Interior Department will give tribal nations $120 million to fight climate-related threats

ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 14, 2024

The Biden administration will be allocating more than $120 million to tribal governments to fight the impacts of climate change, the Department of the Interior announced Thursday. The funding is designed to help tribal nations adapt to climate threats, including relocating infrastructure. Indigenous peoples in the U.S. are among the communities most affected by severe climate-related environmental threats, which have already negatively impacted water resources, ecosystems and traditional food sources in Native communities in every corner of the U.S.

Bears are getting active in Maine early this year

WMTW-TV8 • March 14, 2024

Spring conditions have arrived early across much of Maine this year following a relatively mild winter, and bears are getting active earlier than normal, too. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife says black bears are normally most active in Maine from April 1 to Nov. 1, but biologists have already seen sows with yearlings out and about this year. Officials said male bears and solitary females were the first to be up and about, and sows with cubs will soon be active. Biologists say now is the time to remove, store, secure, and clean common bear attractants in your yard.

Stowaway groundhog gets car ride across Portland Harbor

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 14, 2024

An under-the-weather groundhog is now resting peacefully after stowing away beneath the hood of a car and getting a free ride to the far side of Portland Harbor on Wednesday. The rodent was spotted lying listless in the VA Clinic parking lot on Commercial Street. A pair of unnamed humans attempted to corral the buck-toothed furball to safety with a pair of thick gloves and a towel. They succeeded in keeping it away from the busy road, but the groundhog dashed straight for one of their cars, vanishing somewhere under the hood. Unable to find the obviously ill, yet still canny, beast, the car was then driven home, across the Casco Bay Bridge. “Once home, she discovered that the groundhog was in fact… still there.” Cape Elizabeth Animal Control Officer Maggie Maxwell was able to coax the recalcitrant, rough-looking animal out of its hiding place in one of the car’s wheel wells.

Clean Car standards a great opportunity for Maine

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • March 14, 2024

Maine has a chance to continue progress on climate action with a new emissions standard that would clean up pollution from transportation, our most polluting sector. Climate change is here, and we have to respond to it. Recent storms have shown this in no uncertain terms. Advanced Clean Cars II would help by reducing fuel costs for drivers, lowering the upfront cost of zero-emission vehicles, and switching from fossil fuels to clean energy. Join me in supporting the adoption of Advanced Clean Cars II. ~ Karen Francomano, Augusta

Hunting woodchucks with a handgun requires stealth and patience

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 14, 2024

Using my backpack as a rest while I lay prone on the ground, I took careful aim with my .44-caliber black powder handgun. Boom! As the smoke cleared, I could see that the chuck was gone. Approaching the hole slowly, the answer was clear. It was a clean miss. There are typically three “seasons” to hunt woodchucks: early spring, after the first hay cutting around June, and after the second cutting in August or September. Traditionally, woodchuckers have used long guns that reach out hundreds of yards, but there’s much more of a challenge to a handgun since getting close to them is essential. Although woodchucks are quite edible (they are almost pure vegan), I have never eaten one, but those who have say the meat is somewhat similar to lamb. ~ Leighton Wass

Invasive bug expected to kill more than half of Portland’s ash trees

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 13, 2024

An infestation of the invasive emerald ash borer is wreaking havoc on the Portland’s 600-or-so inventoried ash trees, and officials expect hundreds will die. Many other ash trees will be cut down in an effort to keep the devastating insects from spreading. “It’s a tough pill to swallow,” said Portland City Arborist Mark Reiland. “And a lot of the ash trees were planted to replace elms wiped out in the 1970s by Dutch elm disease.”

A Massachusetts town built a giant sand dune for storm protection. It lasted 3 days.

ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 13, 2024

Salisbury trucked in 14,000 tons of sand at a cost of $600,000 to protect homes and infrastructure. It was all washed away in the first storm. Congress has long appropriated money for such work, arguing it effectively protects lives and property and sustains the tourism industry. But critics say it’s inherently wasteful to keep pumping sand ashore that will inevitably wash away. Climate change is forecast to bring more bad weather, including hurricanes.

At least 2 people, dog rescued after breaking through ice in Fairfield

MORNING SENTINEL • March 13, 2024

At least two people fell through the ice on a small pond off Middle Road Wednesday night while trying to rescue two dogs, one of which had broken through the ice and was in the water. The people, who were pulled into canoes before emergency crews arrived, declined to be taken to the hospital and one dog is believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries.

Activists say Maine public workers’ retirement system is failing to divest from fossil fuels

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 13, 2024

A coalition of youth climate activists and former government employees is calling out the system that oversees how to invest the retirement funds of Maine’s teachers, judges, municipal workers and other public employees, saying it has not done enough to divest its holdings in fossil fuel companies. A first-in-the-nation law that the Legislature passed in 2021 ordered the state pension fund, known as MainePERS, and Maine’s treasurer to divest all holdings in fossil fuel companies by Jan. 1, 2026. MainePERS has said that it cannot meet the 2026 deadline because it violates the system’s fiduciary duty, outlined in the Maine Constitution.

It will cost more than $5M to repair Maine trails damaged in recent storms

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 13, 2024

A survey released Wednesday by the Maine Trails Coalition showed that trail repairs from storm damage in 2023 and 2024 will cost at least $5.2 million. The impact on trails is statewide. Severe rain and wind storms in December and January caused damage to multiple snowmobile, ATV and hiking trails, in addition to other infrastructure including power lines and poles across the state. The repair costs are expected to rise. Some of those surveyed said they would not know the true damage until they could assess the trails this spring. In general, they reported major washouts and erosion, damaged, shifted or missing structures like bridges, as well as major and minor blowdowns, plus damage to trailheads and access roads. Maine’s trail systems bring in millions of dollars for the state’s economy.

