The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 17, 2024
Environmental activists who oppose Maine’s effort to develop an offshore wind terminal on Sears Island are urging the town of Searsport to take their side and push for the project to be moved to nearby Mack Point. While town officials have welcomed the construction of the offshore wind staging site in Searsport, they say they’re neutral on the question of which of the two sites — Sears Island or Mack Point — is better.
NATURAL RESOURCES COUNCIL OF MAINE • April 16, 2024
The Maine Legislature today approved the Maine Trails Bond that would provide $30 million over four years to invest in the design, development, and maintenance of trails statewide. In a strong show of bipartisan support, the House voted 133-6, and the Senate voted 29-3, far surpassing the two-thirds majority votes required to pass bond measures. If signed by the Governor, it will appear on the November ballot for approval by Maine voters. This will be the first time that Maine voters will have an opportunity to vote for a trails bond. At a time when outdoor recreation activities, including on trails, represent a growing segment of Maine’s economy, the Maine Trails Bond has garnered broad, bipartisan support across the state. More than 520 organizations, businesses, and towns have endorsed the Trails Bond.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 16, 2024
In an effort to thwart a legal effort by a Readfield couple to use the Right to Food amendment to overturn Maine’s ban on Sunday hunting, the state of Maine argued that the new amendment did not grant constitutional protection to hunt in our state. Although the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled against the Readfield couple, and held that the Sunday hunting ban was not contrary to the amendment, the court held that the amendment DOES protect legal hunting. In other words, for purposes of the constitutional amendment, as voted by Maine residents in the 2021 referendum, the constitutional word “harvest” includes hunting. ~ V. Paul Reynolds
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 16, 2024
A Texas-based company is suing multiple Penobscot County businesses for a total of nearly $2 million, claiming they did not pay for construction work it did at various solar installations. Ox Services LLC has filed three lawsuits alleging multiple companies were unjustly enriched and violated their contracts by failing to pay for those services. The company provided labor for the installation of solar panels at three locations, attorney Greg Frame said. Ox Services wants a judge to order the companies to pay $1.98 million, plus interest and attorney fees,
NEWS CENTER MAINE • April 16, 2024
When Dave Reidmiller of the Climate Center at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland heard the news recently that the ocean had broken temperature records every day for the past year, even he—an expert on the subject—was taken aback. "'Wow' was probably the first reaction," he said. "This was not great news. And secondly, we also kind of expected it. The science has been telling us now for a couple of decades that these trends are continuing." What has surprised even the experts, though, is how quickly and dramatically ocean temperatures are rising.
MORNING SENTINEL • April 16, 2024
The City Council took a final vote Tuesday to rezone part of 99 Webb Road to allow for a solar farm to be built there. Property owner Leo St. Peter still needs approval from the Planning Board to build the solar farm.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 16, 2024
A law signed by Gov. Janet Mills allows the public to access records about hazardous materials moving along Maine tracks, but only after a derailment or spill. A Portland Press Herald investigation published last year revealed widespread issues with freight rail operations in Maine, including poorly maintained lines, unreported accidents and secrecy around the hazardous materials transported through the state.
TIMES RECORD • April 16, 2024
A pending lease for Ferda Farms, a Brunswick-based oyster farming operation, through the Department of Marine Resources will help the business consolidate its farms and grow its small operation. After a lengthy, three-year process, the department held its first public hearing at Brunswick Town Hall for the application. The DMR said it will make a decision within a few months. The slow timeline of the application has not prevented the farm, which was founded in 2018, from working to grow on a social scale. “Community outreach — you can’t really do enough of it, really,” co-owner Chris Burtis said.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 16, 2024
A multimillion dollar replacement of a failing fishway on a St. Croix River dam will begin next year to reopen 600 miles of sea-run fish habitat. Congress recently awarded $7.8 million for the new fish lift at Baileyville’s Woodland Dam. It is one of several projects on the river aiming to boost the state’s fishing industries by returning populations of fish once common there — particularly alewives.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 16, 2024
The April 9 Maine House vote on L.D. 2266 was a demonstration of democracy in action. A bipartisan decision against changing environmental laws prior to a true alternative analysis, this vote now allows for the offshore wind port effort to move toward development on Mack Point in Searsport. Siting renewable energy must also go hand in hand with preserving natural resources as we address our changing environment. ~ Becky Bartovics, North Haven
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 16, 2024
The Gulf of Maine has the potential to generate half of the electricity our state will need by 2050, triple what we use today. An intentional process begun years ago has brought us to the hopeful point where permitting for the identified staging area on Sears Island must begin. But a bill needed to exempt the project from protecting a small sand dune failed in the Legislature. To say that protecting a small sand dune, created by a jetty, should stop a groundbreaking major project from moving forward is at best foolish. Sea level rise will soon destroy the sand dune anyway. ~ Sam Saltonstall, Brunswick
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 15, 2024
The House rejected the measure last week and will now reconsider the Senate version, which would exempt sand dunes from environmental protection in a bid to advance Maine's drive to generate offshore wind.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 15, 2024
Loggers behind one of Maine’s heritage industries claim the state and its biggest landowners are sharing confidential information about them through a forest certification program. The loggers say the state and forest products group use a certification program to exchange information about them — such as names, locations and potential violations — if they face investigations but have not yet been notified of the probes. Tension between logging contractors and the state forest service along with the influential Maine Forest Products Council has existed for years but flared more publicly in Augusta this month through a bill from Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, a fifth-generation logger.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 15, 2024
“Smart growth” is an approach to community planning that aims to cull the housing sprawl that defined the last half of the 1900s. For decades, rural communities took an “any growth anywhere” approach to housing development that has ended up costing them, Nancy Smith, the executive director of GrowSmart Maine, said. “It’s awfully tempting to say ‘we’ll just take anything’ as rural communities lose their population,” Smith said. “But we need to ensure communities develop and grow in ways that make sense for the long term. All around Maine, sprawl has strained municipal budgets and increased local and state taxes. It has cost communities socially and environmentally, too.
