The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 16, 2024
An interview with Annie Watson, an organic dairy farmer. She’s run Sheepscot Valley Farm in Whitefield since 2013 with her husband, Michael Moody. They live on the farm with their three sons. he’s also president of the Maine Dairy Industry Association and a board member of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). She’ll be giving a keynote address Friday at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, which runs Friday through Sunday.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 16, 2024
Trump’s use of the southern border crisis – largely people fleeing poverty and violence – to frighten Americans is morally reprehensible and engenders real fear among immigrants in Maine and across our nation. Do Maine lobster boat captains who hire immigrants to pull traps or managers of lobster processing plants share Trump’s brutal opinion of immigrants? Do blueberry farm owners in Washington County or potato growers in Aroostook County who depend on immigrants to help harvest their crops? Would the state’s restaurants and hotels echo Trump’s vicious claims about immigrants? Contrary Trump’s distorted representation of immigrants, in this state and nation new immigrants contribute to the economic and cultural vitality of life. ~ John Ripton, Kennebunkport
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 16, 2024
The first predictions about climate change were voiced decades ago. Now the data for human involvement are all but definitive. Why deny this? One reason is the enormity of the threat. Another is the surety of painful changes and choices to come. Marshaling the will and resources to tackle this threat is almost mind-boggling. ~ Tom Meuser, Portland
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 15, 2024
A small triangle encircled by linden trees overlooking a bustling highway, Thomas Park might not seem like much. But for the residents of Portland’s Libbytown neighborhood who worked for years to have the park recognized, it represents a serene escape from urban life. Sold to the city in 1913 by the prominent Thomas family for just $1, Portland’s so-called “newest old park” celebrated its 111th anniversary on Sunday. Thomas Park was always intended for outdoor recreation but fell out of use half a century ago. That is, until February when city council members unanimously designated the greenspace as a city park thanks to community efforts.
MAINE MONITOR • September 15, 2024
While Maine has seen seven federal disaster declarations for severe storms and flooding in the past three years, statewide enrollment in federally-backed flood insurance policies is dwindling. Only 1.3% of all homes and buildings in Maine are covered under the National Flood Insurance Program. Public infrastructure has been repeatedly damaged, including the coast’s working waterfronts, and the state has been reliant on federal disaster assistance to rebuild. At a meeting earlier this month, members of the state Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission wondered whether a public insurance option offered by the state could protect both the uninsured and the state’s own public infrastructure.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 15, 2024
Since statehood, Maine courts have held that individuals can own land as far as the low-tide line, but the public is allowed to “fish, fowl and navigate” between the high and low tide marks. The language stems from a 1647 colonial ordinance that was enacted 170 years before Maine’s statehood. In 1989, it was at Moody Beach that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld this private ownership system. Now more than 30 years later, two dozen people are asking the high court to reconsider their ruling.
SUN JOURNAL • September 15, 2024
We headed to the Promised Land for our September exploration of 3-mile long Tripp Pond in Poland. This optimistic name, given to the area by early settlers, refers to the fertile farm country surrounding the northern end of the pond. The eastern side of the pond is flanked by Route 11 and a long line of cottages. The western shoreline and northern end of the pond feature long stretches of unbroken forest and hidden marshes. ~ Michael Perry
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 15, 2024
The fire suppression system in question at Brunswick Executive Airport was deemed “deficient” in the months before the PFAS leak. It is a sorry state of affairs when it takes a catastrophe like this one to sharpen the focus of our regulatory bodies and our codes. Our treasured local environment is not a testing ground. We know more than enough about what needs to be done and insisted on when it comes to curtailing toxic chemical contamination. Accountability and liability need to be crystal clear; the buck has to stop somewhere. And the consequences, where it doesn’t stop, need to be grave enough to be effective.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 15, 2024
Iberdrola’s plans to buy out Avangrid and take the company private would be a sketchy deal for Maine people. Corporate interests seldom align with the public good. It’s clear that this $2.5 billion deal was not concocted with the interests of Maine ratepayers in mind. We need our regulators at the Public Utilities Commission to stand up and figure out exactly how ratepayers might be affected by the proposed ownership change. ~ Deb Fahy, Hallowell
BANGOR METOR • September 15, 2024
If you’ve ever spent a summer day by the sea’s edge, with salt water splashing over your toes, the sun tingling on your skin and the salty fresh air filling your lungs with its magical effects, then you’ve probably witnessed the healing powers of the cold Atlantic waters. But is that salty fresh air actually healing? The Victorians thought so, and now science is backing up some of those old-timey beliefs.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 15, 2024
An expanded park and outdoor amphitheater are among the recommendations for the former site of the Maine State Prison that a committee will present to Thomaston later this month. immediate actions include looking into purchasing land surrounding the park to expand it, adding gateways at two entrances to the park, and extending water and electricity to the gazebo and flagpole. The committee’s recommendations also call for letting the area of the park that overlooks the St. George River to grow wild and pursuing a Certified Wildlife Habitat for the area. In the long-term, the recommendations include an outdoor amphitheater at the west end of the park.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 14, 2024
Alone in the southwest corner of Baxter State Park, Sentinel Mountain has a fitting name. Surrounded by pristine ponds and lowlands, it rears up out of the forest, standing guard over one of Maine’s most beloved swathes of conserved wilderness. The mountain tops off at just 1,842 feet above sea level, making it one of the smaller peaks in the park. Yet from its bare granite ledges, hikers are rewarded with open views of Maine’s tallest mountain, Katahdin, as well as neighboring behemoths such as Doubletop, OJI, Barren and The Owl.
