Massachusetts lobstermen drop lawsuit against California aquarium that told people to stop eating lobster

BOSTON HERALD • January 9, 2024

The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has ended its fight against a California aquarium that says people shouldn’t buy and eat lobsterbecause of the risks the fishery poses on the endangered North Atlantic right whale. A federal judge in the Northern District of California on Monday dismissed a class action lawsuit that four Bay State lobstermen filed last March against the Monterey Bay Aquarium after the two sides agreed to end the months-long dispute with prejudice.

Maine won’t pursue Aroostook I-95 extension for now

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 9, 2024

After meeting with residents in Fort Kent, Madawaska and Caribou, a MaineDOT stakeholder group has determined that it would not currently be feasible to extend the I-95 highway from Houlton to the St. John Valley. In a final report submitted to lawmakers this week, the stakeholder group determined that the interstate extension would require a permitting process that would be drawn out over several decades in addition to “insurmountable construction costs.”

New bill would strengthen decades-old law requiring Wabanaki history to be taught in schools

MAINE PUBLIC • January 9, 2024

A bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers wants to strengthen a decades-old law that requires Wabanaki history to be taught in Maine schools. The landmark state law passed more than two decades ago mandates that Maine schools to teach Wabanaki history, economics and culture. But the law had never been fully implemented and the Maine Department of Education largely did not enforce it. A new bill would give schools the push they need by permanently reestablishing the Wabanaki Studies Commission. It also directs the Maine Department of Education to create and fund a training program for teachers on Wabanaki history and culture. The department would review Wabanaki studies curriculum from a sampling of Maine schools every five years.

Jay board gives support for $30 million Maine trail bond

LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • January 9, 2024

The Select Board voted unanimously Monday to support legislative bill LD 1156 that would establish a Maine Trail Bond for outdoor recreation and active transportation. Dozens of towns, organizations and businesses have signed on to support the effort that would establish a $30 million trails bond that would provide grants to support non-motorized, motorized and multi-use trails.

Visitors flock to Augusta to learn about agriculture, food systems

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • January 9, 2024

The Maine Department of Agriculture's annual trade show got underway Tuesday at the Augusta Civic Center. A winter storm delayed the start of the second day of programming to noon on Wednesday.

Column: A jolt of juice for Central Maine Power

DAILY BULLDOG • January 9, 2024

The major argument behind CMP’s bullying barrage to kill public power was that if that proposal passed, the new utility would have had to take on excessive debt to pay for the electric companies’ land, buildings and equipment. CMP repeatedly claimed it would cost $13.5 billion. Even the most ardent supporters of private utilities didn’t believe that figure. In 2022, the Maine Public Utilities Commission estimated CMP and Versant had assets worth $5.4 billion. That’s the property value on which the companies pay taxes. But the consultant CMP hired to dream up its extravagant buyout number decided the utilities would be worth a lot more by the time the sale was completed. If the utilities’ real value is $13.5 billion, they should be paying property taxes based on that amount. But they’re not. Last year, CMP and Versant coughed up about $85 million to municipalities where they have facilities. If we take the higher figure as gospel, then the tax bill should be something approaching $250 million per year. ~ Al Diamon

Rockland couple says housing changes would up odds of landslide

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 9, 2024

A Rockland couple has asked city councilors to exclude their waterfront Samoset Road neighborhood from proposed new zoning rules or scale back the rules, arguing that the changes would increase the likelihood of another landslide like the one that destroyed homes there in 1996. The zoning amendments Rockland is making are partially in response to state legislation passed in 2022, L.D. 2003, which requires municipalities to conform to standards meant to encourage more housing development.

New York Times names Millinocket as a top place to visit in 2024

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 9, 2024

The New York Times named Millinocket as a top place to visit this year for the total solar eclipse, the totality of which will cross a swath of Maine on April 8. The organizers of the annual Millinocket Marathon, led by runner Gary Allen, will host an unusual race dubbed the “Millinockeclipse,” occurring directly during the eclipse. A number of Maine towns are gearing up to host eclipse tourists on April 8, including Houlton’s Eclipse Festival Weekend, set for April 5-8 and featuring music, crafts, food, kid’s events, a bus tour of Aroostook County’s scale model of the solar system and more. Similar events are planned for Caribou, Presque Isle and other County communities.

Pingree, agriculture secretary discuss storm and climate impacts with Maine farmers, loggers

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 9, 2024

Economic losses to Maine’s farming and logging industries have yet to be tallied after last month’s catastrophic wind and rainstorm, but state and federal officials warned Monday that extreme weather events are increasing and efforts to reduce their impact on agriculture and forestry must continue. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack held a roundtable discussion with stakeholders in Portland in the wake of the Dec. 18 storm. Gusting winds and swollen rivers flooded hundreds of homes and businesses, destroyed barns and food-processing facilities, washed-out roads and bridges, and capped a year that wasn’t great for many farmers. “We’re coming out of the season from hell,” said Penny Jordan, co-owner of Jordan’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth.

Earth shatters global heat record in 2023, flirting with warming limit, European agency says

ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 9, 2024

Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was 2.66 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial times. That’s barely below the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit that the world hoped to stay within in the 2015 Paris climate accord to avoid the most severe effects of warming. And January 2024 is on track to be so warm that for the first time a 12-month period will exceed the 1.5-degree threshold.