More of Maine's coast was damaged in Sunday storm

MAINE PUBLIC • March 13, 2024

Two months after back-to-back storms ravaged much of Maine's coast, high winds and waves caused more damage this past weekend. In Surry, Perry's Lobster Company's wharf was entirely washed away Sunday. "It just lifted everything right off the pilings, the spikes, just everything, it broke them right off," owner Seth Cote said. "It was insane, it was throwing boulders up over the road.”

Maine environmental board nears decision on controversial 'clean car' rules

MAINE PUBLIC • March 13, 2024

State environmental regulators are expected to weigh in next week on a controversial "clean cars" proposal for Maine. But some state lawmakers say it should be up to the Legislature to decide on the zero emissions standards. The so-called "clean car" rules are opposed by many Republicans and have become a major issue heading into the election. They would require that roughly half of cars sold in Maine by the model year 2028 are either plug-in hybrids or fully electric. That percentage would increase to 82% of car sales by 2032. The Board of Environmental Protection was originally supposed to decide on the zero-emission standards late last year, but the vote was postponed due to the mid-December storm that knocked out power to tens of thousands of Mainers and flooded riverfront communities.

Maine's public retirement system says 'fiduciary duties' limit divestment from fossil fuels

MAINE PUBLIC • March 13, 2024

The 2021 law called for the Maine Public Employees Retirement System to end future investments in fossil fuel companies, and divest from current holdings by Jan. 2026, "in accordance with sound investment criteria and consistent with fiduciary obligations." At a meeting with lawmakers Tuesday afternoon, MainePERS CEO Rebecca Wyke explained that while some progress has been made in moving away from fossil fuels, fully eliminating those investments would conflict with the system's "fiduciary duties" to pensioners, as laid out in the state constitution.

This Orono forest has a pine tree so enormous it has its own name

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 13, 2024

A massive pine tree sits in a shady forest. One thick, moss-covered branch swoops out from its side, then arcs up, reaching for the heavens. A few feet up, a second large branch sweeps out and up in a similar fashion. High above, bunches of long emerald needles seem to brush the bright blue sky. Meet “Big Old Tree,” the enormous pine that’s featured on the Orono Land Trust logo. The tree is located at Jeremiah Colburn Natural Area, on land that was the catalyst for the formation of the Orono Land Trust.

Surviving fishing gear entanglement isn’t enough for right whales – females don’t breed afterward

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 13, 2024

Scientists estimate that before commercial whaling scaled up in the 18th and 19th centuries, there may have been as many as 10,000 North Atlantic right whales. Today, fewer than 360 individuals remain. Almost 90% of them have been entangled at least once. When whales become entangled, they use extra energy dragging the fishing gear. They may struggle to feed and slowly starve. Ropes wrapped around whales’ bodies can cause infections, chronic emaciation and damage to whales’ blubber, muscle, bone and baleen. Even when entanglement does not kill a whale, it can affect individuals’ ability to reproduce, which is critically important for a species with such low numbers. On Feb. 14, NOAA announced that a female North Atlantic right whale that died had rope deeply embedded in the whale’s tail likely from lobster fishing gear in Maine.

Oil and gas companies emit more climate-warming methane than EPA reports

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • March 13, 2024

The oil and gas industry may be emitting about three-times the amount of climate-warming methane than government estimates show, according to a new study in Nature. Methane is the main component of natural gas, and it is also produced when extracting crude oil. Methane is among the greenhouse gasses heating the planet, and it is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Legislators want final say over Maine’s electric vehicle rules

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 12, 2024

The Legislature’s two top Democrats and a group of minority Republicans want to take control of Maine’s electric vehicle rules. A bill proposed Tuesday would give lawmakers, not a citizen board, the final say on clean car standards meant to curtail vehicle tailpipe emissions, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Jack Shapiro, climate and clean energy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, criticized the new legislation, saying it would overturn consideration of what he called a ‘clean car standard.’”

Column: Woods, words and wanderings in the poetry of Charles Weld

MORNING SENTINEL • March 13, 2024

The book is “Seringo” by Charles Weld is a collection of freely formed sonnets generated from the poet’s excursions in the woods and in Henry David Thoreau’s journals. The two activities bleed over into each other. Which, I have to tell you, is exactly my experience too. It’s not always clear, in memory, whether you’re remembering walking the woods or remembering reading the journals. In “Seringo,” you’re doing both. ~ Dana Wilde

Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust will expand nature programs for students

FORECASTER • March 13, 2024

Additional field trips for elementary school students and outdoor research programs for high schoolers are in store at the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust. The land trust’s education program received a boost from a grant last month to help support its hands-on nature-based science programming for about 1,500 students and 75 teachers in the coming year. The education program is run by Cathance River Education Alliance, which merged with the land trust last summer. The land trust received the $20,000 grant from the independent research and development nonprofit organization Battelle.

Climate action causes more harm than good for Mainers

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 13, 2024

Following a flurry of devastating storms that led to widespread  power outages and flooding in recent months, Maine politicians are posturing for more aggressive action on climate change. State policymakers are fighting the wrong battle: If Maine could flip a switch and eliminate all its carbon emissions tomorrow, it would make no observable or quantifiable impact on local, regional or global climates. It would, however, cause measurable economic harm to the average Maine family. No amount of state-level regulations, mandates, prohibitions, government subsidies or investments can reverse or prevent the weather events that afflicted Maine in recent months. Our first priority should be to protect energy options for all Maine families based on their needs. ~ Jacob Posik, director of legislative affairs at Maine Policy Institute, a free-market think tank