The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 5, 2024
Trisha Vaidyanathan has been hired as the new senior director of research at Defend Our Health. She has a bachelor’s degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California – Berkeley and a doctorate in neuroscience from University of California – San Francisco.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 5, 2024
A Windham car wash that was owned by a former Westbrook police detective is facing a $239,000 fine for illegally dumping about 2 million gallons of wastewater containing hazardous chemicals such as lead, thallium and chromium down the drain and trying to hide it. It is one of several proposed Maine Department of Environmental Protection consent agreements that would resolve violations of environmental laws – some dating back five years – pending before the state Board of Environmental Protection, the agency’s enforcement arm. Other pending violations include a tanning salon chain that dumped spent or broken lamps containing mercury in an Augusta basement, an oil spill that closed Willard Beach in South Portland for four days in August 2021, and improperly stored hazardous waste at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 5, 2024
Observations about the Yard South project in South Portland: PK Realty bought the property in 2018 for $7.7 million as a speculative investment. If rezoned for residential development, the return on investment on the purchase price of $7.7 million, with views of the Portland skyline, would be astronomical. It would be a mistake to grant a zoning change before the new comprehensive change is completed and adopted. New FEMA floodplain maps, which project future sea level rise floodplain elevations, show that a 3-foot sea level rise, possible in the next 30 years, would have this tax parcel half underwater during a storm event. Given this, wouldn’t it be sensible to retain the existing working waterfront designation? ~ Jeremy Doxsee, South Portland
CENTRAL MAINE • September 5, 2024
Fossil fuels have made our lives easier in profound ways. We drive or fly here and there, much of what we buy comes from far away. We heat and cool our buildings, and benefit in so many ways with household and other conveniences. A changing climate is the legacy we are leaving. The Paris Agreement of 2015 correctly called for reductions in emissions of all greenhouse gases. Efforts have gone into replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy worldwide. But it’ll never be enough because those gases are still warming the Earth. We need to remove them. Sen. Collins has introduced the Carbon Removal and Emissions Storage Technologies (CREST) Act, to fund research and development of technologies to do just that. Thank her, and ask her to fit it into the Omnibus Bill that will close this Congress. ~ Peter Garrett, Winslow, Citizens Climate Lobby and Foundation for Climate Restoration
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 5, 2024
The player with the deepest pockets and ultimate responsibility, and their local representative, remained mum at the recent heated PFAS spill hearing in Brunswick. I’m referring to Sen. Angus King and what is likely the largest polluter in the world, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). How the DOD can poison us and claim sovereign immunity due to national security is a travesty for the common good. Sen. King should provide some clarification, please. ~ Stephen Musica Sr., Harpswell
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 5, 2024
The full Houlton Farms milk display at Steaks N’ Stuff in Presque Isle is about to become history, and the brothers who own the store are feeling a loss. Houlton’s family-owned dairy, the only white milk processor and distributor north of the Portland area, will discontinue its milk line by the end of September. The Lincoln family, who’ve owned the company for 43 years, have seen dairy farms around them dwindle and are now only supplied by one farm. With mounting production costs and falling white milk sales, they could no longer suffer the losses. “It’s really hard to lose something local.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 4, 2024
I don’t appreciate the shock value of large color photos of hunters, including young children, proudly displaying the dead animals they just killed. I understand that hunting is part of the culture in Maine. Plus, I’m sure that showing photos of hunters with their latest kill helps to sell newspapers. Perhaps the BDN could put these photos farther back in section B (or in a separate section entitled “Dead Animals”) and make them smaller so people who find these photos to be unpleasant will be able to avoid them if they want to. That way, we can read the real and important news about Maine and not have someone’s trophy photo forced on us. ~ Steve Colburn, Orono
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 4, 2024
Jared Larsen, 32, of Waldoboro, who ran a boat aground on Vinalhaven Wednesday morning, was arrested for operating under the influence. Roughly 80-100 gallons of diesel fuel were on board the vessel, according to the marine patrol. Efforts are now underway to keep it from leaking.
TIMES RECORD • September 4, 2024
In the aftermath of the recent chemical spill at Brunswick Landing, the Mere Brook Steering Committee met to review current and near-future work on the brook. The spill took place in the Mere Brook watershed’s eastern sector. This is already toxic ground that will now be even more heavily studied over as this spill works its way into the area’s waters. What I ask for also is redoubled attention to Mere Brook’s western branch. Our offerings, whether pesticides, fertilizers or driveway runoff, have deeply compromised the brook’s ability to clean itself and support basic macroinvertabrate life. But we are working to change that, to bring life back to its waters as complement to its still vital population of a prize Maine fish, the brook trout. ~ Sandy Stott
TIMES RECORD • September 4, 2024
Recreational fishing is a big industry in Maine, where there are numerous waterways both salty and fresh that are home to a variety of species. Many of these species even overlap their habitats, spending part of their life in fresh water and part in salty. These sea-run fish include everything from shad and salmon to eel, herring, trout and even sturgeon. There’s a whole separate set of regulations and information for striped bass. The most important thing to know is not the types of fish, but that you must register with the DMR as a saltwater angler. Aside from making oneself legal, another reason to go to the recreational fishing section of the DMR’s website, is to learn more about where different species live and where you can access the water to try to catch them. ~ Susan Olcott
ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 4, 2024
The world creates 57 million tons of plastic pollution every year and spreads it from the deepest oceans to the highest mountaintop to the inside of people’s bodies, according to a new study. It’s enough pollution each year to fill New York City’s Central Park with plastic waste as high as the Empire State Building. India leads the world in generating plastic waste, producing 10.2 million tons a year – far more than double the next big-polluting nations, Nigeria and Indonesia. China, often villainized for pollution, ranks fourth but is making tremendous strides in reducing waste.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 4, 2024
The Mount Desert Select Board Tuesday night officially resolved to get Otter Creek’s working waterfront back. The signed resolution will also become part of the town’s comprehensive plan, which will help make sure that the mission to restore that working waterfront continues even as staff, administrators and elected officials change.
