The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BOB DUCHESNE • February 13, 2024
Finches have invaded the North Maine Woods this winter, in a remote area far from city lights. Some of the best birding is in America's wildest area east of the Mississippi. Pine Siskin and White-winged Crossbill numbers are insane this year!
CENTRAL MAINE • February 13, 2024
The PUC is already evaluating utilities in areas many of us ratepayers care about — things like reliability, repair times, billing accuracy and responsiveness. We’ll learn soon enough how the utilities stack up because the PUC will be issuing its first report cards in a few months. A bill before the Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee does nothing more than mess around with a wheel that’s already been invented. It makes sense to me that we first see how the wheel works before we go redesigning it. ~ Ray Hinckley, Manchester
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 13, 2024
Maine biologists are asking people to send them owl pellets as part of a national study. When an owl eats its prey, the parts, such as hair and bones, that it cannot digest gather in its gizzard where they are compacted into a pellet. The owl regurgitates or vomits the indigestible pellet. The owl’s diet includes small mammals, birds, amphibians and invertebrates. Researchers hope to learn more about owl numbers, what they eat and the health of the birds and of their prey.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 13, 2024
My son, Adam, and I planned a climb of Burnt Mountain in Carrabassett Valley on Sunday, Jan. 21. Powerful winds and frigid wind chills were forecast. After some deliberation, we decided to pack for extreme conditions and give it a try. Significant consideration was given to how we dressed and what we selected for gear. Each of us carried snowshoes, microspikes, emergency gear, a down-filled parka and pants, a headlight and spare batteries, energy food, plenty of water and additional layers of clothing. We were prepared to survive the night if necessary. Arriving at the pinnacle, we briefly removed our mitts to take a few quick photos. We spent perhaps two minutes embracing the wonderful views before beginning our return. ~ Ron Chase
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 12, 2024
Winter is a quiet time at Roosevelt Campobello International Park. While wandering the park’s many trails and roads, we didn’t see another visitor all morning. Located on Campobello Island, the 2,800-acre park is jointly administered and funded by Canada and the United States. Earlier that morning, we’d reached it by driving across the long, arching bridge that spans from the small Maine town of Lubec to the island. And at the end of the bridge, we showed our passports to cross the border into Canada. In the late 1800s, Franklin Roosevelt’s parents were among the many wealthy families who summered on the island at grand hotels. They loved Campobello so much that they purchased land and built a cottage. One of the Roosevelts’ favorite activities was picnicking. So it’s fitting that the park features some of the most stunning picnic spots I’ve ever seen.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 12, 2024
A ruling by a lower court justice on the matter of allowing public access at Moody Beach in Wells is heading to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court, says an attorney representing the plaintiffs who want to be able to walk and recreate on the York County beach. Benjamin Ford of the Portland law firm Archipelago said in an interview Monday that the plaintiffs will appeal to the state’s highest court Superior Court Justice John O’Neil Jr.’s Feb. 9 ruling that denied Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s motion for summary judgment and which dismissed the plaintiffs’ motion asserting their right to walk on intertidal lands.
TIMES RECORD • February 12, 2024
Rep. Dan Ankeles said he was inspired to introduce L.D. 2162 after some Brunswick homeowners faced steep property tax hikes last year due to a revaluation that was later delayed. Soaring home values in recent years have resulted in property tax hikes for homeowners across the state. “Rising home values in towns all over Maine are causing big disruptions in how we typically spread our property tax burden, and it’s hitting some Mainers harder than others,” Ankeles said. “For both Maine’s fishing families and for those who own mobile homes, the sharp increase in property taxes due to rising home values and the rising costs of education and local government puts them at risk of losing their homes and their livelihoods.”
MAINE PUBLIC • February 12, 2024
A Superior Court justice has ruled against Maine's attorney general and others in a case seeking to establish public access rights to the intertidal zone on Maine beaches. Beachfront property owners' rights extend to the low tide line. State Attorney General Aaron Frey asked the court to grant the public unfettered rights to walk along the intertidal zone on Maine beaches. Another motion from the public asked the court to modernize allowable uses of the intertidal zone, which current law lists as "fishing, fowling, and navigation." Maine and Massachusetts are the only two states in which the intertidal zone is not considered public land.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 12, 2024
Six businesses across the state will share $6.5 million in grant funding from the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan to support upgrades to the electrical grid. The awards Monday are the latest investment from the state’s allocation of nearly $1 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funds.
