Column: Being a hard-core birder has its risks

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 18, 2024

Hard-core birding is an action-packed adventure. I realize non-birders think birding is a passive activity, requiring less effort than, say, knitting. Non-birders have never charged off in search of a rarity that just appeared on the other end of the state. They’ve never driven forested back roads, paddled secret marshes or clung to the rail of a puffin boat. I spend most of my time doing something. I need to spend more time doing nothing. I’ll call it sit-birding. Bring a chair, and let the birds do all the work. I guess I’ve already started. I brought a chair to the hawk-watch on Cadillac Mountain in September. I brought a chair to the Sea Watch at Schoodic Point in October. Truth is, there are a lot of places in Maine to just sit and watch birds. ~ Bob Duchesne

Maine lawmakers call for global treaty to curb fossil fuel use, slow climate change

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 18, 2024

A divided Maine House voted Thursday to call on the federal government to slow climate change by joining a global treaty to curb fossil fuel use. House members supported the resolution in a 74-55 vote after more than an hour of debate. Democrats were united in support of the resolution while Republicans voted against it. Rep. Daniel Sayre, D-Kennebunk, said during the House debate. “We have robust evidence from this past week alone of what happens when rising water levels and stronger storm surges reach our shores. The economic and personal devastation to Mainers is real.” Several Republican representatives said climate change has always been part of earth’s evolution and is not something to worry about.

Coalition of 34 climate, health groups announce legislative priorities for 2024 session

MAINE MORNING STAR • January 18, 2024

A coalition of 34 climate, conservation and public health organizations announced their agenda for the 2024 legislative session Thursday, backing six bills the groups believe will help protect Maine’s ecosystems while also promoting environmental justice. The Environmental Priorities Coalition unveiled its slate of legislation at a State House event Thursday with allied lawmakers and advocates. 

Environmental Priorities Coalition announces 2024 priority legislation • January 18, 2024

The Environmental Priorities Coalition, nearly 40 environmental, conservation, and public health organizations in Maine, advocates for a shared set of priority bills. On Thursday, the EPC announced its priorities for the 2024 legislative session:
→ LD 993: Secure the future of forests in Maine
→ LD 1215: End the sale of flavored tobacco products
→ LD 1537: Protect Maine’s landmark PFAS products law
→ LD 1621: Advance environmental justice for all
→ LD 2007: Recognize tribal self-determination
→ LD 2077: Rethink natural gas to protect health, climate, and ratepayers

Portland group wants to save rats at Harbor View Memorial Park

CBS 13 • January 18, 2024

The city of Portland is working to remove the rats at Harbor View Memorial Park by way of traps and rat poison. The recent infestation follows the clearing of a homeless encampment at the park earlier this month. There is now a group of people trying to save some of the rats. People are speaking out against the move, arguing more than half of the rats are domesticated or pet rats that got loose at the camp and can be kept as pets. The group advocating for the rats said the city’s approach of using poison not only harms the rats, but the surrounding environment as well.

Letter: Sears Island is a major natural resource

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 18, 2024

Sears Island is a major natural resource for this area, providing critical wildlife habitat above and below the tideline. Mack Point is an existing industrial site that is also highly suitable for this project, just a stone’s throw across the water. Having worked in coal-fired power plants and on Maine islands, I agree we need a broader renewable energy portfolio. But why would we choose to bulldoze and backfill at least 100 acres of forest and shoreline when there is an existing, underutilized, industrial port just next door? At either site, the noise, light pollution, and visual impacts of a roughly 800-foot crane and over 800-foot turbines would be massive for neighbors like me. The decision-makers don’t live here and don’t seem to have shown up for any local public meetings on this issue. Perhaps they don’t grasp the level of support for saving Sears Island that, refreshingly, spans across political lines. ~ Kevin Jerram, Stockton Springs

Maine’s beaches and coastal parks took a beating last week. Will they recover?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 18, 2024

From York County to Washington County, Maine’s beaches and coastal parks – a signature element of the state’s appeal – took a beating last week from two major storms that were compounded by astronomically high tides. State officials say it’s too early to tell how well those damaged areas will recover by spring and summer, when they will welcome tens of thousands of visitors, or whether any damage will be long-lasting.

Opinion: Offshore wind for Maine? Yes. On Sears Island? No.

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 18, 2024

Wind power is reliable and clean. Done responsibly, offshore wind development can better public health, protect wildlife, improve energy security, and provide local, family-sustaining jobs to Mainers. Sierra Club strongly supports the safe and responsible development of offshore wind projects that avoid and minimize impacts on ecosystems and wildlife. We support Mack Point as the preferred alternative for the development of an offshore wind facility in Searsport, and not Sears Island. the State and project proponents have not presented evidence that they have done due diligence in analyzing the two sites, particularly in considering Sears Island as a potential site for this project. Sears Island is an undeveloped, natural area which should not be developed for this purpose when an existing industrial site is available nearby. ~ Pete Nichols, Sierra Club Maine

Curbing stress and anxiety could be as simple as going outside

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 18, 2024

It’s not a regulated or licensed form of mental health therapy, but the field of “ecotherapy” is gaining ground not only across the country but also here in Maine. Its practitioners advise clients to get outside and connect with nature as part of an overall treatment plan. Based on the idea that people are connected to, and impacted by the natural world, ecotherapy — also called “green” or “nature” therapy — centers on the positive connections between humans and the natural world. This can mean regular outdoor sessions with a licensed therapist or simple exercises practiced by individuals on their own.

