The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 19, 2024
Tuesday is National Go Fishing Day, but Maine biologists are encouraging people to leave the cold-water species in their safe zone during the heatwave and seek warm water fish such as bass, perch or pickerel. Like a person trying to breathe in high humidity, a cold water fish swimming for any length of time in really warm surface water will struggle to get enough oxygen.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2024
Monthly bills for Central Maine Power Co. customers will go up by another $5 after state regulators on Tuesday approved the utility’s second rate increase in a week. The rate hike is to cover a nearly 50% increase in the amount the utility pays solar developers. State law incentivizes utilities to subsidize certain solar projects to further Maine’s climate goals and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The higher rates, which take effect July 1 and extend through June of next year, follow a roughly $10-a-month increase that the Maine Public Utilities Commission authorized last Tuesday. That rate hike was to reimburse CMP for $220 million it spent to restore power after destructive storms..
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2024
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention updated its fish consumption advisory list Tuesday, adding four freshwater sites containing so-called forever chemicals and expanding guidelines for other locations. Officials recently found evidence of PFAS at the following ponds, lakes, streams and rivers as a part of a yearslong testing effort that has identified more than a dozen contaminated sites:
• Belgrade and Oakland – McGrath Pond and Salmon Lake (consume no more than one meal per month of any fish species)
• Caribou – Aroostook River from the Aroostook River Reservoir to Haley Island in Fort Fairfield (consume no more than two meals per month of brook trout)
• Corinth to Bangor – Kenduskeag Stream from the Robyville covered bridge to the Penobscot River (consume no more than one meal per month of smallmouth bass)
• Monmouth and Winthrop – All of Annabessacook Lake (consume no more than 10 meals per year of black crappie)
LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • June 18, 2024
The green team, one of four teams and 24 students from Spruce Mountain High School in Jay this year, won the state competition and “earned the privilege of representing Maine at the National Conservation Foundation International Envirothon Championships from July 28 to Aug. 3 at Hobart William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York,” advisor Rob Taylor said. “Envirothon is the world’s largest environmental science competition and tests student understanding of wildlife ecology, soil science, forestry and aquatic ecosystems, as well as this year’s current issue, Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Future.”
MAINE PUBLIC • June 18, 2024
This week's heat wave is also bringing potentially unhealthy air to Maine. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday that the coastline from Kittery to Acadia National Park could see unhealthy levels of ozone on Wednesday for sensitive groups, such as children, the elderly and people with asthma and other respiratory or heart problems.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2024
Portland could see some record-breaking high temperatures through Thursday as a heat wave moves into Maine for the first time in two years. Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-90s in Portland on Wednesday and Thursday after hitting the mid 80s on Tuesday, and humidity could make it feel up to 96 degrees in the city. Higher temperatures are often accompanied by poorer air quality and increased ozone levels, prompting health concerns for at-risk populations.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2024
The solar eclipse on April 8 delivered a powerful boost to Maine’s economy, increasing total spending by out-of-state visitors and in-state travelers more than 23% compared to the previous four weeks, the Maine Office of Tourism, Film and Outdoor Recreation announced Tuesday. Categories with the largest spending increases statewide were bars and nightlife, 79%; gas stations and convenience stores, 45%; outdoor recreation, 39%; pharmacies, 33%; and accommodations, 19%. Overall spending increased 99% in Aroostook County and 48% in Franklin County compared to the previous four weeks. On the day of the eclipse, about 80% of observed visitors were from outside Maine.
WORKING WATERFRONT • June 18, 2024
During the storms in January, hurricane-strength winds blew out of the southeast, directly at the Maine shoreline. The result appeared like a lot of mess and damage. While shocking to behold, such “windthrows” or “blowdowns” are among the major influences shaping the region’s forests. From an ecological perspective, wind is a disturbance not in the negative sense, but simply as an agent of change that resets forest growth. In Acadia, the National Park Service is repairing the Ocean Path but continues to evaluate impacts in other locations. At Seawall, crews removed some 700 fallen trees that blocked roads and created safety hazards in a popular picnic and camping area, but otherwise the blowdowns are being left in place. Similarly, Maine Island Trail Association’s standard practice is to leave downed trees unless they block a trail or campsite. Ecologists advise leaving downed wood because of its habitat value.
MAINE MORNING STAR • June 18, 2024
Temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s are expected to wash over Maine for several days starting Tuesday, bringing health concerns, particularly for the at least 2,700 unhoused residents in the state. The Maine Emergency Management Agency has a complete list, searchable by county and town, of the nearly 30 cooling centers across the state.
