Letter: Wilton Fish and Game learns about effort to overturn new gun legislation

DAILY BULLDOG • July 31, 2024

Saying, “The government failed us,” David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, spoke to members of the Wilton Fish and Game Association, explaining flaws in recently passed gun control legislation and outlining a legal challenge to the 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases due to go into effect soon. Trahan said that SAM has joined forces with Gun Owners of Maine, the National Rifle Association, and an as yet unnamed fourth organization to raise money and mount a legal challenge to the 72-hour waiting period. ~ William Sampson, Wilton

Opinion: Climate-smart forestry can grow Maine’s bioeconomy

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 31, 2024

Looking to build markets and supply chains for climate-friendly forest products, the Biden administration just announced $418,420 for Maine’s Timber HP GO Lab to produce sustainable wood insulation. And the USDA’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities is aiming even higher, working with the New England Forestry Foundation to help the first commercial landowners pilot climate-smart forestry management on their working lands. Six landowners will receive incentives that support a range of climate-smart forestry practices designed to to show how owners of working lands can increase carbon storage while continuing to harvest climate-smart wood products and maintain revenues. ~ Andrea Colnes, New England Forestry Foundation

Kennebec Land Trust to host Celebration of Land Conservation

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • July 30, 2024

The Kennebec Land Trust is set to celebrate another successful year of advancing land conservation throughout the Kennebec River and Lakes Region. This year’s event will take place over three days, with opportunities to learn more about the organization’s recent conservation accomplishments, latest trail improvements, and upcoming projects, and to connect with KLT staff, board members and supporters. A Mount Pisgah hike is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12. The Howard Hill Hike will begin at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13. The annual meeting is set for 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 14, at Absolem Cider Company in Winthrop.

Wabanaki Nations can now gather sweetgrass at Acadia

MAINE PUBLIC • July 30, 2024

The Wabanaki Nations will now be able to contract with Acadia National Park to collect sweetgrass, which is used in tribal ceremonies and basket making. The National Park Service prepared an environmental assessment and found that the gathering of sweetgrass, which grows in salt marshes, would have no significant impact. Acadia Superintendent Kevin Schneider said this is a critical step in "preserving and protecting the park through co-stewardship with the Wabanaki tribes and providing space for Wabanaki citizens to heal and re-connect with their homeland."

Marine biologists are worried about a vital plant that is steadily decreasing in Maine

WMTW-TV8 • July 26, 2024

The latest data on parts of the Gulf of Maine are worrying local scientists. Eelgrass is a type of seagrass that lies a few feet below the ocean line. It's a vital part of the sea-life environment, and officials with Friends of Casco Bay are sounding the alarm on a growing problem in Casco Bay: The eelgrass has decreased. "From 2018 until 2022, 54.5% of the eelgrass beds in Casco Bay disappeared," said Ivy Frignoca, a baykeeper with Friends of Casco Bay. “If this continues we could see some really bad scenarios.”

Waters near Acadia National Park in Maine inundated with microplastics, study finds

SPECTRUM NEWS • July 24, 2024

University of Maine researchers have discovered that Frenchman Bay is suffering from significant microplastic pollution. Researchers found about 400 billion microplastic fibers on the surface of Frenchman Bay and in several rivers and estuaries. The findings were published in Environment Engineering Science. Grace Johnson, lead author of the study, said, “That is a lot of microplastics.” Microplastics are less than five millimeters in length, often small enough to pass through water filtration systems into lakes and oceans. They release harmful toxins and pose a threat to aquatic life.

Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon visits Bar Harbor lobster pound

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 30, 2024

Fallon, host of The Tonight Show, visited Stewman’s Lobster Pound in Bar Harbor and Finn’s Irish Pub in Ellsworth over the weekend. In 2017, he popped in for a pint at a Lubec brewery with Lorne Michaels, the founder and longtime producer of Saturday Night Live who now also produces The Tonight Show. Michaels, 79, owns Josh Pond Farm, a 150-acre organic wild blueberry and goat farm in Whiting, Maine, which is about 20 miles from Lubec and 90 miles from Bar Harbor. The Toronto native has purchased and conserved more than 5,000 contiguous acres of forest and blueberry fields surrounding the Washington County farm since 2009.

Critics, studies cast doubt on Maine’s claims of climate benefits from highway expansion

MAINE MONITOR • July 30, 2024

Climate and clean transportation advocates are calling into question a claim by Maine officials that a new toll road proposed outside Portland will reduce carbon emissions by alleviating gridlock. It’s a common argument made in favor of highway expansions nationwide, said Benito Pérez, a former transportation planner and engineer. But it relies on a narrow view of data that, in context, tends to show these projects are more likely to increase planet-warming emissions, he said. “This is a multi-dimensional issue when it comes to emissions reduction, and it’s not going to work.” Maine’s proposed Gorham Connector project has met stiff public opposition.

What locals fear will be lost if Sears Island becomes a wind port

BLOOMBERG • July 30, 2024

The hustle and bustle of Maine during its summer tourism season is obvious along Route 1, the busy highway that carries visitors through this coastal town, often en route to Mount Desert Island, the Blue Hill Peninsula or points farther up the coast. For locals in the know, though, it’s possible to turn off Route 1 and drive about 2 miles south to find an easy hideaway from all that traffic, on the free walking trails and beaches of secluded Sears Island. It’s that pristine quality that has endeared Sears Island to local residents for years. It’s also what has put the state-owned island at the center of some of Maine’s most heated development disputes of the past few decades.