Down East hatchery recovering after it killed 170K fish due to virus

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 18, 2024

The Downeast Salmon Federation is waiting for new equipment that should prevent an infection like the one last fall that made it necessary to kill all 170,000 fish in its Peter Gray Hatchery in East Machias. The fish had tested positive for infectious pancreatic virus in late September during a routine hatchery disease screening. The virus occurs naturally in Maine water from other species of fish or birds, Dwayne Shaw, executive director of Downeast Salmon, said in. The new equipment includes water filters to take out silt and sediment before it enters the hatchery, and an ultraviolet light system to kill anything that sneaks through the filtration. Downeast Salmon has been working for more than 30 years to help restore Maine’s wild salmon population in Washington County waterways.

Why many storm-damaged coastal Maine homes won’t be eligible for relief

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 18, 2024

Maine has more second homes than any other state in the country, and a large chunk of them are in the coastal towns damaged by last week’s historic flooding. This has major implications, since second homes are ineligible for a major relief program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that only supports the repair or replacement of owner-occupied homes that serve as primary residences. People do not regularly live in more than one-fifth of the homes across Maine, according to 2020 Census data.

Acadia National Park receives $1 million grant to install solar panels and EV chargers

MAINE PUBLIC • January 17, 2024

Acadia National Park is receiving a $1 million dollar federal grant to install rooftop solar panels and a dozen electric vehicle charging stations at its McFarland Hill headquarters campus in Bar Harbor. The National Park Service is in the midst of constructing a new 32,000 square foot LEED silver facility at the site. The solar panels are expected to move Acadia toward net-zero emissions by generating more than 50% of the new facility's energy use.

With fishermen’s case, the Supreme Court wrestles with the power of federal regulators

ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 17, 2024

Conservative Supreme Court justices on Wednesday voiced support for weakening the power of federal regulators, but it was not clear whether a majority would overturn a major 40-year-old decision. The court heard three and a half hours of arguments in two challenges brought by commercial fishermen to a fee requirement, though the facts of their cases were barely discussed in the courtroom. Instead, the focus was on whether the court should overturn the 1984 case colloquially known as Chevron, which courts have relied on to uphold a wide range of regulations, including on the environment, public health, workplace safety and consumer protections.

State lawmakers push passenger rail service for central Maine

SUN JOURNAL • January 17, 2024

There’s a new push among state lawmakers to extend passenger rail service to Lewiston, Waterville and Bangor. Two state senators, Democrats Peggy Rotundo of Lewiston and Joe Baldacci of Bangor, filed a joint proposal this week with the Legislature’s Transportation Committee to create an all-encompassing plan for passenger rail service to the region.

Opinion: Going solar is not only possible, but essential to Maine’s energy future

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 17, 2024

Maine has an opportunity to implement new policies to make it easier for people to go solar. Interconnecting solar to the grid can be difficult, but it yields immense benefits, including helping our state reach its climate and decarbonization goals, allowing Mainers control over their long-term energy costs and creating tangible economic and environmental benefits for all Mainers, such as reducing energy supply and transmission costs. I believe our current grid has ample opportunity to interconnect distributed energy resources like solar. To do this work, we need predictable and transparent utility processes, enforcement of the rules on the books and new requirements that enable us to utilize batteries to increase interconnection capacity. ~ John Luft, ReVision Energy

Letter: More is needed to save climate

CENTRAL MAINE • January 17, 2024

Economists agree on few things, but one near-consensus view among top economists is that attaching a pollution fee to the price of carbon fuels will supply the necessary economic incentive to shift our economy away from CO2-emitting fuels to green renewables, and thus reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to avoid a catastrophic future. ~ Cynthia Stancioff, Camden

Twin storms flattened many of Maine’s sand dunes, leaving towns more vulnerable

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 17, 2024

Some beaches in southern Maine lost up to 30 feet of dunes from the twin storms that wreaked havoc on the coast last week, according to early estimates. The two storms that hit Maine on Wednesday and Saturday caused massive flooding to low-lying areas that damaged homes, docks, roads and boats. The storms also dramatically eroded some of the natural and human-made barriers that protect those areas from the ocean, leaving them more vulnerable to the second of the two storms on Saturday and to future weather events.

9 lovely trails for a snowy walk in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 17 2024

There’s no more beautiful time to go walking in the Maine woods than after snowfall, when everything is covered in a blanket of white. The tracks of woodland creatures, pressed into the frozen carpet, tell stories of their travels, and the smallest breeze sends snowflakes into the air, where they sparkle in the sun. Here are nine trails in Maine that are great for enjoying the snow.
• Unity College Forest in Unity
• Moose Point State Park in Searsport
• Kebo Mountain in Acadia National Park
• Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson
• Good Will-Hinckley Trails in Fairfield
• Rolland F. Perry City Forest in Bangor
• Trenton Community Trail in Trenton
• Birdsacre in Ellsworth
• Dead River Trail in Orland

Challenging whitewater isn’t Cathance River’s only attraction

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 16, 2024

Well-known in paddling circles for its Class III through V creeking, the Cathance River in Topsham is one of the more popular and challenging whitewater rivers in Maine. The Cathance River Trails provide a stimulating hiking alternative. The Cathance River Trails are located in the Cathance River Nature Preserve and Head of Tide Park. Developed and managed by Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust in concert with the town of Topsham and Highland Green Retirement Community, more than nine miles of trails weave along the river and through the surrounding area.