The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
SUN JOURNAL • May 5, 2024
Looking to start a pollinator-friendly garden? Start small and keep it simple, says certified master gardener Rhyanna Larose of Auburn. Oh, and make it fun. Pollinators are insects and animals such as bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, birds, flies and even small mammals, including bats. It’s important to feed them because “one out of every three bites of food you eat exists because of pollinators,” according to the park service.
SUN JOURNAL • May 4, 2024
If you enjoy the outdoors and wild things, you must get yourself in the turkey woods early in the morning during spring mating season. The Maine turkey season opened on April 27 with Youth Day and followed with the general opener on Monday, April 29. You have until June 1 to harvest your birds. If you hunt in the southern wildlife management districts, you can take two bearded turkeys during the season. ~ V. Paul Reynolds
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 3, 2024
The Cadillac Mountain Summit Road will be closed while Acadia National Park repaves the roadway. The closure will start on Monday, May 6, at 6 a.m. Access will be restored on Thursday, May 9, at 8 a.m., provided the weather conditions allow construction work. Access will be restricted to all vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians during the paving and striping process. Acadia National Park also warns visitors that other sections of the Park Loop Road will experience single-lane closures throughout the summer tourist season. Delays should be expected.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 3, 2024
As disease-ridden ticks become more numerous and widespread in Maine, many veterinarians are suggesting that dog owners invest in both a canine Lyme vaccine and some form of tick preventative treatment year round. In recent years, these anti-tick treatments have been refined and improved, offering dogs better protection against tick-borne infections that can cause serious complications and even death.
MAINE PUBLIC • May 3, 2024
Maine's municipal public water utilities are required by the Safe Drinking Water Act to provide inventories of their lead service water lines to the state this year, and replace them with the help of federal funding. The Environmental Protection Agency is awarding up to $28 million a year to Maine for five years to help public water systems identify and replace lead service lines. The federal government said 40% of the funding must go to disadvantaged communities.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 3, 2024
A Portland man has filed a second lawsuit against the city challenging rules that require dogs to be leashed in Baxter Woods at times. Marc Lesperance says in a lawsuit that the city’s restrictions on unleashed dogs in the popular 32.5-acre park in Deering Center go against what former Maine Gov. Percival Baxter intended. He is asking a judge to strike down the city’s leash rules and stop the parks department from issuing violations for dogs running at large. When Percival Baxter gave 29 acres to the city in honor of his father in 1946, he stipulated that the park “shall forever be kept in its natural wild state and as a sanctuary for wild birds.” In 2021, to protect migratory birds during nesting season and control dogs running loose, the City Council adopted a policy that requires owners to keep their dogs on an 8-foot leash from April 1 to July 31. In other months, dogs are allowed to be unleashed between 5 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 10 p.m.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 3, 2024
The University of Maine will launch a pilot program this month to better understand tick populations on the heels of a record-setting year for Lyme disease. Tick activity is increasing and about to peak in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, researchers plan to study how local weather conditions and the presence of different wildlife species influence tick populations and health risks to humans. Maine logged a record 2,943 Lyme disease cases in 2023, breaking the record of 2,617 cases set the year before.
CBS 13 • May 2, 2024
The Maine Audubon Society says despite several sightings, the birds are still considered a threatened species.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • May 2, 2024
A 40-year-old permit is under scrutiny and may be yet another fly in the ointment for plans to develop Sears Island into a logistical hub for future floating offshore wind facilities, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Islesboro Islands Trust. The permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizing the Maine Department of Transportation to build a “bridge” connecting Sears Island to the mainland was premised upon it including a two-foot diameter culvert, but that culvert may never have been constructed.
CENTRAL MAINE • May 2, 2024
From 1999 until 2019, Registered Maine Guide Greg Drummond and I led dozens of moose-watching trips. Between 2015 and 2019, our moose-calling success rate — very high in the early 2000s — plummeted in Maine’s Western mountains. Many weekends produced zero moose. Here’s what I told our disappointed clients: Winter tick populations — the scourge of moose — are soaring. Maine’s winters are shorter and milder. Our longer, warmer falls provide additional weeks for ticks to attach themselves to moose and in greater numbers. Ticks are merely symptoms of a much greater threat: climate change. By the end of this century, if our climate warms further, Maine will likely become inhospitable for its most iconic mammal. ~ Ron Joseph
MAINE AUDUBON • May 2, 2024
Lead is harmful to wildlife. But a bill working its way through Congress, H.R. 615, would prohibit federal land management agencies from moving away from the use of traditional lead tackle and ammunition on public lands and waters in most cases. The bill has already passed the House. Rep. Golden’s vote in favor of this bill helped tip the scales to allow its passage. Tell Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to oppose this bill.