CENTRAL MAINE • June 18, 2024
You don’t need to be a scientist to understand the harms of climate change. All you need is an insurance policy. And finding affordable insurance is getting harder in the places hit hardest by climate change. In 2023, 398 global natural disaster events created $380 billion in losses, the highest on record. Insurance companies have raised prices by nearly 40% in the last two years. Decades of denial and delay have proved to be an expensive distraction. Higher premiums are also just the tip of the iceberg of the financial risks of climate change. When state-run, last-resort insurance programs become overburdened, taxpayers end up footing the bill. Rate hikes will not discriminate between those who believe in the dangers of the climate crisis and those who choose not to. ~ Carly Fabian, Public Citizen’s Climate Program
WORKING WATERFRONT • June 18, 2024
In the words of former Chief Justice Saufley, under current Maine law, a member of the public is “allowed to stroll along the wet sands of Maine’s intertidal zone holding a gun or a fishing rod, but not holding the hand of a child.” Why? Because in 1986, the Maine Supreme Court held, in Bell v. Town of Wells, that by virtue of the 1641-1647 Colonial Ordinance, title to intertidal lands is held by the upland owner, subject only to the public’s right to use the intertidal zone for fishing, fowling, and navigation. What if the long-abandoned Colonial Ordinance was only ever intended to preserve the public’s right to use the intertidal land in a way that balances the upland owners’ interests in accessing the sea with those same interests shared by the public? That is what we will be arguing at the Maine Supreme Court in the latest case in this long running saga. This case isn’t about fishing, fowling, and navigation; it’s about your rights to access and enjoy the intertidal lands.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 17, 2024
A group of Mainers has filed an appeal to Maine’s highest court aimed at overturning an earlier ruling allowing property owners to deny the public access to Moody Beach in what has been a contentious battle over whether property owners can claim ownership of beaches down to the low-tide mark. The appeal pushes forward a decades-long effort to reclaim the right to recreate and walk on the Wells beach – and Maine’s coastline at large.
TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY • June 18, 2024
Forecasters expect this year’s hurricane season to be “super-charged.” Conspiracy-peddling voices will politicize the issue of how many hurricanes are expected. Such bearers of misinformation maintain that NOAA intentionally amplifies its forecasts of hurricane activity to drive a climate change agenda. Misinformation can be dangerous. To the extent people in harm’s way ignore warnings about the threat of coming dangers they face from destructive storms, lives may be lost. ~ Jerry Theodorou, director, R Street Institute’s Finance, Insurance and Trade Policy program
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2024
Maine scientists submitted their latest climate findings and projections to the Maine Climate Council on Tuesday, providing a broad assessment of changing conditions in Maine and what the state should expect as global temperatures rise and weather patterns shift. The report includes temperature, precipitation and sea level rise projections and their current and future impacts on Maine’s public health, natural resources and the economy. Here are the key takeaways:
• Maine is Getting Warmer and Wetter
• Increased Weather Extremes
• Human Health Impacts
• Social and Economic Impacts
• Vulnerable Populations
• Sea Level Rise and Coastal Storms
• Marsh Loss and Erosion
• Marine Impacts
• Agriculture
• Biodiversity
• Forest Management
• Freshwater Resource Management
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2024
Offshore wind is necessary for the planet and presents a wonderful economic opportunity for Maine. Why use Sears Island over the already environmentally degraded Mack Point, an ideal location particularly with Sprague Energy willing to offer the site? No one wants to turn Maine’s largest connected, undeveloped island into an industrial site, but another reason, overlooked in the press, is that Sears represents a concentration point for migratory songbirds. On a single morning at sunrise thousands may fly northward across the causeway. Once Sears is irrevocably modified it is gone for good. The loss to the community is tragic, even disregarding the impact on birds. ~ Tom Aversa, Unity
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 18, 2024
When it comes to staying cool, you’ve basically got two options: find air conditioning and glue yourself to it, or get in the water. Where can you swim in Greater Bangor, that doesn’t involve spending money or hours in the car battling traffic? We’ve got seven great options for you within 40 miles of Bangor with easy swimming for all ages:
• Stillwater River, Orono and Old Town
• Jackson Beach, Hermon
• Alamoosook Lake or Craig Pond, Orland
• Branch Lake, Ellsworth
• Molasses Pond, Eastbrook
• Northern Pond Nature Preserve, Monroe
• Sandy Point State Park, Stockton Springs
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 17, 2024
The health of the iconic evergreen trees that define the Pine Tree State is at risk from climate change. Researchers across the state have begun planting tree species from mid-Atlantic states to replace these trees as temperatures rise, extreme weather intensifies and pests spread. They believe this practice, called assisted migration, will keep Maine’s forests functioning amid climate change. In Augusta, researchers at the Viles Arboretum think that in 50 years our forests will look like the current woods of New Jersey and Maryland. Those states have more oak and hickory hardwood trees. The loblolly pine grows there, but not yet in Maine.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 17, 2024
Residents in some Aroostook County communities have filled public containers used to collect recyclables to overflowing because of a month-long delay in repairing equipment used to pick up the material. Aroostook Waste Solutions collects recyclables such as bottles, magazines, catalogs, newspapers and tin cans from 99 igloos at 17 locations in Presque Isle, Caribou, Fort Fairfield, Easton, Limestone, Caswell, Cyr Plantation, Hamlin, Woodland, Stockholm, New Sweden, Sinclair, Portage, Mapleton and Washburn. Despite warning residents to not put recyclables into the igloos, many are overflowing in larger communities.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 17, 2024
The Portland City Council voted Monday to fund a long-awaited project to clear sediment from the city’s working waterfront after more than a decade of planning and delays. The city will spend $4 million from tax increment financing to clear built up sediment and improve boat access to commercial piers. The buildup has made the harbor shallower. Some piers are now partly surrounded by exposed mud and silt at low tide, preventing boats from reaching piers to tie up or to load and unload. It will be the first time that parts of the harbor have been dredged in more than 70 years.
SUN JOURNAL • June 17, 2024
Rescuers bushwhacked their way through woods Thursday to reach a man who broke his leg when his kayak flipped over in rapids on the Kennebago River. “I was the kayaker involved in the accident. I (am) not sure I would even be alive were it not for the selfless dedication of everyone involved in this operation.” said Derek Berlew.
