The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
CBS 13 • September 28, 2023
A very thick plume of wildfire smoke from the Canadian province of Alberta has made its way into Maine. Clockwise flow around high pressure centered to our north is bringing the smoke straight down from the north-northeast. Thursday would have otherwise been a bright, sunny day but the smoke above our heads will make it seem overcast throughout the afternoon. This is expected to be with us through the day and into Friday.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2023
A majority of American songbirds are neotropical migrants. That is, they nest in the northern latitudes but winter in the tropics. That raises an obvious question. If there’s enough food for them down there all winter, why do they bother to nest up here? Fundamentally, it’s a math problem. First, North America is larger than Central and South America combined. Up here in the north, they have room to spread out. Down there, they must cram together with the abundant birds that live in the tropics year-round. There is enough food to sustain everybody in winter, but not enough to start and feed a growing family. Too much competition. Second, neotropical migrants can simply make more babies up north, where there is seasonally more food and less competition. ~ Bob Duchesne
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2023
Patrick Woodcock, who led the governor’s energy office from 2013 to 2016 and recently served in a similar Massachusetts position, will take over as the Maine State Chamber of Commerce’s new leader on Monday. The chamber is “conservative” on economic issues. Though he worked for the stridently conservative LePage, Woodcock is in line with the center-right orientation of the chamber. He was respected across party lines as energy advisor. Longtime leader Dana Connors retired at the end of 2022, and Julia Munsey, his replacement as CEO, lasted only a few months before resigning due to personal reasons in June.
CBS 13 • September 28, 2023
Three boaters are safe after being rescued from the Presumpscot River in Westbrook. Firefighters said their boat overturned Wednesday night near Mill Road. Crews from Westbrook, Gorham and Portland responded. The three boaters were able to get to an island in the river after their boat overturned and that’s where emergency crews were able to take them to safety. All three boaters were taken to the hospital, but no one had critical injuries.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 28, 2023
Saco has received the long-awaited project agreement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction of a 750-foot jetty spur at Camp Ellis to mitigate the coastal erosion that has led to the destruction of 39 homes and the annual loss of 3 to 4 feet of sandy beach. The proposed project agreement is under legal review, and won’t be shared publicly until sometime next month, but already some local politicians are calling it a historic moment in the city’s effort to protect a neighborhood under threat of being washed away in the next storm. But the leaders of Save Our Shores say the proposal doesn’t provide the city with as much beach replenishment sand as promised.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2023
Question 3 is the highest-profile referendum of the eight ballot measures up for a vote this fall, with voters set to decide whether the state should buy out the infrastructure of its two largest investor-owned utilities, Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power, and create the Pine Tree Power Co. overseen by an elected board and experts. Some of the ads on TV, radio and social media from both sides of the Pine Tree Power debate are pushing the boundaries when it comes to the veracity of their claims. Here’s an overview.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2023
Visitors to Acadia National Park next week are likely to find more locked gates than mountaintop ocean views if the federal government shuts down this weekend. It would be the first time in 10 years that a federal budget dispute closed the park during Maine’s tourist season. But even if the park shuts down at midnight Saturday, people hoping to get out and about on Mount Desert Island may not have to change plans.
ANGUS KING • September 27, 2023
U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Working Forests Caucus, has introduced legislation to protect and restore Maine’s forests, aiming to bolster both the economic success and environmental health of the state. The bipartisan bill, America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration (ARCs) Act of 2023, would work to restore ecosystems, boost carbon sequestration through tree planting, improve fire risk reduction and expand forest products and wood innovation.
WASHINGTON POST • September 27, 2023
The Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Woods Initiative has grown to nearly 130,000 contiguous acres, more than twice the size of Acadia National Park. All hikers, bikers, Nordic skiers, snowshoers, anglers, birders and moose-seekers are welcome.
SUN JOURNAL • September 27, 2023
The Maine Public Utilities Commission has dismissed a complaint requesting an investigation into the Auburn Water District, stating that while it raises relevant concerns about water quality, the Water District has taken “adequate steps” to resolve the cause of the complaint. It does, however, request that the Water District submit information to the PUC following any updates in the ongoing litigation between the district and the city of Lewiston. The complaint referenced the Water District’s attempt to revise the Lake Auburn watershed boundary, as well as changes to its septic ordinance, which the residents said could lead to the Water District losing its waiver from filtration.
SUN JOURNAL • September 27, 2023
A tree harvester burned up Wednesday in woods in northern Franklin County. The operator of the feller buncher smelled smoke and saw flames. He went to get help and when he returned the engine and fuel were burning. The cause is likely is electrical. The feller buncher was a total loss.
