The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MAINE PUBLIC • September 26, 2024
The city of South Portland is launching an intervention plan against the invasive emerald ash borer. The beetle, which has killed millions of ash trees across the country, established in Maine in 2018. Officials say they're using $30,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project. The city will replace any removed trees with another, native species of tree.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 26, 2024
Maine Agriculture Commissioner Amanda Beal was elected vice president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture for the coming year at its annual meeting this week in Indianapolis. She’s on track to become president of the association for 2026, when Maine will host the organization’s annual meeting in Portland.
CENTRAL MAINE • September 26, 2024
By 2040, the World LP Gas Association predicts that renewable propane could meet half of the world’s demand for propane. Renewable propane is made from feedstock like plant and vegetable oils, animal fats and used cooking oils. Conventional propane comes from oil and natural gas refining. In conjunction with O’Connor Bus Sales, Bonny Eagle MSAD 6 is the first district east of the Rocky Mountains to use renewable propane. Of the 38 buses we run on a daily basis, 30 of them are powered by propane. The fuel is dispensed by the largest propane fueling station in the state, and fueling is easy, taking just minutes. ~ Sarah Marean, Director of Transportation, Bonny Eagle, School Administrative District 6, Buxton
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 26, 2024
It brought Drake Henderson, 11, of Corinna one animal closer to his goal of a grand slam when he shot a nearly 800-pound bull moose Tuesday. A grand slam consists of harvesting a turkey, a bear, a moose and a deer in the same year. Drake already had his turkey and bear before he went moose hunting.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 25, 2024
Cynthia Tomah of Princeton shot the biggest bull moose she or Tobey Brook Guide Services has ever killed. But it wasn’t her first time with black powder. She has shot all of her large game animals with a muzzleloader, her husband and guide service co-owner Toby Tomah said Tuesday.
TIMES RECORD • September 25, 2024
The removal of the Edwards Dam in 1999 is what Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for the National Resources Council of Maine, calls “the start of the modern dam removal movement.” It paved the way for similar efforts nationwide. This year, four additional dams up for relicensing under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s purview interrupt the Kennebec River’s natural movement of wildlife, which has many wondering if the river could ever flow freely.
TIMES RECORD • September 25, 2024
The Wabanaki Alliance has hired Penobscot Nation Ambassador Maulian Bryant as the next executive director of the organization. She succeeds John Dieffenbacher-Krall, who will retire at the end of this year. Established in June 2020, the Wabanaki Alliance comprises the four Wabanaki Nations living in five distinct communities in Maine — Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe with reservations at Motahkomikuk and Sipayik, and Penobscot Nation. It was created to educate people about the need for securing the inherent sovereignty of the tribes in Maine.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 25, 2024
Jeff McCabe is the new director of Maine’s Office of Outdoor Recreation, the state announced Wednesday. The outdoor recreation office is a part of Maine’s tourism office in the Department of Economic and Community Development. McCabe, a former Democratic majority leader in the Maine House, had served as deputy director of outdoor recreation since November. About 32,000 people work in the outdoor recreation industry in Maine, which contributes about $3.3 billion annually.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.”
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.
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.
