The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 17, 2024
Over the recent years, we have lost many important industries and businesses in our state. A major reason for these labor-intensive businesses leaving Maine is the high cost of electricity. A major means of supplying electricity have been the dams with turbines. So what do we do? We tear out the dams so fish can go upstream. I think we need to stop doing this and put larger and more turbines at these dams. ~ Richard Leonard, Veazie
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 17, 2024
Mack Point should be reconsidered as the site for the proposed wind port. According to Sprague, new information is available from research and studies. Those who want to save Sears Island from the wind port construction that I believe would be the destruction of that beautiful local treasure sincerely hope that the state will do the responsible and reasonable thing. That they will take a good, strong look at what Sprague is offering. Someone in an impartial position needs to come to the table and study the facts. The new facts. If possible, let’s save Sears Island! ~ Sue Shaw, Penobscot
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 17, 2024
Temperatures will likely reach into the 90s across Maine for most of the week, creating stress for plants and livestock. You can manage the risk by keeping an eye on shade and water. Shade cloth may be the simplest way to protect your plants. Shade and fresh, cool water are key for animals. People are animals too, so we need to take precautions with the heat. If you can, work outside earlier in the morning or later in the evening, avoiding peak heat in the late afternoon. Drinking water is important.
MORNING SENTINEL • June 17, 2024
A man died after slipping and falling in the water while fishing in the Kennebec River with his son on Father’s Day, officials confirmed Monday. The man was fishing in the river but slipped and became weighed down as water filled his wader boots.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 17, 2024
“Many of our beaches in southern Maine and beyond were hit very hard. It was concerning to me to see how much sand was lost,” said Laura Minich Zitske, director of Maine Audubon’s Piping Plover and Least Tern Project, which works to protect and conserve the rare shorebirds. “The plovers can be pretty resilient as long as they have that balance between sand and grass,” she said. Now that it’s prime plover season, it appears that the pairs nesting on around 30 beaches from Ogunquit to Reid State Park are faring well and adapting to the changes. For the first time ever, they have been found near Timber Point in Biddeford. They’ve also returned to two of the Casco Bay islands for the second consecutive year. There are now 75 active nests and at least 149 chicks.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 17, 2024
Now that the dog walkers have moved to the woods behind Evergreen Cemetery because of the leash law, we are experiencing a wave of vandals in Baxter Woods. Graffiti on a beautiful log, firecrackers, graffiti on a bridge and live trees – including a swastika. The reason this is occurring is that the people who love and use the park are being shut out by a nonsensical rule. Why would a 29-acre urban wood, surrounded by 11 other city parks that allow unleashed dogs in the most forested state in the union, need to restrict dogs? Allegedly, it is to protect birds, but that really doesn’t make sense. ~ John Schaberg, Portland
MAINE MONITOR • June 16, 2024
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released its Tenth Biennial Report on Progress Toward Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals this week. The previous edition ran through 2019; this one runs through 2021. The data shows Maine has officially met one of its short-term climate goals — reducing emissions 10% below 1990 levels by 2020. In fact, we’ve been exceeding that goal since 2016. The big targets enshrined in state law still lie ahead: becoming carbon neutral by 2045, and reducing emissions at least 45% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050. To that end, the DEP says Maine is 91% of the way to its carbon neutrality goal. Home energy use is still the second-biggest source of emissions in Maine after transportation, which accounts for nearly half of Maine’s carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 16, 2024
About 500 Maine households rely on well water that is considered too contaminated to drink under new federal limits on forever chemicals – but not contaminated enough to qualify for state money to install the expensive filtration system needed to make it potable. And those are only the private wells that have been tested by the state. No one knows how many others there are that fall into the gray area between state and federal safety standards and have yet to be tested or aren’t located near a farm that used tainted sludge to fertilize its fields.
