The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MORNING SENTINEL • October 6, 2023
The Town Council this week gave its OK to using a $47,000 state grant to improve snowmobile trails covering some 40 miles around the Pittsfield area. Plans call for improving the alignment of some trails, installing trail signs and better grooming.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 6, 2023
The parents of Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power have spent 30 times more than their opponents in the fight over Question 3, the item on Maine’s Nov. 7 ballot that would replace the companies with an elected board. Heavy spending by the utilities has been a trend throughout this campaign, but it is an acute problem for Our Power, the group proposing the utility takeover, which has raised only about $1 million. CMP and Versant have swamped them, tossing in almost $32 million for their combined political efforts as of Sept. 30.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 6, 2023
The Appalachian Trail is some 2,200 drenched, sweaty, bug-bitten, frigid, achy – and euphoric – miles up and down and up and down and up and down from Spring Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin. If you think that AT thru-hikers get the formidable energy they need to hike as many as 22 miles a day, with loaded packs, in challenging terrain by eating nutritionally correct diets – heavy on the whole grains, fruit, vegetables and healthy proteins; low on the sugar and salt – you’d be mistaken. Sugar and salt might as well be basic food groups for AT hikers.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 6, 2023
A few things have changed in Williamsburg Forest since I last visited it in 2015. For one thing, it’s managed by a team of women foresters. The 180-acre forest is located in Williamsburg Township, just outside of Brownville, and it features 2.3 miles of interconnecting trails for hiking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. The first big difference I noted was the name. When I first visited the property, it was called Penobscot County Demonstration Forest. That was changed to the simpler Williamsburg Forest in 2022, when the Penobscot County Soil and Water Conservation District and a group of women foresters made numerous improvements to the property. Their goal was to make it a “forest for everyone, managed by women.”
MAINE PUBLIC • October 6, 2023
Maine's two largest electric utilities have spent nearly 44 times more money this year alone than the campaign hoping to convince voters to take over the companies' assets. The campaign committees representing Central Maine Power and Versant Power have spent a combined $17.4 million this year and have been funded exclusively by their parent companies, Avangrid and ENMAX, respectively. Both committees are sitting on $6 million in available cash, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday. By contrast, Our Power, which aims to takeover the utilities and replace them with an nonprofit run by an elected board, has spent just shy of $400,000 and reported $56,000 in cash reserves.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 6, 2023
On a sultry September day, Deane Van Dusen of Biome Care evaluates a small stand of apple, ash and birch trees at the Tarr-Eaton farmhouse in Harpswell Neck. “This is where the worst infestation is," he says as he circles the stand of trees to find Tatarian honeysuckle. This large stand has probably been growing here for 40 years, and he will use a treatment to kill the shrubs. He says the honeysuckle, left unchecked, will take over this grassy field and those beyond it that provide habitat for birds such as the bobolink and eastern meadowlark, food for wild animals like foxes and rabbits, and native milkweed for monarch butterflies. Van Dusen, a licensed master applicator, saws the woody shrubs down to stumps and then mixes a 50/50 solution of Triclopyr and water to paint on the stumps. Honeysuckle, introduced as ornamentals in the late 1800s, now threaten much of Maine's ecosystem. Conservationists say it's up to all landowners to be vigilant to stop their spread.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 6, 2023
As a longtime advocate for employers and a healthy Maine economy, the Pine Tree Power proposal frightens me. The idea of the government taking over any private company smacks of developing countries nationalizing their industries. What next? Imagine politicians taking over FedEx because a small group of people experienced late deliveries. If this hostile attempt to take over Central Maine Power and Versant Power succeeds, Maine’s reputation as a place to do business will be seriously harmed. Our Public Utilities Commission already can effectively regulate the companies that distribute the electricity. With Pine Tree Politicized Power, all we would get is an electric company at public expense operated by some outside vendor. ~ Tony Payne, Yarmouth [Senior Vice President, Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company]
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 6, 2023
Central Maine Power and Versant Power have no incentive to help Mainers reduce our energy consumption. To the contrary, they are legally required to maximize profits for their shareholders. It makes no sense to have private corporations running our electrical utilities. I want a utility that prioritizes my family, my community and my state, not a utility that prioritizes its foreign shareholders. That’s why I’m proudly voting “yes” to establish Pine Tree Power, a utility owned by the people of Maine, to work for all of us. ~ Nick Fuller, Biddeford
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 6, 2023
On Nov. 7, Mainers have the opportunity to vote on Question 3 — in my opinion the most significant referendum proposal we’ve ever voted on. I urge my fellow Mainers to oppose this takeover of our power grid. Not only will this proposal cost Maine ratepayers an estimated $13.5 billion to complete the takeover, but it will likely be held up in court for years. How many improvements to the reliability of our electricity grid could be postponed because of this litigation? ~ Trisha White, Piscataquis County Treasurer, Guilford
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • October 5, 2023
Six months after four controversial ordinance proposals were sidelined in West Gardiner, voters approved them Thursday night at a special town meeting. With no zoning other than what state law requires, no planning board, no requirement for building permits and a comprehensive plan that dates back more than three decades, West Gardiner has been facing the same development pressures as its central Maine neighbors, but without the growth regulations adopted in other communities. Residents voted for a ban on new, large-scale solar energy systems, while allowing families and businesses to install small systems for their own use.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 5, 2023
Millions of dollars are being poured into a statewide ballot initiative asking Maine voters to decide who should deliver electricity to customers in Maine. Maine voters on Nov. 7 will weigh in on Question 3, An Act to Create the Pine Tree Power, a publicly-owned utility. If Question 3 is approved, Pine Tree Power would take over the assets of Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power. Pine Tree Power would be run by a 13-member board. Maine Affordable Energy, which opposes a publicly-owned power company in Maine, pulled in $3 million in the latest quarter, while Our Power raised $213,000 in the period that ended Oct. 5.
LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • October 5, 2023
Farmington Selectmen on Sept. 26 voted to support a letter coming out against the national wildlife refuge being proposed in northern Franklin County. Commissioner Bob Carlton of Freeman Township, former state senator Tom Saviello [R] of Wilton, Tom Cote of Farmington and others got together to “oppose this top down approach.“ Maine’s congressional delegation has written to USFWS stating Maine will work on something on its own, Saviello said. Gov. Janet Mills [D] is also against it.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 5, 2023
The Presumpscot Regional Land Trust, with help from the town of Windham and local landowners, has conserved 700 acres in east Windham. The forested parcel is now part of a 2,000 acre conservation area, the largest in southern Maine. The 700 acre parcel connects to 1,300 protected acres in Falmouth. The new East Windham Conservation Area will create the largest wildlife habitat and trail network in greater Portland, the land trust said.
BETHEL CITIZEN • October 4, 2023
On Sept. 25 a significant conservation easement protecting the 2,670-acre Shelburne Valley Forest and 1,030-acre Bald Cap Peak Forest, collectively known as the Mahoosuc Highlands Initiative conserved 3,700 acres. Both properties are now owned by The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests as a permanently protected forest reservation. The property consists of diverse riverine habitats, including cranberry bogs, red spruce swamps, silver maple floodplain forests, as well as talus slopes and cliffs helping to support a healthy black bear population.
TIMES RECORD • October 4, 2023
Demonstrators have been stationed outside L.L. Bean's flagship retail store for weeks, calling for the company to discourage Citibank from investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure or divest from them entirely. L.L. Bean partners with for their Bean Bucks Mastercard program. Citibank invested the second-largest amount between 2016 and 2022, topped only by JP Morgan Chase — $332 billion. Jason Sulham, manager of public affairs at L.L. Bean, said Citibank is “helping to increase the scale of our environmental initiatives. As such, we believe it is decidedly a net positive for our stakeholders that no current alternative can provide.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 4, 2023
Lawyers argued Wednesday morning before the Maine Supreme Judicial Cour t whether Maine’s 140-year-old Sunday hunting ban is now unconstitutional based on the 2021 right-to-food amendment. Much of the argument from both sides came down to the interpretation of the word “harvest” as it appears in the new amendment. In the amendment, “harvest” is surrounded by words referencing agriculture, not hunting, Assistant Attorney General Paul Suitter said. The word commonly refers to gathering crops, and Mainers were assured the amendment would not change hunting laws by lawmakers who introduced it. Maine’s Legislature can update hunting laws to create any changes it wants, and has done so numerous times. In May, the Legislature rejected four bills to allow Sunday hunting.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • October 4, 2023
The state’s highest court heard arguments Wednesday on whether Maine’s longstanding ban on Sunday hunting violates the state Constitution. A Readfield couple, Virginia and Joel Parker, filed a lawsuit last year claiming the 140-year-old Sunday hunting ban violates the “right to food” amendment to the Maine Constitution voters approved in 2021. The lawsuit, which was dismissed by a Superior Court justice, was appealed to the state Supreme Court, which took up the matter. Pamela Lee, representing the Parkers, said, “The Superior Court erred in dismissing the Parkers’ claims. Because under a straightforward reading of this new constitutional amendment, Maine’s statutory ban on Sunday hunting is unconstitutional as applied to those who hunt for food.” Paul Suitter, an assistant attorney general, countered that state officials were clear, when the new amendment was adopted into law, that it would not invalidate any existing state hunting or fishing laws.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 4, 2023
The Natural Resources Council of Maine announced Wednesday that it’s backing a statewide ballot measure that calls for a public utility to replace Central Maine Power and Versant Power. Rebecca Schultz, senior advocate of Maine’s most well-known environmental advocacy group, said in an email that the public utility, known as Pine Tree Power, “offers our best chance to advance the clean energy transition with the accountability, creativity and collaboration necessary to keep costs as low as possible.” The ballot measure will be decided on Election Day on Nov. 7.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 4, 2023
A growing number of community groups are concerned about LS Power Grid Maine’s plans to construct a high-voltage transmission power line through 140 to 160 miles of Maine land, affecting thousands of residents’ property and quality of life. This project was approved by the Maine Legislature in June, without knowledge of the specific transmission line route. Instead of taking the opportunity for a respectful process and well-thought-out project, hundreds of Maine residents feel betrayed and very badly used. The land designated for this is mostly privately owned and used for farming, logging, fishing, hunting, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, hiking and simply enjoying the views from residents’ homes. The land is rich in a large variety of bird species, fox, coyote, rabbit, bobcat, deer, bear and the occasional moose. Many dairy and agricultural farmers have stated that the line through their property will destroy their livelihood. ~ Sharon Sprague, Concerned Citizens of Corinth
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • October 4, 2023
in 2004, a first-of-its-kind study had just been released assessing the status of the world's least understood vertebrates. Now, a second global assessment of the world's amphibians has been completed. the study found that the status of amphibians globally is "deteriorating rapidly," earning them the unenviable title of being the planet's most threatened class of vertebrates. Forty-one percent of the assessed amphibians are threatened with extinction in the immediate and long-term, a greater percentage than threatened mammals, reptiles and birds.
