In Maine's North Woods, some bird species are increasingly abundant. Scientists aren't sure why

MAINE PUBLIC • March 28, 2024

Amid the bleak reports about a precipitous loss in numbers and types of birds around North America and the rest of the world is a glimmer of hope in Maine's North Woods. A new study has found something unexpected and scientists aren't yet sure how to explain it. 33 out of 47 species showed an increased abundance over 30 years. This is in sharp contrast to findings in the Breeding Bird Survey during the same timeframe. Those showed 35 of the same species declined regionally and across the continent. Despite the widespread increases, 14 bird species show a decline in abundance in the study area.

High Peaks Alliance names new director of engagement

SUN JOURNAL • March 26, 2024

The High Peaks Alliance has named Amanda Laliberte its new director of engagement. She aims to create awareness of the alliance’s ongoing projects, promote membership, and liaise between the community and the association.

State lawmakers consider new mining rules that could open door to lithium mining

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 25, 2024

Environmental groups are divided over proposed new rules that could open the door to lithium mining in Newry. The Board of Environmental Protection adopted provisional rules last month that would allow applicants to get around the state ban on open-pit mining if they can prove to the state’s satisfaction that the mineral extraction they want to do won’t threaten human or environmental health. The Natural Resources Council of Maine told a legislative committee Monday that the preliminary testing requirements and long-term water quality monitoring built into the proposed exemption offer adequate safeguards against contamination. But a previous NRCM lobbyist, Evelyn deFrees, told members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee that the provisional rules don’t go nearly far enough.

A major European nature protection plan stumbles at the final hurdle

ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 25, 2024

A major European Union plan to better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc and fight climate change was indefinitely postponed Monday, underscoring how farmers’ protests sweeping the continent have had a deep influence on politics. The member states were supposed to give final approval to the biodiversity bill on Monday following months of proceedings through the EU’s institutional maze. But what was supposed to be a mere rubber stamp has now turned into its possible perpetual shelving. The Nature Restoration plan is a part of the EU’s European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world’s most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets, and make the bloc the global point of reference on all climate issues.

Plan to extend turnpike through farmland gets slammed before first public meeting

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 25, 2024

Opponents of the planned Gorham Connector gathered at Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook on Monday to voice their objections to the proposed highway spur in advance of the Maine Turnpike Authority’s public presentation on the project starting at 4:30 p.m. Monday in Gorham. Abby King, who lives in Gorham, said, “The Gorham Divider would be an epic mistake that will change the character of Gorham forever.”

Nearly 173,000 Maine customers without power after storm coats the state in ice

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 24, 2024

Nearly 173,000 customers across Maine were still without electricity Sunday afternoon after a powerful storm covered the state in ice. Nearly 200,000 had been without power Sunday morning, but service was restored to some. The early spring snowstorm Saturday – and the ice that accompanied it – brought down trees and power lines in all 16 counties.

Letter: Gorham connector not worth the cost

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • March 24, 2024

Smiling Hill Farm was founded 44 years before the town of Gorham and 94 years before Westbrook. Only 187 dairy farms remain in Maine. In 1954 there were almost 4600. I know the proposed connector will go through the western portion where SHF harvests hay. I am not against progress, unless said progress does not honor the past. We are at a place in this state, as well as in this entire country, when we need to ask ourselves who we are and who we want to become. A Gorham connector will change traffic patterns. I disagree that this is worth the cost. ~ Debra Bickford, Buxton

Maine lobstermen struggle to adapt to new electronic reporting rules. Their licenses are on the line.

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • March 24, 2024

Over the last several years, state and federal regulators started requiring more fishermen to report what they caught, and where. A few years ago, only a portion of harvesters needed to submit that information, and it could be sent in on a piece of paper. Now, all fishermen who harvest 15 species of fish – pogies, scallops, lobster, halibut, mussels, eels and others – have to file their landings electronically. Fishermen in Maine are gradually learning what they’re supposed to do. For lobstermen, adjusting has been particularly hard.

Column: ‘The Green Tunnel’ podcast explores history, culture of Appalachian Trail

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • March 24, 2024

The Appalachian Trail is the most famous and perhaps the most beloved long-distance trail in the world. Affectionately called the “Green Tunnel” for its dense, leafy green forest canopy in spring, summer and early fall, countless hikers from far and wide flock to the trail for recreational enjoyment. Many visit for a few hours, others for several days and even weeks, while some trek the entire 2,198-mile distance between Georgia and Maine over many months. Mills Kelly, a professor of history, is an enthusiastic hiker with a particular affinity for the Appalachian Trail and its rich history, a topic he has researched and written about since 2016. In 2019, Kelly’s investigative work led to developing “The Green Tunnel” podcast, now one of the most popular digital audio programs in the U.S. ~ Carey Kish

Column: Territorial birds sometimes form a flock, letting other species join the group

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • March 24, 2024

Flocking confers two advantages. A flock of birds has lots of eyes to detect predators. Vigilance against predators increases as flock size increases. Flocking also increases food acquisition. Yet another social behavior, mate selection, occurs in these flocks. There are usually an equal number of male and female juvenile chickadees in each flock. Over the course of the winter, the young birds form pair-bonds. In late spring, the flocks break up and the resident male will contract the territory to a smaller territory. ~ Herb Wilson

Marijuana farms are increasingly Chinese-run. Why?