Invasive plants workshop offered in Hiram Aug. 10

SUN JOURNAL • July 29, 2024

Chad Hammer, invasive plant biologist with Maine Natural Areas Program, will talk about combatting invasive plants during a workshop, coordinated by Oxford County Soil & Water Conservation District. Attendees can learn to identify and combat common invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed, barberry, and bittersweet, that threaten the local ecosystems. At Hiram Arts Center, August 10, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

UMaine to build $10.3 million aquaculture research, workforce training center

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 30, 2024

The state university system is building a $10.3 million research center meant to train future workers for careers in aquaculture and to help solve problems fish and oyster farms are facing in Maine. Construction is slated to begin in Orono in October, with the facility expected to open in late 2025. The project is funded by the Build America Buy America Act and the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan. The economic impact of aquaculture in Maine nearly tripled in 10 years, from $50 million in 2007 to $137 million in 2017.

‘Devil bird’ from Southern states spotted in Maine for the first time

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 30, 2024

A Southern waterbird known as the anhinga, or “devil bird,” made its first documented appearance in Maine last week, perched on a log in a flooded meadow in the small Lincoln County town of Somerville. The anhinga is the latest in a long line of rare birds sighted in Maine in recent years, the most prominent being the late 2021 arrival of the extremely rare Steller’s sea eagle in Georgetown, a bird native to northeastern Asia. In 2018, a great black hawk, only seen once before in America, hunkered down in Biddeford and generated buzz throughout the national birding community. Two other rare bird sightings in Maine in the last month. A tropical kingbird was seen in Dayton, the third time in Maine history. A ferruginous hawk was seen at the Lewiston-Auburn airport.

Commentary: Extreme heat is making our mental health worse

BLOOMBERG • July 30, 2024

On July 22, planet Earth achieved a terrifying milestone: Global temperatures reached their highest level in recorded history, breaking a record set just one day before. This year is expected to be the hottest in centuries. Heat waves are hotter, longer and more frequent than they were in the 1960s. Most of us understand that extreme heat is bad for our health, making our hearts, lungs, kidneys and other organs work much harder. But too often we overlook the toll heat takes on another vital organ: our brain. Extreme heat doesn’t just make us uncomfortable, it can make it harder to think clearly and be productive at work. It worsens our mental health, exacerbating common mood disorders like anxiety and depression as well as rarer conditions like schizophrenia and self-harming. ~ Lisa Jarvis

Half of all bikes in Acadia are now electric

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 30, 2024

There was zero electric bike traffic on the Acadia National Park’s scenic carriage roads five years ago, but e-bikes now make up roughly half of all bicycle traffic on the restricted gravel paths. The park has been studying and learning more about e-bikes since the National Park Service decided in 2019 that it must allow them wherever regular bicycles could go. Only Class 1 e-bikes, which have a top speed of 20 mph and require riders to pedal to get a boost from the electric motor, are allowed on the carriage roads.

Coastal Maine homeowners are trying to beat flooding by raising their houses

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 30, 2024

Matt Piantoni has been working on homes in the Saco village of Camp Ellis that were battered by extreme storms this winter. In the last year, he has replaced staircases and removed porches. On Monday, he was out jacking up one home’s foundation on massive 10-foot piers. More homeowners are seeking these kinds of services following twin January storms that led to record flooding along Maine’s coast. Most homes built along the coast now are built far off the ground, but cottages built in the earlier 20th century were not.

Acadia tackles mountaintop soil erosion with the help of hikers

MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2024

With so many hikers scaling the peaks at Acadia National Park, mountain top erosion has become a concern. The park has come up with a simple solution — that relies on the kindness of strangers — in hiking boots. As part of a new "Save Our Summit" restoration program to combat erosion and preserve local plant life each hiker will carry from five to 25 pounds of soil, which has been sterilized to ensure it's not carrying any invasive species into the park. These weekly hikes are a change from last year, when the park held a few larger events in which volunteers carried nearly 4,000 pounds of soil to 29 restoration sites. This year’s soil will be used for new sites, and researchers are testing to see if adding seeds to the soil helps plant life return faster.

Milo police chief threatens to ban ATV riders from using roads

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2024

Milo’s police chief threatened Monday to close the town to any all-terrain vehicle access after disruptive behavior by riders caused a private landowner to revoke permission to use his property. The Ramsdell Ridge Road all-terrain vehicle trail in Milo is closed because of riders who are misusing the stretch and being disrespectful to landowners, according to the local ATV club.

Two erosion sites threaten public infrastructure in Falmouth

FORECASTER • July 29, 2024

Erosion from ocean waves at two sites in Falmouth is threatening public infrastructure and the town will need to acquire some property rights to address the problem, according to Town Manager Nathan Poore. One erosion location is at 44 Old Mill Road, which has a publicly owned wastewater pump station nearby. The other location is 30 Shoreline Drive near Mackworth Point, where erosion is threatening the public road. Both face Mackworth Island. One councilor expressed interest in stabilizing a longer strip of land than what was outlined to make sure the issue doesn’t reoccur, citing an “economy of scale to fix a larger tract” of land.

Weather service warns of dangerous rip currents along Maine coast

Dangerous rip currents are expected along the Maine coast on Monday, according to a warning issued by the National Weather Service. The coastal hazard message says there is a high risk of dangerous rip currents from 8 a.m. Monday through the evening in York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln and Knox counties.

Wells considers temporary ban on large housing developments

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2024

Wells voters are poised to decide whether to temporarily ban large-scale residential developments to give the town time to adjust policies to manage growth in the community. The 180-day moratorium, which would extend from April to October, would not impact projects currently under review. Talk of the moratorium began earlier this year when word began to spread about a proposed 158-unit housing development on a 121-acre parcel off of Route 1. That project has since been withdrawn.