Experts disagree on how much pesticide is OK in your potatoes

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 9, 2024

A potato industry conference in Presque Isle was the latest battleground in the ongoing war between pesticide proponents and those who say they taint the food supply. Around 225 growers, vendors and agricultural specialists attended the annual Potato Summit on Jan. 3 and 4, held at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle. Proponents say the Environmental Protection Agency delivers stringent testing to render the food supply safe, while those opposed to pesticide use say even a small amount of residue found on a food sample is too detrimental to people’s health to accept.

Column: Stocking Haymock Lake with lake trout flies in face of preserving wild native fish

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 9, 2024

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife recently published a proposal to stock lake trout in Haymock Lake in the Allagash Region. The goal is to increase lake trout numbers to try to reduce nonnative smelt abundance through predation to protect the lake whitefish population. Lake whitefish are in trouble in Maine with around 50 native populations now listed as extirpated. But lake whitefish are not native to Haymock Lake. MDIF&W acknowledges some number of lake trout stocked in Haymock Lake will find their way into Eagle Lake. In addition to the possibility of genetic swamping, stocking has the risk of introducing hatchery-borne diseases, parasites and viruses, as well as non-target species. Removing from consideration a high quality wild native brook trout water that is just 5 years away from State Heritage Fish designation so we can stock lake trout over wild native lake trout to protect introduced whitefish flies in the face of what our top priority should be, the preservation of wild native fish. ~ Bob Mallard

Why downtown Bangor is teeming with crows

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 9, 2024

Another murder of crows has taken up residence in downtown Bangor this winter — and it’s seemingly bigger than last year’s. While crows have gathered downtown on winter nights for years to stay safe, warm and well-fed, there may be more crows around this year. This could be because the species is seeing a population boom after a virus wiped out many crows in recent years, according to Bob Duchesne, vice president of Maine Audubon’s Penobscot Valley Chapter and creator of the Maine Birding Trail.

Moose crashes are rarer than ever in the midcoast — but not impossible

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 8, 2024

In South Thomaston early Thursday evening, a man driving his truck along Spruce Head Road crashed into a roughly 600-pound moose. The man avoided any serious injuries; the moose is on its way to someone’s freezer.

Opinion: We should keep an open mind about the Pickett Mountain mine project

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 8, 2024

Pickett Mountain contains more than a billion dollars worth zinc, copper, silver and gold, according to an Ontario-based mining company. Wolfden Resources Corporation wants to mine for 10-15 years, which it claims would generate $1.4 billion in cash flow. An offshoot would be, according to Wolfden, from 270 to 300 high-paying jobs. The mining firm is petitioning Maine’s Land Use Planning Commission for a rezoning. On Feb 24, LUPC will vote on the rezoning. If Wolfden clears that hurdle, it will face the second regulatory gauntlet, a mining permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Various environmental organizations and two Wabanaki Nation tribes have launched a preemptive strike. There are compelling reasons to at least keep an open mind. If they can operate a mine within Maine’s mining law, they should not be denied simply on the bad environmental record of mining operations in other states. ~ V. Paul Reynolds

Pickup truck breaks through ice on Aroostook lake

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 8, 2024

Two vehicles broke through the ice at Long Lake in Aroostook County on Saturday. Both were removed. Chris Perkins of Fort Fairfield, who witnessed the incident, said he had drilled a hole near where the truck went in and the ice was 2½ inches thick. “I was standing there screaming at him to stop when he headed out,” Perkins said Monday. The driver escaped but within a short time, another pickup and a tractor arrived and attempted to haul the sunken pickup back to shore. Perkins said they “wound up putting the tractor through the ice as well.”

Maine moose are in trouble

BANGOR METRO • January 8, 2024

Maine has the highest population of moose in the lower 48 states, perhaps too high. Nature has a way of correcting over populations, and it’s often not pretty. Predation, disease, and starvation are some of nature’s tools. For moose, the winter tick is today’s main culprit. The balance has swung wildly. A century ago, only about 2,000 moose were left in Maine, due mostly to overhunting. Improved conservation over the ensuing decades allowed populations to rebound. By 2012, the population had exploded to 76,000. As moose and tick populations increased simultaneously, moose began to suffer. Maine’s population remains stable, but the warning signs have become obvious. Calves are dying.

Devastated trails threaten Maine’s snowmobile season

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 8, 2024

With not enough volunteers and very little money, Maine snowmobile clubs are scrambling to reopen or reroute sections of the International Trail System damaged by the fierce wind and rain storm on Dec. 18. It is the fourth major storm in less than a year that has left snowmobile trails with what likely is millions of dollars in damage.

Letter: Time to enforce homeless camp bans

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 8, 2024

Portland is tired of this never-ending homeless drama. Plenty of empty beds are now available at the homeless center. The remaining homeless campers should be ousted and reminded that any new camping site will be immediately broken up by law enforcement. Portlanders want their parks, trails, public spaces and safe city life back without the derelict campers. If campers don’t want to be swept out anymore, they should move to the Great North Woods. ~ Peter Ferrante, Portland

Maine’s first giant battery project set for construction in Gorham

MAINE MONITOR • January 7, 2024

Construction is set to begin this spring in Gorham on one of New England’s largest battery storage projects, a preview of similar ventures that are seen as a missing link for optimizing the region’s growing fleet of solar and wind power plants. Big batteries are considered essential to realizing Maine’s climate goals. Solar and wind are intermittent sources of power. When the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, other sources are needed to make up shortfalls and to balance supply and demand. Today, those holes are largely filled by ramping up natural gas-fired plants. To replace them, the region will need a robust network of electric sponges to soak up renewable energy when it’s available, then discharge it when and where it’s needed.