Acadia park ranger and ‘belligerent’ man injured during arrest

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 25, 2024

A park ranger and local man both suffered minor injuries during the man’s arrest last week. The man was arrested in Acadia National Park last week after allegedly blocking a park road with his truck . According to Acadia National Park spokesperson Amanda Pollock, on Sept. 14, rangers responded to a report of a man who was possibly intoxicated and blocking a road within the park with his truck. When park rangers arrived, they found Brandon Hodgdon, 51, of Tremont, “to be heavily intoxicated, belligerent, and not compliant.”

Visit Portland announces new shuttle for cruise ship tourists

FORECASTER • September 25, 2024

On Sept. 13, Visit Portland announced a new City Loop Shuttle aimed at cruise ship passengers. The new shuttle service is part of the PortShare Promise program created last year in a collaboration between Visit Portland, Cruise Maine, Cruise Portland Maine and the Maine Office of Tourism. The City Loop Shuttle route will have 10 stops between the Eastern Promenade and the Arts District, expanding the region of the city that cruise tourists can access from their starting point of Ocean Gateway.

Common Ground Country Fair breaks attendance records

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2024

More than 69,000 people descended on the small Waldo County town of Unity this past weekend to attend the Common Ground Country Fair. That’s the highest number ever for the three-day event celebrating rural living and organic agriculture, organized by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. “While MOFGA is not aiming to break records, the number of fairgoers speaks to the importance of, and interest in, supporting a thriving rural economy,” the organization said in a statement.

29 acres conserved on a midcoast mountain

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2024

Two organizations have just conserved 29 acres on Spruce Mountain in the midcoast town of Rockport. The Coastal Mountains Land Trust was able to protect the land through a partnership with Maine Water, a public water utility, according to a press release. It joins 1,500 acres that are already protected by the land trust across 15 towns in the Penobscot Bay region. Maine Water also announced that it donated $10,000 to help the land trust with its conservation efforts.

Crews battle fire at Charleston logging operation

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2024

Crews battled a fire at a Charleston logging operation on Monday. A piece of machinery caught fire about 2:33 p.m. at the operation on Davis Hill Road, Charleston fire Chief Ethan Amero wrote in a Monday social media post. The location of the blaze presented difficulties for firefighters because it wasn’t easily accessible and there weren’t water sources nearby.

Neil deGrasse Tyson will speak at Unity Environmental University’s commencement

CBS 13 • September 24, 2024

World-famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has accepted the invitation to speak at Unity Environmental University’s spring commencement ceremony. University leaders said Tyson’s commitment to bridging a gap between science and the public aligns with their mission. Unity is set to graduate more than 1,000 students for the first time ever during the commencement on May 23 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland.

Cyclist who crashed in Acadia has died

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2024

A New Hampshire man who was critically injured Sept. 9 when he crashed his bicycle in Acadia National Park has died. John Bennett “JB” Parrett, 70, passed away from his injuries two days after his foot came loose from a clip-in pedal as he was biking on the Park Loop Road near the Cadillac North Ridge Trail crossing. Parrett was an experienced road cyclist who, though wearing a helmet, suffered significant head injuries when he fell from his bike.

Opinion: There are too many unknowns about offshore wind

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2024

Maine’s offshore fishing grounds have provided for the people of this state for generations. In 2021, Maine’s commercial fishing value for all species was more than $890 million. The state’s population was 1.37 million people, equating to $649.18 in generated wealth for every resident. Beyond the value of our lucrative fisheries, the pristine environment and rich offshore ecosystems draw people to our state for many reasons. Maine is a gem that was once governed by families who resided here for hundreds of years. Today offshore farms are displacing fishermen from traditional fishing grounds, so much for economic growth and reducing economic inequality. ~ Dale Witham, Bremen

Saltwater threatens midcoast Maine’s drinking supplies

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2024

For decades, a well that was first drilled in the 1970s provided water to residents of the Merritt House condo complex in Harpswell. But that changed about seven years ago, when saltwater from nearby Casco Bay started entering the supply. Residents found that the water coming out of their taps had a funny taste, and minerals built up in their dishwashers and other appliances. Now, Merritt House residents must collectively pay around $500 per week to get water delivered. Once dense ocean water enters the fractures in the bedrock that provides drinking water for many residents of peninsulas and islands along Maine’s coast, it’s almost impossible to remove. Seasonal residents who are moving in may not understand the unique stress that they can place on the groundwater, when they may come from bigger communities with seemingly endless water supplies.

Foam spill flushes wave of toxic chemicals into troubled Androscoggin River

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 24, 2024

The Brunswick Executive Airport chemical spill sent thousands of gallons of toxic firefighting foam down the sewer drains bound for the Androscoggin River, which has only recently begun to rewrite its century-long history of industrial pollution. The pipes carried the spill under the 3,100-acre former naval air station to the sewer plant, where it was treated for some of its nastier contaminants but not the forever chemicals that make aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, so dangerous. Its next stop? The Androscoggin. Ed Friedman, chairman of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, said, “It’s added an almost unfathomable longevity to the river’s pollution problems. We will be dealing with the fallout of this for generations to come.”