EPA • May 2, 2024
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help Maine identify and replace lead service lines, preventing exposure to lead in drinking water. The Greater Augusta Utilities District has received $1,000,000 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for Lead Service Line Inventories including the purchase of a vacuum truck and trailer. The Stonington Water Company has received $65,000 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for service line inspection and replacement associated with a transmission line replacement. The Presque Isle Utilities District has received $479,596 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for Vacuum truck purchasing for Lead Service Line inventory and replacement.
BOOTHBAY REGISTER • May 2, 2024
Organic perennials from Rebel Hill Farm can help create inviting habitat for the natural community on homeowners’ land. Gardeners can come by Midcoast Conservancy, 290 Route 1 in Edgecomb, Saturday, May 25 between 9 a.m. and noon, when Rebel Hill Farm growers will be on hand to help with picking the right plants. Native plant expert Doug Tallamy advises that replacing unnecessary lawn with densely planted woodlots that can serve as habitat for local biodiversity.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 2, 2024
The Maine Department of Marine Resources is calling on federal regulators to reevaluate new rules that would increase by one-sixteenth of an inch the minimum size of lobsters fishermen are legally allowed to harvest. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says it is making the changes to preserve the long-term future of the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine, which federal data show has sharply dropped. Maine lobstermen, however, say that while the increases appear miniscule, they will impact their livelihoods by taking their most popular catch – 1- to 1.25-pound lobsters – out of the running.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 2, 2024
U.S. voters face a choice this November when it comes to which presidential candidate will set the climate on fire. But they don’t seem to realize how much of a no-brainer that choice truly is. President Joe Biden may not have a spotless climate record, but he has done much more to ensure a livable environment for future generations than any of his predecessors. Donald Trump, on the other hand, not only has history’s worst climate record, but he has announced, loudly and often, that his second term would be far, far worse. Voters haven’t received the message, according to poll after poll. Most Americans think neither Biden’s second-term policies nor Trump’s would make any difference to the climate. That is dangerous nonsense. We don’t have another four years to waste. ~ Mark Gongloff
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 2, 2024
Mainers generate more than 230,000 tons of food waste each year. Most of this is sent to landfills where it breaks down to produce methane, a powerful climate-damaging greenhouse gas. Wasting all this food doesn’t make sense, especially when hunger is prevalent across the state and thousands of tons of food scraps could easily be composted to create fertilizer. L.D. 1009 would require large food waste generators — those that produce more than two tons of food waste per week — to divert their food waste from landfills to food banks and food pantries. The rest of their food waste would be sent to be recycled. Unfortunately, the bill has sat on the appropriations desk without any indication of whether it will move. ~ Peter Blair, Just Zero, a fighting the environmental harms created by our existing waste systems
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 2, 2024
Summer is getting closer, meaning now’s the time to strike if you’re thinking about buying a seasonal camp in Maine. It’s not going to be an easy market to navigate. Though Redfin has housing inventory in Maine up 23 percent since this time last year, supply remains very low. About 4,100 homes are on the market now compared to nearly 10,000 just five years ago. Here are some tips from real estate agents on how to search for a seasonal camp and stay competitive in today’s inflated market.
• Get your finances in order ahead of time
• Know your non-negotiables, but cast a wide net
• Put in a competitive offer
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 2, 2024
The road to becoming a game warden takes far longer and is more difficult than most people realize. There is a common misperception that a simple love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors, coupled with a desire to work in those arenas, is sufficient. Becoming a Maine game warden includes passing the Maine Criminal Justice Academy’s physical fitness test at the 50th percentile, a written exam specific to hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation, an oral board, an in-depth and extensive background investigation, a swim test, a comprehensive medical examination, a psychological examination, a polygraph examination, an interview with a colonel, a rigorous 12-week Advanced Warden School, the basic 18-week law enforcement training program at the Criminal Justice Academy and several months of field training.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 2, 2024
Overall temperatures and the number of strong storms is expected to be above average in Maine this growing season, but it’s too early to say exactly how that will affect crops. Temperatures across the state are predicted to run 40 to 50 percent above average in May, June and July, according to the National Weather Service. In southern Maine, temperatures will average from 50 to 60 percent higher than a typical year.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 1, 2024
U.S. Sen. Angus King is making a renewed effort to expand access to the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument through a proposal backed by Maine conservationists and the Penobscot Nation. King reintroduced legislation Tuesday that would give the National Park Service permission to acquire land from willing donors or sellers in order to better connect the monument to the Millinocket region and major roads. King, who chairs the Senate National Parks Subcommittee, first put forward a bill in 2022 that would have authorized the acquisition of about 42,000 acres. That legislation received a hearing in 2022 and did not advance, but King used feedback from various groups to return with this year’s proposal that would only allow the government to acquire 2,465 acres. The Trust for Public Land, which owns the majority of the potential addition, requested the significant reduction in acquired land. The trust is separately working to transfer adjacent land to the Penobscot Nation as a working forest.
