of Gouldsboro and Winter Harbor, don’t quite resemble the sparse locales that many residents remember from a few years ago. The Schoodic Peninsula is on pace to have its busiest summer ever — busier even than 2021, when Acadia as a whole surpassed 4 million visits for the first time in its 107-year history. That’s setting it apart from the portion of Acadia on MDI, where visits have remained high but leveled off some.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 5, 2023
As the largest producer of farmed kelp in the U.S., and with a 50-year history in wild seaweed harvesting, Maine is seen as a leader in the U.S. seaweed economy. There are over 40 farms across the coast, and Maine farmers harvested over 1 million pounds of kelp in 2022. On Wednesday and Thursday, Maine is welcoming the Seagriculture USA conference for a second year. Maine companies positioned at the forefront of advanced processing of seaweed as a replacement for plastic packaging, as a mineral-rich food and in medicine and agriculture. It’s a model for sustainable economic development, and if we get it right, it can offer a vital new sector to the Maine economy with high-paying biotech jobs coupled with keeping traditional fisherwomen and fishermen working on the water. ~ Mitchell Lench, Ocean’s Balance
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 5, 2023
Pine Tree Power makes environmental sense. I hope Mainers realize it also makes financial sense. Several areas of Maine currently have public power and are paying less for it than those supplied by Central Maine Power and Versant. ~ Nancy Hasenfus, Brunswick
DAILY BULLDOG • September 5, 2023
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge protects approximately 5,600 acres within a 14,800-acre acquisition zone. The Fish and Wildlife Service brings money into local municipalities through the Land, Water and Conservation Fund (LWCF), which uses revenues generated from offshore energy leases (not taxpayer dollars) to pay for new refuge lands. The FWS also supports infrastructure improvements through its operating budget. In Maine, we are lucky to have six National Wildlife Refuges: Aroostook, Sunkhaze Meadows, Moosehorn, Maine Coastal Islands, Umbagog, and Rachel Carson. There are many studies that have been published detailing the economic benefits of conserving refuge lands. ~ Bill Durkin, The Friends of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 4, 2023
Alarming levels of so-called “forever chemicals” have been detected in the wells of more than a dozen residents near a textile mill in North Monmouth, prompting town officials to explore expanding the town’s centralized water distribution system. “People living near the mill had their wells tested positive for PFAS,” said town resident John Hale.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 4, 2023
For small businesses that rely on summer tourism to keep afloat, extreme weather is replacing the pandemic as the determining factor in how well a summer will go. The pandemic had its ups and downs for tourism, with a total shutdown followed by a rush of vacations due to pent-up demand. This year, small businesses say vacation cadences are returning to normal. But now, they have extreme weather to deal with — many say it’s hurting business, but more temperate spots are seeing a surge.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 4, 2023
Ahmed Doale, 28, of Portland, had been on a boat with another person on Sebago Lake when their boat broke down Sunday night. The boat drifted into a deep area off the shoreline off Sebago Lake State Park. Doale got out of the boat to push it, and when pushing, he stepped into deep water. Doale became submerged, and a number of people on shore heard yelling and called 911. A search team was unable to locate the man on Sunday night. A dive team and boats, are continuing the search.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 4, 2023
A Labor Day weekend of blue skies and balmy temperatures has given a needed boost to businesses that depend on tourism dollars in Maine. Statewide, it wasn’t a banner season for tourism business, “but it hasn’t been a bad summer, either,” said Becky Jacobson, interim executive director of HospitalityMaine. Tourism remains a primary economic driver in Maine, with 15.4 million visitors tallied in 2022. Tourists spent more than $8.6 billion here last year, supporting 151,000 jobs and contributing nearly $5.6 billion in earnings to Maine households. Visitors to the state also saved each Maine household $2,172 in state and local taxes last year. Acadia National Park, one of the state’s major attractions, racked up 3.97 million visits last year, which injected $479 million into the local economy and supported nearly 6,700 jobs, for a cumulative economic benefit of $691 million.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 4, 2023
A washed-out access road to a popular tidal sandbar on a Chebeague Island is giving coastal residents a glimpse of what is to come in a warmer Gulf of Maine, where sea levels are rising and more frequent and severe storms boost the size of waves hitting the coast. It serves as a reminder that the impacts of climate change mean the next road washout could be much worse. That is why the Greater Portland Council of Governments is working with area communities to monitor coastal erosion around Casco Bay.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 4, 2023
Workers’ collective actions are not just about wages and working conditions. Organized workers have also built bridges across racial, class and gender divides to address critical issues like environmental climate change, pollution, racial justice, affordable housing and immigration. During the International Paper strike of 1987, the members of UPIU Local 14 in Jay took soil and water samples, documented environmental conditions, and strategized on how to clean up the environment. As a result, the town passed pioneering environmental ordinances. Recently, a coalition of construction trades unions, fisheries and environmental groups worked with legislators and Gov. Mills to pass a law allowing the construction of offshore wind turbines in a way that protects fisheries and creates thousands of union jobs. To address some of the most critical problems we face as a society, we must listen to the voice of labor. ~ Matthew Emmick, Scontras Center for Labor and Community Education, USM
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • September 4, 2023
Japan started releasing contaminated water that was stored at the now defunct Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A power plant company in Canada wants to store waste from its nuclear reactors within half a mile of the Great Lakes. Burning fossil fuels sends carbon dioxide into the air, contributing to global warming. Nuclear power advocates would say now’s the time to move aggressively to nuclear, which doesn’t add to greenhouse gas emissions. There are roughly 440 operating nuclear reactors in 32 countries, with upwards of 60 more currently under construction. That may be good news for air quality. Unfortunately, the water we drink is now, frighteningly, up for discussion. ~ LZ Granderson
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 4, 2023
Concerns relating to pure electric vehicles, such as range and the effects of cold weather on batteries, do not apply to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which are allowed under the initiative. Likewise, the claim that EVs require expensive home charging equipment is also misleading. Level 1 charging equipment, which plugs directly into a 120-volt wall socket, comes standard with EVs. It is usually more than sufficient for overnight charging at home. About half of the CO2 being released into Maine’s air is from cars and trucks. Should we be free to spew carbon into the atmosphere indefinitely, despite the environmental catastrophe we are heading into? “Maine Can’t Afford to Wait!” ~ Robert Dodge, Falmouth
BANGOR METRO • September 4, 2023
Rock monuments are highlights of many public trail networks throughout the state. Here are just a few.
• Good Will-Hinckley Trails in Fairfield
• Mount Battie in Camden
• Vaughan Woods in Hallowell
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 3, 2023
Maybe your garden’s tomatoes and sunflowers were late this summer thanks to so much rain and so many clouds, but there was one perk: The stormy weather kept things cooler, cutting down on the need for air conditioners. And yet, Portland recorded its warmest July on record because the same cloud cover that kept things cool during the day also made it warmer at night. “We never got to 90 degrees (this summer) in Portland, which is very unusual,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Thunberg. This summer will also go down as the seventh wettest on record in Portland. Augusta broke a record with 52 days of rain.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 3, 2023
There are a lot of ways to describe the summer we’ve experienced in Maine. Some would call it wet, humid, warm and cold all at the same time. You would be right to use all those words when describing the three-month period from June to August in the Pine Tree State. Both the records for consecutive days of measurable precipitation and warmest monthly average temperature were broken. This was definitely one of the weirdest Maine summers in recent memory.