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • March 24, 2024

About half of U.S. states have now legalized recreational use of marijuana, and that has led to an explosion of pot farms in states with cheap land and cheap labor. And many are using workers from China. The workers say they were trafficked to these farms, prevented from leaving and never paid. They're part of a new pipeline of vulnerable Chinese migrants trying to escape China and who are now streaming into the U.S., and they're ending up at at least hundreds of Chinese-run marijuana farms that have popped up nationwide from California to Maine.

The Carter Meadow Road Trail at Sunkhaze leads to a special surprise

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 23, 2024

It’s always hard to turn around on a trail because the next bend beckons. I’m usually hoping for a rare wildlife sighting, like the silver fox glimpsed last weekend. But I’ve never considered stumbling across a community treehouse, standing sentinel at the edge of a peat bog, facing the sunset and flanked by a beaver lodge. But that’s just what I found at the end of Carter Meadow Road at Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge last fall.

Heavy spring snow blankets Maine, putting a damper on Maple Sunday weekend

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 23, 2024

A powerful early spring snowstorm on Saturday blanketed most of Maine with heavy wet snow – more than a foot in northern and mountain areas – and made driving conditions treacherous. The early-spring snowstorm coincided with Maine Maple Sunday weekend, a long-awaited affair for sugarhouses around the state. Many were nonetheless open Saturday.

Bird flu is decimating seal colonies. Scientists don’t know how to stop it

ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 22, 2024

Avian influenza is killing tens of thousands of seals and sea lions in different corners of the world, disrupting ecosystems and flummoxing scientists who don’t see a clear way to slow the devastating virus. The worldwide bird flu outbreak that began in 2020 has led to the deaths of millions of domesticated birds and spread to wildlife all over the globe. This virus isn’t thought to be a major threat to humans, but its spread in farming operations and wild ecosystems has caused widespread economic turmoil and environmental disruptions. Seals and sea lions, in places as far apart as Maine and Chile, appear to be especially vulnerable to the disease.

Committee endorses amended changes to cannabis industry regulations

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 22, 2024

A controversial cannabis bill designed to reduce stigma surrounding the cannabis industry and revise regulations to more closely mirror those for alcohol-related industries is moving forward after substantial revisions. A committee this week voted to endorse the bill, which will now to go the full Legislature for a vote. The industry, which combined brought in about $493 million in Maine last year, was hoping for more sweeping regulatory reforms.

Proposal to give lawmakers final say over Maine’s electric vehicle standards sails through committee

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 22, 2024

State lawmakers are taking the wheel in Maine’s debate over phasing in electric vehicle sales. The Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday unanimously approved legislation declaring EV rules to be the jurisdiction of lawmakers and not the Board of Environmental Protection, an appointed citizen board that rejected a mandate to boost electric and hybrid car sales the previous day. The measure now heads to the House and Senate. An absence of controversy would contrast with thousands of public comments submitted to the board from environmentalists who say Maine must act immediately to curb tailpipe emissions – a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions – and opponents who accused state officials of seeking to impose mandates limiting vehicle choice.

Where have all the mussels gone?

MAINE MONITOR • March 22, 2024

About a decade ago, Blue Hill Bay mussel farmer Evan Young noticed it was getting more and more difficult to harvest mussel larvae — known as spat — needed to grow mussels. Experts believe the shortage of spat is due to warming waters and increased predation on the young shellfish due to green crabs, sea squirts and the like. The wild blue mussels population on the Maine coast has dropped 60 percent since the 1970s, according to a 2017 study. “Whether or not it’s a direct or indirect link between warming waters and mussel spat decline, I don’t think it matters,” said Brian Beals, a marine ecology professor at the University of Maine at Machias and the volunteer director of research at Downeast Institute in Beals. “If it’s direct, that means the mussels are physiologically not capable of coping with warming waters. If it’s indirect, the warming waters have caused predators to increase.”

Lake Auburn sets records for earliest ice-out, least amount of days with ice cover

SUN JOURNAL • March 22, 2024

Lake Auburn set two ominous records last week, marking the earliest ice-out and least amount of days with ice cover since record-keeping began. The records fell in a year in which most of Maine’s lakes and ponds saw very short periods of ice cover due to a mild winter, but that has local water quality experts on guard as spring and summer arrive.

About 100 employees affected as Rumford paper mill makes ‘key operational changes’

SUN JOURNAL • March 22, 2024

ND Paper in Rumford announced Thursday that it is temporarily shutting down one of its papermaking machines, affecting about 100 employees, some of whom were laid off Thursday. In a written statement provided to the media, the company said: “In Rumford, we are reallocating our production capacity to match our customer demand across our manufacturing platform. This change will result in market-related downtime for one of our machines. Approximately 100 employees will be impacted by this decision.”

Opinion: Keep the Allagash wild

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 22, 2024

As a Master Maine Guide for over 45 years, at the Allagash Council meeting, great disappointment washed over me. The people with the power to direct $1.2 million in federal windfall to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway made it clear their focus is adding infrastructure over wilderness enhancement. How would the managers of this famous wilderness river with the clear statute that management should at all times “preserve, protect, and enhance the wilderness character of the waterway” spend this kind of money? For six new buildings inside the restricted zone and a large landing craft with twin 115 horse power motors. I ask the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, Allagash Wilderness Waterway Advisory Board, AWW Foundation and the AWW Supervisor to reconsider their decision to un-wild the Allagash. Times have changed. It’s time for rewilding. ~ Alexandra Conover Bennett, Elliotsville Township