The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
MAINE MONITOR • November 3, 2024
Maine Monitor editor Kate Cough, in a Mitchell Center talk, explored the past and future of energy in Maine. The talk focuses on the changes that have shaped Maine’s energy landscape since the late 1990s, when the Legislature effectively banned grid owners from owning and operating generation plants, and how those changes have influenced today’s landscape as the state looks to incorporate more renewable energy sources and meet its climate goals.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • November 3, 2024
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a mostly forgotten address to Congress in which he detailed how “a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels” would affect future generations. It took nearly 60 years to heed his advice. The rich history of past bipartisan cooperation on climate change should be used as inspiration for the Maine delegation to protect and/or build on Biden’s recent successes, the approach depending on whether a climate action supporter or denier wins the White House. ~ Chelsea Henderson, author of “Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 2, 2024
Workers have recently cleared some trees on the midcoast island that Maine is trying to develop as a staging facility for its proposed offshore wind industry. While state transportation officials say that clearing was meant to prepare the site for geotechnical work by a subcontractor, a representative of the group that oversees a conservation easement on the state-owned island argued that it was not given proper notice of the work. It was the latest case of area residents who are trying to protect Sears Island objecting to how the state is pursuing its goal of starting an offshore wind industry in the Gulf of Maine, after the project was recently dealt a setback when the federal government denied Maine’s request for a $456 million grant to help pay for it.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 2, 2024
Hunters who got off to a quick, successful start to the season Saturday morning in areas around two new “Do Not Eat” advisory areas said they avoided the affected areas and were not concerned about contamination in nearby places.
WOOD CENTRAL • November 1, 2024
“Ghost Forests” appear from Maine to Miami and bend back around the Gulf of Mexico, leaving gaunt tree skeletons” stripped of leaves and bark. Gradually, forests and bogs give way to more salt-tolerant thickets. As the globe warms, sea levels rise, and more saltwater encroaches land, “invading seawater advances and overtakes the freshwater that trees rely upon for sustenance,” according to NOAA. “The salty water slowly poisons trees, leaving a haunted ghost forest of dead and dying timber.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 1, 2024
The University of Maine System will not allow hunting on most of its nearly 15,000 acres across the state. Site supervisors on some of the system’s farms and forest lands had allowed hunting against university policy, according to Samantha Warren, system spokesperson. About a dozen people were told they could hunt on university research farms this year. She did not specify which properties were involved and did not say whether the permission to hunt would be rescinded. “UMaine’s weapons policy is consistent with those of all other public universities within the University of Maine System and we are not aware that hunting has been authorized on any other public university property,” Warren said.
MAINE PUBLIC • November 1, 2024
Members of Congress are urging President Joe Biden to designate the Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle as a national monument. Forty-two members wrote to the president, citing Perkins' accomplishments as the first female cabinet member and longest-serving Labor Secretary, one of the architects of the New Deal, and champion of programs such as unemployment insurance and Social Security. The Homestead is currently a National Historical Landmark, but a national monument designation, they argue, would further the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of empowering the National Park Service to recognize contributions women have made to our country.
MAINE MONITOR • November 1, 2024
Northern and downeast Maine should be excluded from aspects of rules intended to protect large undeveloped tracts of land from the development of solar, wind and high-impact transmission lines, members of the Board of Environmental Protection recommended at a meeting earlier this month. The rules are part of new fee programs being developed by the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry that would require certain large-scale energy projects to pay for impacts to high-value habitat or large swaths of undeveloped land in an effort to direct development away from those areas. In directing DEP staff to remove northern and downeast Maine from part of the proposal, board members also reasoned that the state already has mechanisms in place to compensate for impacts.
MORNING SENTINEL • November 1, 2024
As town officials move to demolish the abandoned junior high building, officials say hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of environmental remediation must be done before any work can begin. The nearly 100-year-old former school at 6 Danielson St. has sat largely unused for four years since being replaced by the new junior high school down the street.