ADVERTISER DEMOCRAT • September 27, 2023
Last Thursday, Androscoggin River Watershed Council and the Oxford County Wellness Collaborative organized a group excursion for the Oxford Hills Older Adults Outing Group on the Little Androscoggin River from the Paris River Park on Paris Hill Road. Seven kayakers launched from the river park for an early evening paddle to Stony Brook and back.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 27, 2023
Six young adults and children argued that governments across Europe aren’t doing enough to protect people from climate change at the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday in the latest and largest instance of activists taking governments to court to force climate action. Legal teams for the 32 nations – which includes the 27 EU member countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, and Turkey – questioned the admissibility of the case as well as the claim that the plaintiffs are victims of climate change harm. “I am shocked by the countries’ attempt to ignore the evidence that we’ve put in front of them, and trivialize the current state we are facing,” said 15-year-old André Oliveira.
MAINE PUBLIC • September 27, 2023
#WeOutside is the brainchild of Moon Machar, wellness coordinator at the Maine Association for New Americans. "We are taking groups of new Mainers out into the beautiful nature in Maine," she said, "to help them be able to experience and find home in spaces where, predominantly, people of color really aren't really utilizing, or don't feel welcomed."
ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 27, 2023
President Joe Biden has vetoed Republican-sponsored bills intended to undo federal protections for endangered species that have seen their populations plummet over the years, including the northern long-eared bat. The GOP measures would overturn “science-based rulemaking” that offers important protections for the species and would undermine the Endangered Species Act, Biden said. The long-eared bat is one of 12 bat types decimated by a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome. The disease has spread across nearly 80% of the bat’s historic range in the eastern and north-central U.S. and has caused estimated population declines of at least 97%. “Bats are critical to healthy, functioning ecosystems and contribute at least $3 billion annually to the United States agriculture economy through pest control and pollination,” Biden said. Republicans and the logging industry criticized the endangered listing for the long-eared bat, contending it would hamper logging.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 25, 2023
New polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates that extreme weather, including a summer that brought dangerous heat for much of the United States, is bolstering Americans’ belief that they’ve personally felt the impact of climate change. About 9 in 10 Americans (87%) say they have experienced at least one extreme weather event in the past five years – including drought, extreme heat, severe storms, wildfires or flooding – up from 79% who said that just a few months ago in April. And about three-quarters of those believe climate change is at least partly to blame.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 27, 2023
The union representing 4,000 registered nurses in Maine announced Wednesday that it supports a ballot effort to establish a publicly owned utility. The Maine State Nurses Association said it supports Question 3 because it sees the reliable delivery of electricity as a matter of public health.
MORNING SENTINEL • September 27, 2023
Some Septembers, it’s impossible to imagine anywhere else on Earth with weatherscape more beautiful than central Maine’s. May no fate willfully misunderstand me — that’s all dissolved by January. But in late September, the world balances on a dream of the divine. An autumn day is like a thousand years. ~ Dana Wilde
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 27, 2023
Pine Tree Power, like other municipal and cooperative electric utilities here and across the country, would exist to serve Maine people. It would invest in renewable energy, increased reliability and improved customer service, because this is what Maine people want. Pine Tree Power is our best bet for meeting our state’s climate goals, lowering rates and ensuring more reliable service. Please join us in voting “yes” for Pine Tree Power on Nov. 7. ~ Susan Inches, author, teacher and environmental advocate from North Yarmouth; Wayne Jortner, attorney formerly with Maine’s Office of the Public Advocate
CENTRAL MAINE • September 27, 2023
American chemical companies have to learn it doesn’t pay to keep secrets. DuPont and four other companies have filed to block legal that filings that reveal how much the companies are paying to settle a lawsuit over the contamination of a river with “forever chemicals.” Manufacturers upstream use PFAS, a possible carcinogen, in the making of carpeting and flooring. The case is one of more than an estimated 15,000 claims that have been filed nationwide against DuPont, 3M, and smaller companies for PFAS contamination. The biggest PFAS manufacturers spent four decades suppressing information about the dangers. Now they are paying the price for that secrecy. The massive litigation underway might have been avoided if two of the biggest manufacturers of PFAS had been more forthcoming in the 1970s when they first learned about the health impacts of these forever chemicals. Instead, they suppressed unfavorable scientific research. More than $200 billion dollars later, we know what happened when the tobacco industry did that. PFAS producing companies got themselves into this mess by keeping secrets. Maybe the truth will help set them, and us, free. ~ Nedra Rhonethe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