MAINE MORNING STAR • September 14, 2024
In the search for a more eco-friendly firefighting foam, soybeans may be the answer to moving away from “forever chemicals.” While PFAS contamination is very effective as a firefighting foam, one alternative may be a foam based out of soybeans that is completely biodegradable. Cross Plains Solutions demonstrated its firefighting foam at the Big Iron Farm and Construction Show in North Dakota this week.
CBS 13 • September 14, 2024
Forever chemicals have now been found in the Androscoggin River. A nonprofit group took water samples after a massive spill of toxic firefighting foam last month at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Now, the results are in. “The contamination from the outfall pipe was very high, the highest we’ve ever seen it,” Friends of Merrymeeting Bay Chair Ed Friedman said. Test results show the total concentration of all the PFAS in the sample was 16,000 parts per trillion. “The highest we’ve ever gotten from the outfall pipe before has been two or three hundred parts per trillion,” Friedman said. Brunswick Sewer District General Manager Robert Pontau said, “We need to stop using these products. Get it out of the system all together.”
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 14, 2024
Maine’s quasi-state agency that promotes energy efficiency says the state is on track to reach its goals in electrifying buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In July 2023, Maine surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps two years early. Gov. Janet Mills set a new target of installing another 175,000 heat pumps in Maine by 2027. Maine will receive up to $72 million from Washington to install heat pumps for home heating and cooling and hot water heaters. But a business owner Thursday questioned a shift in a rebate program to incentivize electric pumps that heat an entire house, rather than a few rooms. The Maine Climate Council has set a goal of 487,000 homes – 90% of single-family homes in Maine – that will meet their entire heating load with electric heat pumps in retrofits and new construction.
SUN JOURNAL • September 13, 2024
New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission is reapplying for a shoreland zoning permit for its corridor running through the town of Jay. The proposed 145.1-mile, high-voltage, direct current electric transmission line will run from the Quebec border to Lewiston to connect with the New England power grid. The Planning Board approved a permit in May 2021 and extended the permit for another year in 2023. With all the delays in the project, including posted roads this spring and other issues, the portion of the project in Jay is not complete. The existing permit will expire on Nov. 9.
TIMES RECORD • September 13, 2024
After a tense Thursday press conference where local leaders called for the resignation of Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority Director Kristine Logan and the shutdown Brunswick Executive Airport fire suppression systems, MRRA Board Chair Herman “Nick” Nichols said that the fire suppression system shutdowns are neither “legal nor possible.” “The truth is, MRRA has been relentless in addressing the deficiencies identified in the report even though there is no indication that these deficiencies led to the accidental spill.” Nichols said that MRRA — a quasi-state agency created by the Legislature to manage the redevelopment of the 3,100-acre former Navy air base — has been looking for ways to remove aqueous film forming foam from the Landing and replace it with safer alternatives.
ABC NEWS • September 13, 2024
The Biden administration on Friday asked an appeals court to revive a Trump-era rule that lifted remaining Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the U.S. If successful, the move would put the predators under state oversight nationwide and open the door for hunting to resume in the Great Lakes region after it was halted two years ago under court order. Environmentalists had successfully sued when protections for wolves were lifted in former President Donald Trump’s final days in office.
THE GUARDIAN • September 13, 2023
The statistic seemed to crop up everywhere. Versions were cited at UN negotiations, on protest banners, in 186 peer-reviewed scientific papers – even by the film-maker James Cameron, while promoting his Avatar films. Exact wording varied, but the claim was this: that 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is protected by Indigenous peoples. When scientists investigated its origins, however, they found nothing. In September, the scientific journal Nature reported that the much-cited claim was “a baseless statistic”, not supported by any real data, and could jeopardise the very Indigenous-led conservation efforts it was cited in support of. Indigenous communities play “essential roles” in conserving biodiversity, the comment says, but the 80% claim is simply “wrong” and risks undermining their credibility.
MAINE MONITOR • September 13, 2024
Maine salt marshes are a key tool in the fight against climate change, acting as a buffer against storms and soaking up planet-warming emissions. These reservoirs of “blue carbon” can be 10 times more effective at absorbing and trapping carbon than tropical forests. Marshes are also some of the state’s richest habitats, home to a wide variety of plants, birds and animals. University of Maine researchers once estimated, acre by acre, a healthy salt marsh anchors a food web “more productive than most midwestern farmland.” For centuries, many of Maine’s coastal marshes were able to slowly build their surface, moving and growing to avoid rising seas. But as a warming world causes oceans to rise more rapidly and storms to intensify, the marshes are having a harder time keeping up — and as development presses in, they have little place to go.