PENOBSCOT BAY PRESS • November 1, 2024
Bailey Bowden, chair of Penobscot’s alewife committee, just received news he’s been hoping to hear for a decade. On Oct. 23, the quasi-governmental Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved the management plan for shad and river herring, including alewives, submitted by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. That state plan includes a proposal to reopen Penobscot’s commercial fishery at Wight’s Pond. There is still a process under state law before commercial harvesting can occur during next year’s spring alewife migration and spawning. “We have to get approval at the annual town meeting,” Bowden said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • November 1, 2024
Three Massachusetts utilities and Central Maine Power’s parent company have agreed that Massachusetts ratepayers must shoulder $512 million in additional costs caused by delays in construction of a power transmission project in Maine that will allow Canadian hydropower to reach the New England power grid. Proponents said Wednesday that the project still represents a good deal. The project had to overcome multiple hurdles. It won all regulatory approvals, but work was halted after Maine voters rebuked the project in a November 2021 referendum. A jury concluded the referendum was unconstitutional because it violated the developers’ vested rights.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 1, 2024
This Halloween was the warmest on record for Bangor. The high hit 78 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday. That surpasses the old record of 71 degrees, set in 1956. It’s also the warmest high for Bangor so late in the year. The previous record high was 75 degrees, set on Nov. 6, 1938. In Caribou, Thursday’s high of 77 degrees surpassed the previous record — 69 degrees — for Oct. 31, set in 1989. Houlton saw a record high 73 degrees, surpassing the record of 70 degrees, set in 1956. In Millinocket, trick-or-treaters were treated to a high of 75 degrees, breaking the record of 71 degrees set back in 1989.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 1, 2024
Rep. Reagan Paul, R-Winterport, is a conservative Republican running for re-election in House District 37, in part based on her opposition to offshore wind development around Searsport. Her challenger, Democrat Scott Cuddy of Winterport, has been involved with the Maine Labor Climate Council, a group that has been pushing for the development of offshore wind. But the effort has spawned an odd coalition of opponents, including tribal representatives, conservatives who oppose offshore wind energy because they argue it would threaten the fishing industry, and area residents who aren’t necessarily opposed to offshore wind but want to conserve Sears island. Some citizens have put their liberal beliefs aside to support Paul in the race.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 1, 2024
For the second edition of AMC’s “Best Day Hikes Along the Maine Coast” I re-hiked every trail, re-measured every mile and took new photographs. All the trail maps were updated. I also added 10 noteworthy new hikes to the guide, sprinkling them into the mix along with 40 originals. Tackle all 50 from York County, the Casco Bay region and the Midcoast to Acadia National Park and Downeast Maine and you’ll have hiked 194 miles. ~ Carey Kish
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 1, 2024
Three natural gas pipeline operators are looking to increase rates paid by Maine consumers who already face rising electricity prices. Algonquin Gas Transmission and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline have asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to authorize higher charges. And Granite State Gas Transmission has reached a settlement with regulators that will lead to higher bills for ratepayers. To help reach reduced greenhouse gas emissions targets, New England states are looking to phase out natural gas for uses other than industrial consumption and power generation. The Maine Legislature this year scaled back an ambitious proposal to limit natural gas expansion and instead required state studies about its use.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 1, 2024
The appearance of a vagrant bird instills wonder, causing us to ask how such an out-of-place bird got to Maine. Vagrants are also exciting to birders, giving us a chance to see a bird that would normally require us to visit other states or countries. Maine has its fair share of vagrant species. Of the 475 species of Maine birds, 107 species have been sighted five or fewer times. Forty-nine species have only been recorded a single time and another 29 only twice. I think these four species—variegated flycatcher, Kirtland’s warbler, great black hawk, and Steller’s sea eagle— are the most astounding vagrants we have on the Maine bird list. ~ Herb Wilson
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 1, 2024
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Kodiak, Alaska. The collapse of two crab fisheries there due to human-induced warming waters is a stark reminder of what might be in store for Maine's lobster industry. Maine’s wild fisheries and its burgeoning aquaculture sector are at a pivotal moment, grappling with the unprecedented challenges posed by climate change. Historical conditions are becoming increasingly irrelevant for understanding ecosystem dynamics as climate change continues to shape our future. To ensure the survival and prosperity of Maine’s waterfront communities, adapting and evolving these industries is not just an option – it’s a necessity. ~ Hugh Cowperthwaite, Coastal Enterprises Inc.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 1, 2024
Doesn’t it make sense to reduce our fossil fuel use in the hope that we can reduce the severity of these “once in a 100 years” storms that are now almost yearly, especially given that renewable energy sources are cleaner, and yes, often less expensive? Let’s take the cure and kick the fossil fuel habit and vote for a cooler planet. Our grandchildren will be proud of us. ~ Chris Beeuwkes, Mercer
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 1, 2024
About 4 billion American chestnut trees once spread from Georgia to Maine, according to the American Chestnut Foundation. Today, almost all are gone, victims of a blight that arrived from overseas and made the species functionally extinct around 1950. Maine has more wild chestnuts remaining than any other state, according to the local chapter of the foundation, and there might be up to 200 sites here where they still grow. Groups such as this one have spent decades trying to keep existing trees producing and create new genetic types to resist the blight. This year, the chapter tried a new strategy: planting American chestnut trees in public places all over the state instead of large, private research orchards. If all goes according to plan, a public chestnut grove will grow within an hour’s drive of every Maine town and a 10-minute walk from every school.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 1, 2024
Where else could I expect good birding in late October? Farm fields. This time of year, some of the best birding happens along hedgerows and weedy field edges, where food for migrating seed-eaters is plentiful. Don’t neglect unpaved roads. Although tundra birds prefer Maine fields and mudflats while passing through, dirt roads will do in a pinch. ~ Bob Duchesne