TIMES RECORD • April 15, 2024
Following three days of remarkable spring-like weather, the final three days of our six-day Baxter State Park expedition in the South Branch Pond region was dominated by challenging weather. On day four, six of us awoke in the South Branch bunkhouse to a rainy forecast. After enjoying exceptional mountain hikes during the previous two days, low-elevation treks were our choice. The 11-mile ski to the Matagamon winter trailhead was the culmination of another exceptional Baxter State Park expedition. Despite inclement weather during the second half of the outing, we managed to make lemonade out of a lemon. ~ Ron Chase
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 15, 2024
There’s a lot more to Earth Day than just picking up garbage. Sure, cleanup days in parks, beaches and green spaces are still a big part of the 54-year-old event. But over the years, Earth Day has evolved into a celebration of all the ways people can enjoy nature, and the many ways they can help to preserve it. So, in southern Maine this weekend, you’ll find Earth Day family celebrations with food, music and demonstrations of eco-friendly gadgets like electric bikes or electric lawnmowers. You’ll also find hikes and nature walks and, yes, lots of cleanups to join.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 15, 2024
We’re already experiencing the impacts of climate change. What’s needed is individual action toward a collective solution: an economy-wide price on pollution. The U.S. is the only major economy left on earth without a fee for polluting. Need to burn something and vent the exhaust? No problem, future generations will pick up the tab! That’s what needs to change. The best part is when we put a price on pollution like Canada did with its carbon fee and dividend law, it unleashes the power of the economy to find the most cost-effective ways to cut carbon while raising net incomes for most families. It’s a win-win all around. ~ John O’Bryan, Brunswick
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • April 14, 2024
Fifteen years ago in 2009, then-Gov. John Baldacci’s Ocean Energy Task Force formally reported on the promise of wind to supply energy to Maine and to make it a “net energy exporter.” Due to relentless foot-dragging and other obstructionism, we have not even begun to realize that vision. The longer this kind of unproductive and complacent zig-zagging continues, the longer we squander the high-quality wind that blows in the Gulf of Maine. Maine simply can’t afford to continue like this, economically or environmentally. There is no perfect location for an offshore wind turbine port. Years have passed since the development of this industry was first mooted and still, despite knowing better, we are running down the clock. These hard realities should make people who continue to stand in the way of obligatory progress think twice.
TIMES RECORD • April 12, 2024
The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust is set to close a deal Friday, April 12, to purchase 25 acres at 262 Pleasant Hill Road, reuniting a missing parcel to a historic Brunswick farm. The property, which will be purchased for $2 million, features a historic barn and 25 acres on a swath of historic land once known as Dionne Farm. An anonymous seller acquired the land this past winter and approached the land trust with the offer to sell. The seller granted the organization a two-year private loan, which the trust will need to pay off by April 2026. The property, which is being sold to the land trust below market rate, is located across the street from Crystal Spring Farm, where the land trust’s Saturday farmers market is located. BTLT has several ideas for the land, including new community education programs and land conservation efforts.
SUN JOURNAL • April 10, 2024
By ending the sale of flavored tobacco products, we can take a stand against the tobacco industry's tactics to ensnare the next generation into nicotine addiction. Flavored tobacco is not a benign indulgence; it is a calculated marketing strategy to increase profits, while saddling young people with lifelong consequences to their health and well-being. That is why Maine’s Environmental Priorities Coalition came out strongly endorsing this legislation earlier this year. ~ Kathleen Meil, Maine Conservation Voters
