The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
SUN JOURNAL • June 25, 2024
The city has conditional approval for a proposal to plant more trees in its Tree Streets neighborhood over the next two years. “This grant opportunity comes from the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation, and the Future,” said Jacqueline Crucet, a neighborhood development planner with Lewiston’s Department of Economic and Community Development. The project could start later this summer.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 25, 2024
As with many pollinators, monarch butterfly populations have been declining in recent years due to a number of factors. But local towns like Trenton and Lamoine have been stepping up to help the butterflies by signing the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge. Towns that sign the pledge commit to taking certain steps during the year to make their towns more pollinator-friendly, such as growing pollinator gardens, hosting butterfly festivals and changing mowing practices in public areas.
REUTERS • June 25, 2024
Setting aside an additional 1.2% of the world's land as nature preserves would prevent the majority of predicted plant and animal extinctions and cost about $263 billion, according to a study published on Tuesday. The world is racing to meet a goal to protect 30% of the world by 2030 to protect wildlife that is being decimated by climate change, pollution and habitat destruction.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 25, 2024
A whale carcass spotted floating in the water off Harpswell on Monday was a humpback, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined. It is the second humpback whale found dead in Maine waters this month. The cause of the whale’s death is and the carcass is too decomposed to conduct a full necropsy. Local officials plan to remove the carcass from the water Wednesday.
MAINE MORNING STAR • June 25, 2024
More than a dozen projects have been given the green light to start efforts to address long standing mercury contamination in the Penobscot River Estuary. These projects, chosen by the court-appointed Trustee, will be funded with settlement money paid by the former owners of an Orrington chemical plant that from roughly 1967 to 2000 released mercury into the water. That settlement was reached in 2022 and requires Mallinckrodt, formerly Holtrachem, to pay at least $187 million to restore the river after it was sued by Maine People’s Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2000.
DAILY BULLDOG • June 25, 2024
The High Peaks Alliance is thrilled to announce the launch of the Scenic 7 Hiking Challenge, inviting outdoor enthusiasts to embark on a memorable adventure in the heart of Maine’s High Peaks Region. The Scenic 7 Hiking Challenge features seven exhilarating landscapes that will push hikers to their limits while rewarding them with breathtaking views and serene moments in nature. Participants are required to reach the summits of all four mountains and explore the three scenic trails designated as Challenge locations.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 25, 2024
Maine won’t have to wait long before it begins to lose valuable coastal infrastructure to high-tide floods. Forget king tides and storm surges. A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists predicts sunny-day floods caused by rising seas will hit critical infrastructure as soon as 2030 under a business-as-usual emissions scenario. “Even without storms or heavy rainfall, high-tide flooding driven by climate change is accelerating along U.S. coastlines,” the report concludes. “It is increasingly evident that much of the coastal infrastructure in the United States was built for a climate that no longer exists.”
CENTRAL MAINE • June 25, 2024
“Social movements begin around kitchen tables.” My first “kitchen table” was with the president of a lake association as he invited me to take on a leadership role caring for his lake. The second was learning the ropes as I assumed duties of treasurer. The third through 10th or so was with the secretary of that lake association, a veteran conservationist who taught this newbie almost everything I know about caring for a lake. Whether your passion is for conservation or some other important cause, try the kitchen table approach. Feel the power of people doing good as they brainstorm, haggle, discuss, and bandy about their ideas based on the knowledge of their lived experiences. ~ Doug “Woody” Woodsum, volunteer, 7 Lakes Alliance
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 25, 2024
Avian influenza hasn’t been detected in dairy cows in New England like elsewhere in the country, but if it is, federal officials say human activity is more likely to be responsible for it spreading than wild birds. Three months after it was found in U.S. dairy cattle, Maine’s industry remains vigilant and concerned but not disrupted, according to Sarah Littlefield, executive director of the Maine Dairy Promotion Board. The 145 farms represented by her group have not seen notable changes in demand, supply or milk pricing this year, she said.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 24, 2024
A surprise vote by the Eastport City Council about allowing all-terrain vehicles on certain local roads has residents up in arms, but council members say it will be a while before the issue is settled. The topic of allowing ATVs on local roads was not on the council’s meeting agenda last week, but the council voted 3-2 on Thursday in support of a proposal to allow ATVs on local roads in the city’s bow-hunting district.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 24, 2024
A whale carcass was spotted floating in the waters of a Harpswell cove on Monday next to the Cribstone Bridge, which connects Orr’s Island and Bailey’s Island. The town has not yet determined what species of whale it is.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 24, 2024
A climber was rescued from a cliff in Acadia National Park on Monday. The 24-year-old man was climbing on South Bubble Mountain during the day when he slid and fell about 50 feet and became stranded. The National Park Service and MDI Search and Rescue responded and evacuated the man to safety in what Pollock called a “high-angle rescue” using a litter, which is a type of portable stretcher. The man was able to walk off the trail with park rangers and declined medical assistance at the site, instead driving himself to the hospital.