TIMES RECORD • September 4, 2024
At the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in Edgecomb kids spend a day each week learning outdoors. After receiving Down East Magazine’s 2024 Best Private Elementary School title, school Director Katy Inman pointed to CTL’s outdoor classroom as a distinguishing feature. Unlike most schools, once a week — rain, shine or freezing temperatures — students romp through the woods to attend class. Meggie Harvey, who connected with the school when she began working at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in 2016, said, “This includes tuning into youth voices. CTL students are valuable members of today’s climate conversation and they’re tomorrow’s future decisionmakers.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 4, 2024
It escapes me why free-roaming “neighborhood cats” are an accepted norm when we know that outside cats are bird killers. It does not matter how well we feed them. It does not matter how softly they purr on our laps, or keep us good company. When they are outside and off of a leash, they often kill birds. Between one to 4 billion birds per year. Want to do something good for the planet? Keep your cats indoors, or walk them only on a leash. ~ Craig Kesselheim, Southwest Harbor
MORNING SENTINEL • August 4, 2024
Voters will decide in November whether to adopt a temporary moratorium on new high-voltage power lines within town limits after nearly 250 residents signed a petition in support of the ban. The petition was presented to the China Select Board at its Aug. 26 meeting in response to the proposed Aroostook Renewable Gateway Project, an infrastructure proposal that would send energy generated by wind farms in Aroostook County to consumers in southern Maine and Massachusetts via roughly 150 miles of high-voltage transmission lines through central Maine.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 4, 2024
Mya Wolfinger, 8, of Shapleigh has been working on her goal of catching Maine’s seven major game fish in the salmon family since she was 4 years old. She caught a brook trout and a brown trout in a tributary of the Saco River when she was 4. Her father Justin Wolfinger planted the idea for her to catch a landlocked salmon and the other trout species found in Maine. Mya caught a rainbow trout when she was 5. Then she caught a splake. This year she caught a landlocked salmon, lake trout and most recently, an Arctic charr or blueback trout. Her salmon, brown trout and lake trout were all in the 18-19-inch range. The only fish in the salmon family native to Maine she hasn’t caught is a whitefish, which she has in her sights.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 4, 2024
Three interstate natural gas pipelines serving Maine — Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, Algonquin Gas Transmission and Granite State Gas Transmission — are seeking rate increases that could lead to higher energy prices in the state. The pending requests are months away from either getting approved or denied but come as regulators and lawmakers grapple with helping Mainers facing the nation’s 10th highest average electricity prices and newer fees from solar subsidies.
ROCKY BARKER • September 3, 2024
Since the Edwards Dam in Maine came down 1,200 other dams in the U.S. have been removed, restoring rivers and hope for the communities that they run through. The latest were the dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California. The last was removed last month, opening a waterway to salmon just as the Fall salmon are beginning their run upriver to the places they once spawned. Klamath River lovers can give some of the credit to Brownie Carson and the others in Maine who first got the Edwards Dam removed. More dams will come out because they will end up costing more than keeping them there. Eventually money talks. Still, it takes people like Brownie Carson of the Natural Resources Council of Maine to force the issue.
E&E NEWS • September 3, 2024
Millions of Americans are endangered by extreme heat due to federal policies that steer billions of dollars away from the nation’s hottest regions. At least a dozen government agencies oversee programs that ignore or minimize the threat of extreme heat as rising temperatures shatter historical records across the U.S., an investigation by POLITICO’s E&E News found. Disregard for the health dangers of heat is embedded in federal laws and regulations written decades ago, when home heating costs were soaring, air conditioning was rare and the risks of climate change were not widely understood.
FORBES • September 3, 2024
Let your armchair traveler’s imagination soar while diving into the new gorgeously filmed, five-episode series National Parks: USA, which is Nat Geo’s latest behind-the-scenes swoop into America’s spectacular wild places. Premiering September 8 on National Geographic TV and streaming the next day on Hulu, our nation’s natural beauty and bounty are intimately illuminated and interlaced with intriguing stories and cultural touchstones. It’s narrated by Indigenous actor Michael Spears.