SUN JOURNAL • June 16, 2024
50 years ago, the Androscoggin River was one of the most polluted rivers in the country — rated in the top 10 during the 1960s, where untreated sewage flowed into the river. A new wastewater treatment plant opened in Lewiston in March 1974 and helped transform the water quality of the Androscoggin River. Gone is the dark and brown foam, the odor and the toxic chemicals. There was not enough oxygen in the water to sustain fish. Reports of paint peeling on nearby buildings have not been heard in years. Facility leaders will soon change its name to the Lewiston Auburn Clean Water Authority to better reflect its role in cleaning up the river.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 16, 2024
About 500 Maine households rely on well water that is considered too contaminated to drink under new federal limits on forever chemicals – but not contaminated enough to qualify for state money to install the expensive filtration system needed to make it potable. And those are only the private wells that have been tested by the state. No one knows how many others there are that fall into the gray area between state and federal safety standards and have yet to be tested or aren’t located near a farm that used tainted sludge to fertilize its fields.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 16, 2024
Some species are declining due to the effects of human activities. To help those species, we need conservation actions. A recent article in Conservation Biology reviews the practice of killing gulls on offshore islands in the Gulf of Maine to protect nesting terns, whose eggs and chicks are subject to gull predation. The argument has been that gulls have increased unnaturally over the past century in the Gulf of Maine because of human impacts. The terns are doing poorly because of the increased gull numbers. The authors of a recent article in Conservation Biology dispute the narrative that gulls are overpopulated in the Gulf of Maine. They argue that gull removal is based on precarious reasoning and may be deterring conservationists from finding more effective ways to improve the plight of terns. ~ Herb Wilson
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 16, 2024
Beginning around 1900, Pleasant Point Camps hosted visitors from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the like, who traveled here by passenger train, boat, portage trail and canoe. These wealthy “rusticators” spent weeks at a time at the camps on Fourth Debsconeag, relaxing deep in the Maine woods, enjoying three square meals a day, fishing for trout and hunting deer. In 2006, the camps were sold to the Chewonki Foundation, an environmental education organization based in Wiscasset, which was looking for a remote site to operate a girls’ camp. Renamed the Debsconeag Lake Wilderness Camps, the facility sits on 11 acres leased from the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, which owns the surrounding 43,000 acres of the Nahmakanta Public Lands in the heart of the 100-Mile Wilderness. ~ Carey Kish
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 16, 2024
From mountain biking to birding, hiking, ATVing, cross-country skiing, commuting, snowmobiling or simply walking, trails connect Mainers with the outdoors. They promote physical activity while immersing us in Maine’s stunning and diverse landscapes. Maine’s trails are a critical component of our outdoor recreation industry, which contributed $3.3 billion to Maine’s economy in 2022 alone. That’s nearly 4% of the state’s GDP. Trails help preserve fragile ecosystems, allowing locals and visitors to experience nature while limiting our physical impacts and inspiring environmental stewards of all ages. Organizations and trail supporters statewide support the Maine Trails Bond, which would authorize $30 million over four years to support the design, development and maintenance of motorized, nonmotorized and multiuse trails throughout the state. ~ Pete Didisheim, Natural Resources Council of Maine, and Gabe Perkins, Maine Trails Coalition and Inland Woods + Trails
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 16, 2024
A Maine man who left a significant mark on farms, gardens, plants, seeds and the people who grow them across the country died on June 1 at age 69. John Navazio of Belfast, a plant breeder, professor and author, is remembered by family and colleagues as an enthusiastic resource for organic growers. He spent the past decade as the plant breeding manager for Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Winslow. He previously worked for the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor and universities and seed companies across the country.
DOWN EAST magazine • June 2024
From glamping to grand inns to classic campgrounds, there’s lodging for every budget.
MAINE PUBLIC • June 14, 2024
A dozen volunteers planted 10 wild American chestnut seedlings at a Yarmouth nature preserve in the hopes of helping restore the devastated American chestnut tree. The volunteer group organized by the Maine chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation planted the seedlings at the Cousins River Fields and Marsh Reserve cared after by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Chestnut trees in Maine grow sparsely as the state is on the northernmost edge of where the plant grows. Due to that low density, the blight did not devastate the trees as heavily. Eva Butler, vice president of Maine's chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, said Maine now has one of the highest populations of wild chestnuts in the nation.
MAINE MORNING STAR • June 14, 2024
Three nominees by President Joe Biden to serve on the nation’s top energy regulatory panel, which had risked losing a quorum, were approved this week by the U.S. Senate. The vote to approve the new members — two Democrats and a Republican — for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was cheered by industry, renewable power and environmental groups alike, who said a full a complement of commissioners is essential to the body meeting the challenges posed by an aging electric grid, a fast-shifting generation mix and debates over natural gas infrastructure, among other pressing energy issues.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 14, 2024
This week marks the opening of several pick-your-own strawberry farms in southern Maine. “This year should be terrific compared to last year,” said David Handley, vegetable and small fruit specialist and professor of horticulture at the University of Maine. “It was a rainy year last year, and we had drought for three years before that.” The milder winter was also helpful for growing, he said.
BOB DUCHESNE • June 13, 2024
Elevation greatly influences bird habitat. The variety of birds to be found in an area can change dramatically with just a few hundred yards of altitude change. There's a secret trail in the North Maine Woods that's a real adventure...if you can find it.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 13, 2024
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined CPKC (formerly Canadian Pacific), a freight railroad, around $16,500 for two train derailments in the last two years that caused nearly 15,000 gallons of oil to spill into waterways. In October 2022, a CPKC train carrying 33 cars of hazardous materials derailed near Milo, Maine. Five of those hazardous-materials cars derailed from the tracks. And six months later, on April 15, 2023, another of CPKC’s trains flew off the tracks near Rockwood. Three of its locomotives and six of its freight cars derailed, including two cars carrying hazardous materials. All but the two hazardous-materials cars caught fire, igniting a forest fire. Neither of the derailments resulted in leaks from the cars carrying hazardous materials. But a significant amount of fuel leaked from both trains.
