The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 10, 2024
People are warned to stay out of the water at Popham Beach State Park on Saturday due to dangerous rip tides. If caught in a rip tide, officials say you should avoid swimming against the current and instead try to swim parallel to shore, if possible. Otherwise, relax, float, and wave to shore for help.
DAILY BULLDOG • August 10, 2024
The time is early evening, the final hour before the setting of the sun. I am in my kayak, solo-paddling pond waters that the wind had whipped up during the day, but now have settled, and become calm. The sun hangs in the northwest sky, just above the treetops of high balsam fir, red spruce, and the occasional white pine. Our Western Mountains of Maine hold many a quiet water, well-suited for an evening paddle. Back home, I pull out my “Maine Atlas and Gazetteer” from time to time, looking for ponds –and for corners of our big lakes – where the map shows a basic boat launch, often a carry-in launch. Sometimes with members of my family, or with one or two friends, but quite often solo, I make the transition from summer day to night with a short, easing, paddle. ~ Doug Dunlap
CENTRAL MAINE • August 10, 2024
Through the 30×30 initiative, by 2030 we hope to achieve effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s land, fresh waters, and oceans. The dual goals of reversing both climate change and mass extinctions are in service of the belief that nature and people can thrive together. One way to care is to take action, individual action. Celebrate your individuality. Pick up litter, be careful with fires, and support your local conservation group. ~ Doug “Woody” Woodsum, 7 Lakes Alliance
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 10, 2024
When a flat is closed to wild shellfish harvesting due to the possibility that the shellfish may be contaminated, the Maine Department of Marine Resources notifies the public immediately using three methods. When confirmed contaminated aquaculture products become available to the public, DMR is silent. This lack of transparency is unacceptable. When the department becomes aware of contaminated shellfish, wild or aquacultured, being sold, the public must be notified immediately. If you agree, please contact your local legislator. ~ Bailey Bowden, a ninth-generation resident of Penobscot
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 10, 2024
I looked at the 30-acre site map of Yard South in South Portland; it fits perfectly on a site largely vacant for decades except for boat trailer parking. It is for housing we need badly, but the usual NIMBY people are balking for the usual reasons: traffic, parking, too many people for area, etc. The 1,200 housing units, with retail, office space and other amenities, is just what South Portland needs. ~ Peter Ferrante, Portland
MAINE MONITOR • August 9, 2024
Lobster fishing has been a good business in the Gulf of Maine for a long time. Between 1984 and 2014, the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine jumped an estimated 515 percent, while simultaneously declining by 78 percent in southern New England as the water warmed in both regions. The result? A lobster housing crisis. Win Watson, a lobster scientist at the University of New Hampshire, said, “What you’re seeing is actually a direct result of climate change. Because there’s such an abundance of lobsters, the good rocky crevice habitat has been taken by the lobsters that got there first, and now you’ve got these other lobsters that have to sort of dig a temporary, low-rent condo out in the sand.”
CENTRAL MAINE • August 9, 2024
Maine’s emerging offshore wind industry represents a crucial economic and environmental opportunity. Our coast’s high wind speeds and deep-water access make Maine an ideal candidate for a major offshore wind investment. In fact, the federal grant that will help pay for construction of an offshore wind port totals nearly half a billion dollars- the largest federal investment in our state ever! Offshore wind is the best way for Maine to combat destructive climate change while simultaneously promoting economic growth and Maine jobs. ~ Beth Trehu, Rome
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024
The Mills administration on Friday awarded $25.2 million in storm recovery grants to 39 towns and cities in Maine, including funding for a new storm drain in Portland’s Old Port that’s designed to reduce waterfront flooding and sewage discharges into the harbor. The grants come from a $60 million fund created this year to improve the state’s infrastructure to make it more resilient to storms like the ones that devastated the coast and interior communities last winter.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 9, 2024
Health concerns around PFAS led the Maine Legislature to restrict the substance starting in 2025. However, refrigerants in common use constitute “forever chemicals” necessary to the operation of heat pumps. So decreasing the reliance on wood or fossil fuels for home heating, in favor of heat pumps, has led to a broader distribution of PFAS-like chemicals. This is the law of unintended consequences. Solving one problem — fossil fuel use — has created another, with the wider distribution of “forever chemicals.” Are we better off using fewer fossil fuels and expanding the deployment of heat pumps notwithstanding the PFAS-esque proliferation? Or did we ignore the trade off of one problem for another? No easy answer. ~ Michael Cianchette
BLOOMBERG • August 9, 2024
Project 2025 proposes deep changes to the federal government that include severely cutting back the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing some career civil servants with political appointees, selling off public lands and breaking up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both Democrats and independents overwhelmingly expressed a negative view of the document in a poll. One of the reasons that liberal activists are mining the plan is that it concretely ties Trump to an extreme agenda, said Craig Segall, vice president of climate change advocacy group Evergreen Action.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024