Monday was opening day for Maine’s regular moose season

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 23, 2024

Hundreds of hunters hit Maine’s woods on opening day of the regular 2024 moose season. Erik Francis, 28, harvested his bull moose at 7 a.m. on Passamaquoddy tribal land. It was Francis’ third moose this year, and it weighed 814 pounds and had a 9-point rack. Francis shot it from 30 feet away with a compound bow. “The personal goal of killing a big moose with a sharp stick always drew me,” he said. This week was for bulls only. There will be another bull week Oct. 14-19 and an antlerless moose week Oct. 28-Nov. 2. Adaptive hunts will be held in the last half of October until Nov. 2.

New study reveals climate change toll on Maine's kelp forests

MAINE PUBLIC • September 23, 2024

Parts of the warming Gulf of Maine have become inhospitable for kelp forests, according to new research from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay. Between 2001 and 2018, a team led by senior research scientist Doug Rasher combined dive surveys of kelp population and data on ocean temperature to compile the first detailed census of Maine's kelp forests in nearly 20 years. The results were startling, Rasher said. Maine's kelp forests were devoured by a green urchin overpopulation in the 1980s and 1990s, but rebounded around the turn of the century. Kelp forests persisted off Maine's northern coast but south of Casco Bay they had almost disappeared.

Trial in Popham Beach land dispute ends; judge expected to rule within weeks

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 23, 2024

Two families suing each other over the right to beachfront property in a Phippsburg neighborhood now await the judge’s decision in the more than two-year legal battle. The Hill and Tappen families met in Lincoln County Superior Court for what was expected to be a three to four-day bench trial last week, making their case in front of Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon over who should be allowed to access the sandy shore in front of their cottages at Popham Beach. The Hill family argues the beachfront has always been considered a common area. But the Tappens said they bought the rights to the land between their properties. The Hill family said their case may have bigger implications about beach access in Maine.

Nation’s largest gathering of conservation leaders to gather in New England, September 25-28

LAND TRUST ALLIANCE • September 23, 2024

This week, the Land Trust Alliance is hosting the nation’s largest gathering of land conservation leaders and practitioners — the 37th Rally: National Land Conservation Conference. This year’s event is at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, Rhode Island. More than 2,300 people from throughout the United States and beyond will attend Rally 2024, which begins Sept. 25 and concludes Sept. 28 and projects to generate a direct economic impact for the city of Providence of more than $2.6 million, on top of additional revenue from shopping, dining, transportation and more generated by Rally attendees.

Best way to clean up PFAS? Don’t spill it in the first place.

TIMES RECORD • September 23, 2024

Brunswick Landing’s Aug. 19 spill of toxic firefighting foam was one of the worst in decades, renewing concerns about how the former Brunswick Naval Air Station could be cleaned — or if it could be at all. Maine scientists say that eradicating the “forever chemicals” is complex. Without some form of human intervention, PFAS cannot break down naturally in the environment. Currently, the chemical family can only be disposed of by incinerating it at high temperatures. The best solution to PFAS contamination is prevention.

Women in Climate: Forests, Oct 1

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY • September 23, 2024

Join TNC Maine for a conversation with women working to conserve Maine’s iconic forests. Panelists: Dr. Suzanne Greenlaw, a citizen of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and Post-Doctoral Scientist for the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park; Abby King, TNC Maine Land Conservation Project Manager; and Karin Tilberg, President/CEO of the Forest Society of Maine. The discussion will be moderated by TNC Maine State Director Kate Dempsey. Free, preregister, at Hannaford Hall, Abromson Community Education Center, Portland, 7 pm.

Column: ‘Animal consciousness,’ and climate change, will change our food production

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 23, 2024

Human hunter-gatherers “knew” that animals were conscious and had rituals of apology when they killed them. But the reassuring doctrine of human exceptionalism triumphed everywhere in the “civilized” world — and the scientists, people of their time, just went along with the idea that nonhuman animals are not conscious. The crisis in biodiversity, linked to the climate crisis and almost as grave, is going to impose its own priorities on the present system of food production. In order to preserve the minimum biodiversity necessary for the long-term health of the biosphere, the human race must restore at least half the land currently used for growing crops to its original ecosystem functions over the next several generations. Fortunately, a new technology is making that a realistic possibility. In the long run, we might not even have to kill so many conscious entities. ~ Gwynne Dyer

Uncharted waters: Data gaps obscure Harpswell’s groundwater capacity

HARPSWELL ANCHOR • September 23, 2024

Experts have a good understanding of Harpswell’s potable water sources and extraction methods, but data limitations make it impossible to predict how many more residents the town’s groundwater can support. That was one of the key messages a state hydrogeologist conveyed during a presentation at Harpswell Community School. She issued a call to action for residents to start participating in the data-gathering process so the state can make better predictions.

Largest continuous habitat in southern Maine to be protected from development

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 23, 2024

The largest undeveloped tract on the Maine side of the Salmon Falls estuary with the largest continuous habitat along the coastline in southern Maine will now be forever protected. The Great Works Regional Land Trust secured enough grant funding and donations to buy the 79-acre area. The land trust also purchased 75 acres in North Berwick known as Bauneg Beg Mountain Recreation Area as part of its Woods to Water Campaign, which raised $3 million.

Letter: Heat pump rebate policy leaves many out in the cold

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 23, 2024

Efficiency Maine has become bullheaded about only giving rebates for whole house heat pumps, without any backup. We received no rebate from Efficiency Maine last year when we had our heat pumps installed because we still had a working furnace. Do these people even live in Maine? Between the up-front costs and the already exorbitant CMP bills (which will only keep going up), the state of Maine has now set an impossible goal. ~ Beth Anne King, Durham