The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 10, 2024
Jan Ames Santerre, Project Canopy director for the Maine Forest Service, will talk about managing Belfast’s legacy trees in a free Belfast Garden Club program on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at noon in the Abbott Room at the Belfast Free Library.
SUN JOURNAL • January 10, 2024
The Onion Foundation has appointed Rosalind Erwin to serve as its environment program officer. The Kennebunk woman will lead the Environment Program, which focuses on equitable outdoor access, nature learning, and advocacy and movement building. Susan Onion, co-founder of the foundation, said, “With her 12 years of philanthropic experience, Roz will take the lead in our work to build a stronger environmental sector with the goal of increasing access to and enjoyment of the state’s natural resources.”
MAINE PUBLIC • January 10, 2024
A 3,000-acre swath of forest that had been eyed for a subdivision near Moosehead Lake has been permanently conserved. Scammon Ridge is a highly visible, scenic property that contains Prong Pond, a popular fishing hole, and sensitive habitats for migrating birds and cold-water fish, as well as moose, bear, deer and lynx. But 40-acre lots that were planned for the area. Karin Tilberg, president of the Forest Society of Maine, says the Scammon Ridge conservation effort is significant because of growing development pressures in the Moosehead region and because the approved developable lots on the parcel at the edge of Maine's North Woods are now extinguished.
BETHEL CITIZEN • January 10, 2024
Meryl Kelly logs about 150 miles a week taking orders, picking them up at farms and delivering to restaurants and customers in western Maine.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 10, 2024
Climate-altering pollution from greenhouse gases declined by nearly 2% in the United States in 2023, even as the economy expanded at a faster clip, a new report finds. The decline, while “a step in the right direction,” is far below the rate needed to meet President Biden’s pledge to cut U.S. emissions in half by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
BLOOMBERG • January 10, 2024
The long-term trend, especially in the normally colder parts of the U.S. and other countries, is one of warmer winters with less of the white stuff. Why does snow matter? For one thing, people pay good money to play in it for some reason, generating billions of dollars in economic activity. Its melting provides water for drinking and agriculture in summer months when it’s needed most. A cold, snowy winter keeps mosquitoes and other dangerous bugs in check while keeping some other plants and animals alive. It shortens the pollen season for allergy sufferers. Snow protects winter crops, and cold helps fruit and nut trees. Meanwhile, a hotter planet means more air conditioning in the other seasons, offsetting some of the benefit of less heating in the winter. ~ Mark Gongloff
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 10, 2024
The newspaper’s update on Nordic Aquafarms fish farm, (“Nordic reaffirms commitment to $500 million Belfast fish farm,” Jan. 2) asks whether Nordic is redesigning the project altogether to avoid future hurdles. Good idea. Nordic could start by moving to an existing industrial infrastructure, instead of destroying 55 acres of mature forest, wetlands and wildlife habitat. And, where its massive power needs wouldn’t need a ratepayer-funded grid expansion. And, where the city of Belfast wouldn’t seize private property with a dubious eminent domain action. Yes, redesigning Nordic’s ill-conceived plan would help, but sometimes a project should just be scrapped altogether. ~ Lawrence Reichard, Belfast
Maine is home to the only remaining populations of wild Atlantic salmon in the U.S. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has worked with partners to remove a perched culvert near the A.T. and restore aquatic habitat in Henderson Brook, a priority tributary to the West Branch of the Pleasant River for Atlantic salmon recovery. The project is helping rescue the species from the brink of extinction and providing access to valuable rearing waters that have been blocked for decades. (7 minuted video)
Nearly forty environmental, conservation, and public health organizations in Maine’s Environmental Priorities Coalition (EPC) have identified a slate of priority bills for 2024 that will advance climate action, further environmental justice, protect biodiversity and the environment, and cultivate healthy Maine communities. Join them on Thursday, January 18, from 8-9:30 AM at the State House in Augusta to learn more about the issues the EPC groups will be advocating for in the coming months.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 9, 2024
Minority Republicans in the Legislature promised Tuesday to make a campaign issue this fall of electric vehicles, insisting that voters should decide whether state legislators, appointed environmental officials – or anyone – should remake private transportation in Maine. A top Democratic lawmaker also opposes the EV rule sought by the environmentalists’ petition, but he supports the use of EVs. Senate President Troy Jackson “supports the use of electric vehicles and policies that help our state respond to the very real health, economic and environmental threats posed by climate change.” However, the technology and a sufficient number of charging stations do “not exist equitably” in Maine and Jackson, D-Aroostook, prefers an approach that incentivizes Mainers to make the switch “as opposed to mandating it.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