Federal regulators hope to give lobstermen an additional six months to prepare for a new rule that would slightly increase the minimum size of lobsters they are legally allowed to harvest. The one-sixteenth of an inch increase, which is designed to help boost a dwindling stock of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine, might seem minor but it could have big consequences. Lobster harvesters and dealers say that the fraction-of-an-inch change could eliminate the most lucrative segment of their catch and give Canadian competitors an unfair advantage. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said on Wednesday that it intends to delay a planned gauge increase until July 1, 2025. The rules were previously set to go into effect Jan. 1.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024
For the past 12 years, I’ve worked in Wells and lived in South Portland. There are smart ways to grow and … less smart ways to grow. As someone who works in climate adaptation and coastal science, I’d prefer to see development concentrated into vacant, servable areas than rampaging over Maine’s precious forests and fields. Redeveloping existing brownfields and vacant urban lots, as many Maine towns are doing, is smarter than clearcutting forests or paving farms. Should South Portland permit building units next to the sea, though? Yes, if the development is built suitably above sea level, as the Yard South plan proposes. Build? If we do it wisely and over time, I say: yes, in my backyard. ~ Nik Charov, president of Laudholm Trust and chairman of Wells Reserve at Laudholm, South Portland
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024
On average, a gas-powered passenger car will emit more than four metric tons of CO2 from its tailpipe each year. EVs don’t have tailpipes. Battery manufacturing and charging will create some emissions, but those will shrink as clean-energy use continues to rise. The global warming impact of greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes is felt by all inhabitants of our planet. Chinese companies must smile when they hear, “drill, baby, drill.” ~ Fred Egan, York Harbor
SUN JOURNAL • August 8, 2024
The first of four giant transformers destined for an electricity converter station off outer Main Street in Lewiston was slowly moved Thursday night from Rodman Road to its new location. The transformer and three more destined for the Main Street site will be used at the New England Clean Energy Connect converter station to convert direct current coming from Canada to alternating current and send it on its way to Massachusetts.
TIMES RECORD • August 8, 2024
In a 20-hour operation, the Coast Guard raised the battered Jacob Pike from the bottom of the New Meadows River in Harpswell on Wednesday, more than seven months after the fishing vessel sank during a brutal winter storm. Maine Department of Environmental Protection was on scene throughout the process to monitor the intermittent dispersal of the oil sheen. “The plan was a comprehensive effort to ensure the protection of the local fishery and environment,” said Christopher Hopper, DEP Division of Response Services director, noting there were no reports of impact on local oyster beds or marine wildlife.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 8, 2024
Maine’s coastline is ideal for the weathering and collection of sea glass, said Richard LaMotte, who has written books on the subject. As shards of glass zigzag down the rocky shores and in and out of rugged coves, the turbulent waves create an “abrasive environment” that produces that sought-after frosted texture, he said. Finding sea glass has become a national hobby in the past two decades, LaMotte said.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 8, 2024
The Newcastle home of Frances Perkins – a chief architect of Social Security and other programs that helped transform the country during the Great Depression – soon could become Maine’s second national monument. The nonprofit Frances Perkins Center is asking President Biden to declare Perkins’ longtime family home on River Road in Newcastle a national monument, to be run by the National Park Service. It would become Maine’s second national monument, along with Katahdin Woods and Waters, which received the designation in 2016.
MAINE PUBLIC • August 7, 2024
New England’s electric grid operator issued a rare energy emergency last week when power generation unexpectedly dropped off during a heat wave. ISO New England said it had to call in reserve power resources for a few hours on August 1 to meet surging electricity demand as the region sweltered in temperatures over 90 degrees. The grid operator said that increased energy use in the early evening surpassed morning forecasts. And there were unplanned power plant outages including the loss of a 350 megawatt resource. That created a capacity deficiency that prompted a power caution alert signaling the grid was under stress and tapping reserve power, said ISO New England spokesperson Matt Kakley.
THE GUARDIAN • August 7, 2023
Less than half of stunned or injured birds survive a collision with a window, research has found, pushing up estimates that more than 1 billion birds may die each year from flying into buildings in the US. In a new study published on Wednesday in Plos One, researchers examined how many birds recovered in rehabilitative care after a building collision. Older estimates had assumed that most stunned birds would recover, but researchers found about 60% died, meaning the number killed by building strikes may be far higher than previously thought.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • August 7, 2024
Silent Running (1972) is first time director Douglas Trumbull’s environmental themed science fiction classic starring Bruce Dern and Dewey, Huey and Louie, his three drone helpers. Set in the not to distant future, all forests on Earth have become extinct and the only surviving species are on eight space craft in Saturn’s orbit in specially designed enormous greenhouse-like geodesic domes. Freeman Lowell (Dern) is the botanist aboard ‘Valley Forge’. When the ships are ordered to destroy the domes and return to Earth, he takes things into his own hands.