MAINE PUBLIC • June 24, 2024
A Maine based start-up is getting a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to scale up its packaging that is fish friendly. Paramount Planet Product uses cellulose to create materials that can be molded into take-out food containers. Founder Adriadne Dimoula said many plastics are made with chemicals that can't be recycled, but cellulose will naturally break down in the environment. "That natural ability to dissolve, to biodegrade, and to not have toxic materials in it is one of the principles that we utilize in the design in our products. Nature can process it or digest it because it's never gone through a synthetic process," Dimoula said. She said her products can be recycled in paper streams, are ocean compostable, and don't harm fish.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 24, 2024
After a four-year closure and substantial renovations, the Maine State Aquarium will reopen to the public Wednesday during Boothbay Harbor’s Windjammer Days Festival. It will remain open through Labor Day, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. The state-run aquarium closed in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained shuttered while undergoing nearly $1.1 million in renovations. Renovations include two new 1,300-gallon ecosystem tanks that are designed to look like the rocky coasts of Boothbay and Burnt Island and interactive exhibits that highlight the state’s efforts to protect and manage resources in the Gulf of Maine.
LAKES REGION WEEKLY • June 24, 2021
About 50 people are expected to take to Sebago Lake for a half hour on July 20 from 7 to 7:30 a.m. for Maine Audubon’s 41st Annual Loon Count on Sebago Lake. In 2022, the counters reported 32 adult loons and a single chick. Last year they counted 44 adult loons. About 1,600 volunteers are expected to participate in the July 20 Loon Count on ponds and lakes statewide.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 24, 2024
Preserving a fishery for the next generations is not as simple as catch and release. That practice can have the opposite effect, causing an imbalance between food and population that results in skinny, unhealthy fish or allowing the non-native species — however they got there — to thrive over the natives in a body of water. Catch and release practices were part of Sebago’s problems, but in other lakes and ponds, that method saves the fishery. That’s true especially where there are native species like Maine’s iconic brook trout or Arctic charr. Educating ourselves about our favorite fishing holes and choosing to do the best thing for that place is really a better approach than all or nothing. Catch and release may or may not be the right choice.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 24, 2024
Grassland birds likely became widespread in Maine when people cleared forests into fields during the 19th century. Bird habitat is shrinking as fields fall out of farm use, become woods again or turn into developments. Fifty years ago, Maine hay was typically cut once or twice; it is now harvested two or three times a season if weather allows. For some farmers, even incentive payments can’t make delayed mowing work, although most want to help the birds. Grassland birds have lost more habitat in the United States since 1970 than any other type. Different management approaches work for different farmers. In an ideal world, said Noah Perlut, a professor and bird researcher at the University of New England, all of the farmer incentive programs would work this way — a kickstart to find bird-friendly practices that work financially.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 24, 2024
Brownfield redevelopment is occurring throughout Maine and the United States on sites with likely environmental contamination that can be cleaned up with federal and private funding. As brownfields are remediated, the cleaned site can breathe new life into a town by adding much-needed housing and retail space. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has identified more than 525 brownfields in the state in various stages of remediation. But there likely are more sites that could qualify. Every $1 it spends to remediate brownfields yields up to $20 in economic benefits.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 23, 2024
On the rocky back shore of Peaks Island lies a small beach where, for at least a decade, likely longer, people have stacked the shore’s flat, shale rocks into towers that teeter over the landscape. The structures are knocked down often, either by high tides or by other people, and are quickly replaced. They have become so ubiquitous that at some point, the area became known as Cairn Beach. But for years, islanders have debated whether the cairns should exist. Some said the cairns disrupt the back shore’s ecosystem and pristine beauty, while others contended that building cairns is a fun and relatively sustainable activity.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 23, 2024
Maine, which has the highest percentage of second homes in the country. More than one-fifth of the state’s homes are unoccupied at a given time, according to federal data, and almost 75% of those are empty because of vacation or recreational use, rather than abandonment. Home watching is a job that is increasing in popularity in Maine as the luxury second-home real estate market has taken off and waterfront homeowners are growing concerned about the impacts of worsening storms.