• $4 million to Kingfish Maine of Jonesport to build a recirculating aquaculture facility to produce 8,500 metric tons of Yellowtail Kingfish annually
• $1,336,892 to Tanbark Molded Fiber Products of Saco to produce sustainable packaging from Maine pulp
• $993,608 to Maine Plywood USA to open a production facility in Bingham
• $55,000 to Five Pillars Butchery of Unity to construct a halal-certified slaughter and processing facility
• $47,500 to Heiwa Tofu of Rockport for small batch organic tofu
• 42,500 to the Holy Donut of Arundel for craft doughnuts made from Maine-grown potatoes
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 12, 2024
The proposed Wolfden Resources mine project could take away from the natural beauty of the area and could have a negative impact on local wildlife. It would be a bad deal for Maine. We should be doing everything possible to preserve our land. ~ Benjamin Bucklin, Searsport
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 12, 2024
Maine is closing in on picking the location of a large offshore wind port, a move that will be a milestone in reaching state climate goals but will accelerate a thorny political debate over the state’s energy future. An unusual alliance of conservation groups, conservatives and progressives has opposed using the 941-acre island for the wind base. But all signs point to the state choosing Sears Island in Searsport. The state has already noted fewer hurdles regarding costs and construction than nearby Mack Point. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, announced the deepwater port plan in 2021 as a key part of reaching Maine’s goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2040.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 11, 2024
Last year’s heavy rains flushed nearly 374 million gallons of raw storm and sewer water into Casco Bay, including from the devastating Dec. 18 storm that flooded western Maine communities at the upper edge of the watershed. It was the highest annual overflow into the 200-square-mile bay in five years – and that total does not even include the back-to-back January storms that inundated coastal communities with heavy rains, storm surge and damaging waves. Runoff and wastewater already contain high amounts of phosphorous, nitrogen, soot, pesticides and heat – not to mention sewage – that can harm water quality, aquatic life and the local economy. Heavy rains drive up the volume of the overflow, as well as the volume of pollutants.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 12, 2024
Portland plans to start construction on a new waterfront park along Commercial Street within the year, bringing a green space to the area that many say the waterfront has been missing for too long.Ethan Hipple, the city’s director of parks, recreation and facilities, presented detailed plans for the park to the City Council last week. The design features a new, wider section of the Eastern Promenade trail stretching in a half-moon shape around a grassy open space. There will be shade trees, benches, native plants, a performance space and an area for food trucks to park.
MORNING SENTINEL • February 11, 2024
The Planning Board is scheduled Tuesday to consider revisions to the city’s zoning ordinance dealing with solar farms. There are five solar farms in the city and two informal solar farm requests. The City Council requested the Planning Board study the negative visual impacts of large-scale solar arrays and possible methods of mitigation, impacts to wildlife habitats, neighborhoods and outdoor recreational opportunities and runoff and erosion issues.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • February 11, 2024
Town officials are discussing restricting access to the town beach off Beach Road for people who do not reside or pay taxes in Monmouth. The proposed town beach ordinance, the details of which are not yet finalized, would bar nonresidents and nontaxpayers from going to the beach at Cochnewagon Lake unless they purchase a daily or weekly beach pass from the town office.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • February 11, 2024
Jan. 10 and Jan. 13 storms battered Maine’s coastline with heavy rain, flooding, ocean swells, high tides and wind gusts of up to 60 mph. State and federal officials have been trying to get a better grasp of damage up and down the coast. The Maine Emergency Management Agency spent two weeks collecting details of the damage, and the state is now reviewing to understand the full scope. Nearly 1,200 businesses submitted damage reports from both January storms to MEMA that could help the state qualify for federal disaster relief. The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association said its preliminary reporting suggests 60% of Maine’s working waterfront was either severely damaged or destroyed.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • February 11, 2024
A strip of land off Ryefield Street – a so-called paper street – has been the site of weddings, afternoon picnics and play dates for decades. But one island family has filed an ownership claim that others worry could cut the public off. The owners of 1 Ryefield say they have never tried to block anyone from the land and want to create a permanent public easement. They say they filed an ownership claim to the paper street next to their home as part of an agreement with the city to settle a problem with an unpermitted deck.Maine cities and towns were supposed to decide by 1997 whether they would accept paper roads that were recorded in subdivision plans before 1987, but the law allowed them to delay these decisions for a staggering 40 years. As a result, many municipalities, including Portland, have yet to take action on all of them.
MAINE MONITOR • February 11, 2024
Navigating the world of shoreland zoning is complicated on a good day. Now, engineers are trying to draft designs for new wharves, docks and piers that will make the infrastructure less vulnerable to rising seas and stronger storms while still meeting regulations set by communities, the Maine DEP and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. There also are practical constraints, like lobster fishermen who need docks to be at a certain level to be able to unload or load their traps. Many wharfs today are built at six feet above mean high tide, said Kenneth Knauer, a project manager with Prock Marine, but he is recommending upping that to eight feet, given the historic high tides seen in much of the state last month, which topped 14.5 feet in some places.
WASHINGTON POST • February 10, 2024
A study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, is the latest attempt to understand what scientists call the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. Evidence from Earth’s past shows that this crucial and complex ocean system has shut down before, and modeling studies such as Van Westen’s suggest that it could happen again as human greenhouse gas emissions cause the planet to warm. The ocean might be on course for a “tipping point” ending in abrupt and irreversible change.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 10, 2024
Floyd Hardison, 88, drowned after he spent Friday ice fishing with his son and two grandsons on Spring River Lake in Hancock County. After packing their gear, the group was riding back to their parked vehicles about 6 p.m. when the side-by-side ATV that Hardison was riding in broke through the ice. A grandson, who was driving, was able to free himself from the sinking ATV and get onto the ice, but Hardison was unable to get himself out.
