The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MAINE PUBLIC • September 3, 2024
Rockland will welcome several additional large cruise ships this fall, after the Rockland City Council approved an increase in the number of visits from vessels carrying more than 500 passengers a year ago. Beginning Sept. 8, in addition to ongoing visits from American Cruise Lines, the Queen Mary 2, Holland America and Celebrity Cruise Lines will dock in Rockland for a total of seven port calls in under 30 days.
MAINE PUBLIC • September 3, 2024
Cruise ships will be on the ballot once again in Bar Harbor this November. The town council voted 6-1 to approve an ordinance that sets a new daily limit sets a new daily limit of 3,200 ship passengers a day. The town would also set a monthly cap that varies by season. But it won't go into effect unless Bar Harbor residents vote to repeal the original 1,000-passenger limit in November.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 3, 2024
After being sent to a rehabilitator by volunteer rangers, a loon chick from Little Sebago Lake was translocated out of state. Sharon Young, who has overseen the Little Sebago Loon Monitoring and Conservation Program since 2018, said, “That chick would have been dead in a very short period” had the volunteers not stepped in. Young was shocked when the rehabilitator told her last week that the loon would not be returning to Little Sebago and would instead be relocated to a lake in Massachusetts as part of an effort by the Biodiversity Research Institute to restore that state’s once-thriving loon population. “We’re trying very hard to take care of our population,” Young said. “So, to lose one like this, it’s infuriating, and it isn’t something that we can get over.”
SEACOAST ONLINE • September 2, 2024
With sunny skies and a vibrant crowd, the 3rd annual New England Hot Sauce Fest, presented by The Spicy Shark, sizzled with excitement in Hampton, NH. The festival raised $17,942 for two Seacoast organizations dedicated to preserving ocean ecosystems. Attendees flocked to Smuttynose Brewery, where over 35 hot sauce companies showcased their spiciest creations, while festivalgoers enjoyed a wide variety of culinary offerings and family-friendly activities.
MAINE PUBLIC • September 2, 2024
About 3.9 million people traveled to Maine's national parks last year, and spent roughly $479 million while visiting. Overall, visitation to Acadia National Park and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument generated $752 million to the Maine economy last year, according to a new report from the U.S. Interior Department. National park tourism also trickled down to benefit other businesses that service the outdoor recreation economy, and generated more than $330 million last year. Together, both parks support more than 6,800 jobs in Maine.
SUN JOURNAL • September 2, 2024
Frances Perkins was an amazing woman and an amazing leader. She was the first woman to ever serve as a cabinet secretary for a US president. As President Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of labor for 12 years, she was responsible for the creation of Social Security, which helps people retire with dignity. She helped to create the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week. She led the fight to end child labor, and forced through important workplace safety reform. Her homestead in Newcastle deserves to become a national monument managed by the National Park Service. That’s why the board of directors of the Frances Perkins Center in Newcastle has launched an effort to have the Frances Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark designated as a national monument. ~ State Sen. Peggy Rotundo
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 2, 2024
As Maine’s beautiful coastline faces escalating threats from coastal erosion and rising sea levels, our small coastal communities and local businesses are at a crossroads. The looming challenges demand action, and one lifeline making its way through Congress could provide the necessary investments Maine needs to combat the increasing impacts of a warming climate. By supporting the Reinvesting in Shoreline Economies and Ecosystems Act (RISEE), we can protect Maine’s cherished coastlines, safeguard our local economies, and build a more diverse energy future. Fortunately, both Maine senators, Susan Collins and Angus King, recognize the need for innovative funding solutions as co-sponsors of this bill. Congress now needs to follow suit. ~ Owen Casas, former town administrator, South Thomaston
MAINE PUBLIC • September 2, 2024
A new report from the Maine Department of Labor documents decades of change in the state's workforce, and how those changes have impacted the economy. Mark McInerney, director of workforce research at the DOL, said the report also illustrates the state's transition away from manufacturing, toward an economy driven more by health care, social assistance and business services. He said that shift in industry has also lead to a geographic reconfiguring of the state's economy, as many towns and cities in northern Maine lost their manufacturing businesses.
TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY • September 2, 2024
Every year, tens of millions of U.S. workers in both indoor and outdoor settings face the dangers of extreme heat. Climate change means rising global temperatures and also increased humidity, which interferes with the evaporation of sweat, the body’s natural cooling mechanism. And because temperatures are also now higher at night, it’s more difficult for workers to recover by resting up and cooling down after long hours. The consequences are severe. Public Citizen projects that extreme heat kills about 2,000 workers annually, and another 170,000 suffer heat-related injuries and illnesses. These numbers are certainly an underestimate. As we observe Labor Day, a holiday intended to honor American workers, it’s clear that we need basic heat protections. ~ Jessica E. Martinez
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 2, 2024
Andrew Marsters’ Aug. 22 op-ed (“Views are intrinsic to the Portland park experience”) supports preserving “significant views” for future generations. However, for there to be future generations of Portlanders, we need to avoid layering restriction after restriction on our ability to build the housing those generations will so desperately need. None of us have the right to dictate that the current version is the only proper or correct state. We should not try to freeze it in time like a mosquito trapped in amber. That mosquito may look pretty, but it is still dead. We must acknowledge that what we love about our city attracts others, and we need to make reasonable accommodations for our future friends and neighbors. ~ Nathan Miller, Portland
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 2, 2024
Deklan Taylor, 12, and his grandfather pursued a large bear the youth nicknamed “Pie Plate” for four years. They monitored game cameras to figure out his movement patterns, and bemoaned that he liked to show up between midnight and 1 a.m. But Deklan of Mars Hill finally had success this year on his birthday, and brought down the 392-pound boar that made pie plate-sized paw prints. It’s not Deklan’s first special bear. Last year he killed a 360-pound sow and the year before the state pulled a tooth from his bear and aged it at 32 years old.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 2, 2024
Last week, Portland announced a new set of measures aimed at keeping vehicles out of Monument Square while also beautifying the space. Portland’s Parks, Recreation and Facilities staff has installed new street furniture and giant planters filled with flowers throughout the core of the square. The additions are lovely and will make it much harder for cars to negotiate the space. Also, the city has promised to start actually ticketing vehicles that park in the brick-lined square.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 1, 2024
Aroostook County is famous for potatoes, and rightly so, because it grows 90 percent of the state’s crop. But northern Maine’s 305,000 acres of farmland grow plenty of other crops. Statewide, agricultural products were worth $870 million in 2022, and a third of that — $291 million — came from The County, according to the most recent census. In fact, Aroostook turned out most of Maine’s soybeans, nearly all of the state’s grains and more hay than any other county.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 1, 2024
Tom Winland, 47, decided more than a year ago that he wanted to hunt for a bear. He chose Maine because it is legal to hunt bear over bait. He chose Dead North Adventures in Perham as an outfitter for lodging and guide services. Then he built his own rifle. Although the old-style gun is more common in Ohio, it’s rarely seen in Maine for hunting big game. Maine has a muzzleloader deer season, but most hunters use more modern technology such as in-line guns that have a percussion system for igniting the gunpowder rather than sharpened flint. “A trophy for me is getting a bear with a gun I created. Taking the bear with a 400-year-old technology [makes it] special,” Winland said.
TIMES RECORD • September 1, 2024
Freeport Climate Action NOW has been selected as one of four finalists (out of 36 nominations) for the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s “People’s Choice Award,” which recognizes individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the protection of Maine’s environment. The winner will be chosen by votes cast on NRCM’s website through Monday, Sept. 9. Freeport Climate Action NOW is a 3-year-old, all-volunteer nonprofit whose mission is to combat climate change.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 1, 2024
The city had its second-warmest summer on record this season with an average of 69.2 degrees Fahrenheit throughout June, July and August, according to the National Weather Service. That’s 2.5 degrees above Portland’s normal summer temperature. It narrowly topped 2022, Portland’s third-warmest summer, which averaged 69.1 degrees. The hottest summer on record in Portland was 2020, when the average temperature for June, July and August was 70.5 degrees. Statewide, Maine experienced the warmest June and July on record.
MAINE MONITOR • September 1, 2024
A pending youth climate lawsuit in Maine represents the latest iteration of legal strategies aimed at holding states accountable for emissions-cutting targets. The case is one of a growing number responding to lagging progress on state climate laws that, in many cases, have now been on the books for years. What makes the Maine case unique is its targeted approach — focused on electric vehicle policy as a way to push the state forward on climate action. The case, filed earlier this year by the nonprofits Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), Sierra Club and Maine Youth Action, argues that the Maine Department and Board of Environmental Protection have fallen short on their legal duty to pass rules that will help achieve Maine’s required emissions reductions.
MAINE MONITOR • September 1, 2024
For years, Ronald Ramsay — like his father before him — gathered the hay from his plot of salt marsh and spread it on his blueberry fields to keep the weeds down. Ramsay’s use of that land is now in jeopardy, because of a proposal to restore tidal flow to the marsh along the West Branch of the Pleasant River by removing a set of six tide gates beneath the Ridge Road crossing. Conservation groups say removing the gates would restore more than 250 acres of salt marsh — land area that could host sea-run fish and provide nesting habitat for migratory birds. “To restore it to what they determine to be its original state is a fantasy to begin with,” Ramsay said of the marsh. “No one really knows what it was. Those marshes were diked in the late 1700s. The riverway has been altered probably a dozen times by man over the years. What state are you looking for?”
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 1, 2024
Frances Perkins, America’s first female presidential Cabinet member, is in renewed limelight right now for a very good reason: a handsomely supported push to have President Biden designate a national monument in her name and memory. The move has this editorial board’s unreserved and enthusiastic support. A national monument in Maine for all time. And a fitting reminder to all of us, and generations to come, that there is much to do – and that it’s up to us to do it.
SUN JOURNAL • September 1, 2024
For generations, factories and mills operated along the Sabattus River, but those businesses are gone now. Left behind are a series of dams along that do not produce power but do create impassible barriers to native migratory fish species. Removing the lower dams and installing an engineered fishway at the Sabattus Lake Outlet (Sleeper Dam) will allow fish species to return. Restoration of the Sabattus River is expected to make 2,429 acres of lake and pond habitat, and 75 miles of river and stream habitat accessible to migratory fish species. Once access is restored to Sabattus Pond, a self-sustaining run of nearly 500,000 adult alewife, a keystone species, is expected to return each year. ~ Landis Hudson, executive director, Maine Rivers
