The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MORNING SENTINEL • May 10, 2024
A tractor-trailer truck carrying 15 million bees rolled over Thursday evening on Interstate 95, leaving the driver of the truck injured but the bees largely unharmed and contained. The truck was heading north to Washington County when it crashed around 7 p.m. near mile marker 141. The bees were on their way to be delivered to pollinate blueberry fields in the Down East county. The bees made it to their final destination.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 10, 2024
Maine lawmakers fell short in several attempts Friday to overturn Gov. Janet Mills’ vetoes of bills passed by the Legislature, including one that would have set a new minimum wage for farmworkers. Mills’ veto of the farmworkers’ minimum wage bill prompted strong pushback from labor advocates. The House also failed to override vetoes of bills that would set higher water quality standards for leachate at state-owned landfills and create a new legal framework governing labor relations in Maine’s agricultural sector.
MAINE PUBLIC • May 9, 2024
A group of Bar Harbor businesses is asking a federal court to suspend the town's limit on cruise ship passengers until a legal dispute is resolved. The Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods first sued the town over the 1,000 person daily cap in federal court. A U.S. District judge sided largely with the town, but opponents said the decision means the ordinance is not enforceable as written. Eben Salvatore, a member of the association, said the limits have already had a detrimental effect on the 2025 cruise season, with a significant decline in ships planning to come to Bar Harbor. "Those are all really, really bad things for businesses, for taxpayers, for their families, for employees, etc," he said.
MAINE PUBLIC • May 9, 2024
Loggers said their operating conditions have never been more difficult, with recent storms, heavy rain and mild conditions over the last 18 months. A survey found that 50 Maine harvesters and haulers lost at least $2.6 million in income from the Dec. 18 storm. And Dana Doran, director of Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, said most Maine loggers worked just four weeks this winter. "Most of them had to shut down by the last week of February for the winter, so it's just been a rollercoaster of a ride for all of them, starting with that Dec. 18 storm, but really going back to the winter of 2022-2023, because we never had frozen ground then, either," he said.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • May 9, 2024
Grand opening of a new Lumbermen’s Trail and Storybook Lane. At Lumbermen’s Museum, Patten, Maine, May 18, 12 pm.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • May 9, 2024
In light of Governor Janet Mills' February 2024 announcement for a new port facility on Sears Island to support Maine's floating offshore wind industry, Sprague proposes Mack Point as an ideal alternative. Mack Point utilizes existing infrastructure, preserves the natural habitat on Sears Island, and aligns with Maine's renewable energy goals. Sprague's alternative plan illustrates a sustainable approach to modern energy challenges while respecting the region's ecological and historical significance. Tours of the Mack Point Terminal, June 11, 8:45-10 AM and 1:45-3 pm. RSVP to Chris Goddard, chris@cgpublicrelations.com with your choice of tour.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 9, 2024
Approximately 220 people attended Mount Desert’s annual town meeting Tuesday night, and by a vote of 134 to 72, voters rejected legislation to license short-term rentals, seasonal rentals and vacation rentals. Short-term rentals, seasonal vacation rentals and Vacation rentals all would have needed to get a license, which would have been renewable every year. One of the first speakers against the ordinance said, “My family has been here for centuries.” She has rented her house both short term and long term, and she feels “that it’s nobody’s business except for mine what I do with my property. It’s a legal activity.”
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 9, 2024
While many innocents are being lost in Gaza and Israel, legions more are dying, and will die as a result of increasing greenhouse gases and global warming. Whole species will become extinct, and whole ecosystems disrupted. So where is the rage? Where are the massive demonstrations for the future of Earth? For civilization? There is a way forward. Our leaders can pass legislation called Carbon Fee and Dividend that will require companies that profit from the sale of fossil fuels pay for the damage they are inflicting. Other countries have successfully implemented this policy. We can, too. ~ Barbara Bowling, Oakland
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 9, 2024
More than two years after the completion of multiple fish passage projects in western Hancock County, the effort appears to be paying off as alewives swim in greater numbers up the Bagaduce River watershed each spring. Those and other projects have contributed to a resurgence in the upstream migration of alewives, which are a key food supply for bigger wildlife, as well as a growing source of income for Maine fishermen who sell them as food or springtime lobster bait. From 2017 through 2021, the towns of Penobscot, Sedgwick and Brooksville worked with conservation groups to remove barriers that prevented fish from migrating between the tidal Bagaduce River and five ponds in its watershed.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 9, 2024
The existence of hydroelectric dams on Maine’s waterways has been a hot-button issue between the businesses that own them and environmentalists for decades. Hydropower operations harness the water’s energy to produce electricity. Environmental groups say the dams do more harm than good and are killing some of the state’s native species, such as Atlantic salmon. The owners of four dams on the Kennebec River are proposing changes they say will make it easier for fish to reach their spawning grounds. But the Natural Resources Council of Maine says those measures are not enough. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released an environmental impact statement at the end of March and the public may comment until the June 4 deadline.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2024
With ticks on the rise in Maine, intrepid outdoorsy folks are getting creative with methods for keeping ticks at bay. Among the methods circulating via popular social media sites is to wrap duct tape with the sticky side out around pants ankles to catch ticks while they try to crawl up legs. It looks silly. But does it work? Griffin Dill, who manages the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Tick Lab, said that it’s not a terrible idea, as long as the tape is snug enough that the ticks can’t get underneath it. The method isn’t perfect. Durability of the tape, for instance, can be an issue. If you’re looking for a more effective way to keep ticks away, try gaiters for your ankles and legs.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2024
The city, along with an organization administering 11 city-owned gardens, has closed the Libbytown community garden due to soil contamination. Both arsenic and benzo(a)pyrene, a type of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon commonly known as BaP, were found at the site in levels exceeding state safety standards. The city also intends to test the soil at all of its other community gardens in the coming weeks.
MAINE PUBLIC • May 8, 2024
The city of South Portland is among the first communities in southern Maine to create detailed maps that show what flooding due to sea level rise will look like in the coming decades. The maps use state sea level rise data, but reveal in more detail down to individual streets and properties, what will be impacted with a projected 3.9 feet of sea level rise. They show that seven neighborhoods will be particularly vulnerable to flooding during three broad scenarios — daily high tides, the occasional astronomical, or "king" tide, and major storms — within the next 25 to 75 years.
CENTRAL MAINE • May 8, 2024
When you’re unsure of the implications of what’s going on in your woods, it almost always pays to check with Thoreau. In July 1859 he notes: “Begin to hear the sharp, brisk dittle-ittle-ittle of the wren amid the grass and reeds, generally invisible.” “Invisible” is a striking word, for me, because my winter wrens exist as unseen song. But he seems to be talking about a marsh wren. The winter wren, bravely singing with every ounce of energy in its little body, channels the sound of the cosmos gripping down and beginning to awaken. The astronomical beauty of spring right there in the woods, in the music of the winter wrens. ~ Dana Wilde
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2024
After work yesterday, I went out to the parking lot to find dinner. I live on the top floor of an office building, and my access to land is limited to a patch of grass, rose bushes and trees at the edge of the asphalt. I wasn’t optimistic about the foraging prospects there, but in minutes, the patch yielded enough edible greens and flowers in the grass to make a salad. Investing some time in learning basic plant identification and common species in Maine is worth the time. Here are a few common edibles: dandelion, broadleaf plantain, curly leaf dock shoots, purple dead nettle, forsythia flowers, wood sorrel, purslane, lamb’s quarter and garlic mustard.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 8, 2024
Heat pump installation, benefiting from government subsidie.s, is fueling the growth of clean energy jobs in Maine, according to a state report released Wednesday. The study commissioned by the Governor’s Energy Office shows that Maine’s “clean energy economy” accounted for 15,000 jobs at the end of 2022. Subsidies of up to $10,600 for heat pump installation include rebates of as much as $8,000 by the Efficiency Maine Trust. Gov. Janet Mills had set a goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps in Maine homes by 2025, which has been surpassed. Last summer, the governor updated her goal to include an additional 175,000 heat pump installations by 2027.
MAINE MORNING STAR • May 8, 2024
Of the more than 200 bills stuck in limbo between passage and funding when the Maine Legislature wrapped much of its work last month, 80 now have a chance to still be enacted this session. Among the measures are a bill to provide Indigenous people free access to state parks.
LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • May 8, 2024
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Maine Forest Service remind Maine residents and visitors to take precautions to reduce exposure to browntail moth caterpillars, as they become more active this spring. Browntail moth caterpillars shed tiny toxic hairs that can cause a skin rash similar to poison ivy or, if inhaled, trouble breathing. The greatest risk for exposure to the hairs is between April and July. Activities such as mowing, raking, and sweeping can stir up the hairs. Take steps to protect yourself from browntail moth hairs. Avoid infested places. Aim for damp days. Cover face with respirator and goggles. Tightly secure clothing. Take cool showers and change clothes after outdoor activities. Dry laundry inside.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2024
There’s a reason why most towns have an Elm Street — because towering, elegant elm trees were the pride of cities nationwide, treasured as far back as Colonial times. Houses and other buildings were built around native elms, which were nurtured as assets to the community. New ones were planted along streets like natural monuments. Elm trees were ubiquitous and beloved. By the 1980s, 75 percent of the country’s elm trees were gone. A bark beetle that arrived on a ship in New York in 1928 spread a fungus that infected elm trees, causing them to die off from inside and slowly rot away.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 7, 2024
Using the state’s center for identifying and managing plant diseases will require fees from Maine residents beginning this month. The University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s plant disease diagnostic lab in Orono has announced that due to rising test costs it will charge $18 for general tests to identify disease on in-state plant samples and $38 for out-of-state samples. In addition to general diagnostics, the lab tests for nematodes, fungus, bacteria, viruses and water mold.
