The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 9, 2024
L.L.Bean is laying off between 50 and 75 employees at its corporate headquarters, or about 2% to 3% of its Maine-based staff, the outdoor clothing and equipment retailer said. Spokesman Jason Sulham said the Freeport-based company “continues to evaluate the fluctuating retail landscape and adapt our organizational design to enable long-term growth.”
FRIENDS OF BAXTER STATE PARK • December 9, 2024
Baxter State Park 2025 calendars are selling fast. Purchase benefits Baxter State Park and Friends of Baxter State Park.
TIMES RECORD • December 9, 2024
The Maine Coast Heritage Trust has announced the distribution of funds through the L.L.Bean Maine Land Trust Grant Program to tackle priority conservation projects for 2025, including:
• Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, $10,000 to open public access at Hideaway Farm Preserve in Topsham.
• Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, $9,000 to rejuvenate Thorne Head Preserve in Bath.
• Androscoggin Land Trust, $8,000 for a Beyond Adaptive initiative at Camp Dustin.
• Falmouth Land Trust, $9,000 to reroute trails at Blackstrap Community Forest to address climate change impacts.
• Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, $10,000 to build a sensory garden at Kennebunk High School.
• Greater Lovell Land Trust, $10,000 for multi-use trail repairs at Kezar Corridor Lands.
TIMES RECORD • December 9, 2024
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection will resume testing this week for toxic “forever chemicals,” as part of an effort to determine whether a disastrous firefighting foam spill at the Brunswick Executive Airport on Aug. 19 contaminated nearby private drinking water wells. This round of testing comes months after the first sample batch in September showed concerning levels of PFAS in many wells, though these results are unlikely a result of the spill, given the slow rate of ground water movement. The sampling from September and this month are just two of the several planned tests in the wake of Maine’s worst toxic chemical spill in 30 years, in which 1,450 gallons of PFAS-containing aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) mixed with 50,000 gallons of water were released. The chemical family of PFAS can be harmful to human health.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 9, 2024
With the removal last month of a final piece of cast iron pipe installed in 1927, a $178 million, 14-year gas distribution replacement project in Portland and Westbrook came to an end. Swapping out 126 miles of cast iron and unprotected steel pipes with high-density plastic pipe and making other upgrades were among Unitil Corp.’s “largest and most aggressive capital improvement initiatives,” said the natural gas utility that owns and maintains the system. Some of the pipes were more than 100 years old. Fewer gas leaks and a drop in methane emissions are among the project’s benefits.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 9, 2024
Maine’s experiment to reduce winter tick populations in the western half of Zone 4 has one year left, but likely won’t be extended beyond that, according to the state’s moose biologist. Winter ticks have in the past killed large numbers of moose calves. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife decided to try reducing the herd in a small section of the state. But hunters and other moose enthusiasts have been critical of the state’s efforts, saying that bringing the herd down to low levels is dangerous and that the effort isn’t scientific enough.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 9, 2024
Democrats and Republicans said they are confident in the prospects of changing how the Maine Legislature operates in order to crack down on vague placeholder bills, prolonged meetings. There is support for publicizing legislation and amendments at least 24 hours before a committee meeting and other State House norms that have hindered public participation. Tweaking the ways the Legislature operates in Augusta has proven difficult in an institution ruled by decades of precedent and 11th-hour decisions.
MAINE MORNING STAR • December 8, 2024
A trailblazing regional greenhouse gas partnership on the East Coast is considering possible changes or expansion that would allow it to keep building on its success – and the stakes grew higher last month with the reelection of Donald Trump. The 11-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, established in 2005, is the country’s first regional cap-and-invest system for reducing carbon emissions from power generation. The role of such programs is more crucial as Trump’s pledges to roll back federal climate action leaves it up to cities, states, and the private sector to maintain the country’s momentum on clean energy over the next four years. In RGGI, as the regional initiative is known, states have a potential model for scaling their impact through collaboration.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • December 8, 2024
All but three presidents have used their authority under the Antiquities Act act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources. President Joe Biden has created six monuments and either restored, enlarged or modified boundaries for a handful of others. Native American tribes and conservation groups are pressing for more designations before he leaves office, including a homestead in Maine that belonged to the family of Frances Perkins, the nation’s first female cabinet member.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 8, 2024
Ethical hunting is following the laws on the books, but much is left up to personal choices. Do I shoot the doe that has fawns she raised this summer? Do I push legal shooting time on either end of sunrise and sunset as that beautiful buck whizzes past me? Do I use gadgetry to help me find where the deer are or do I look for bedding areas, tracks and other signs of their presence? Do I pass on the younger bucks to let them mature? Other questions hunters face in the woods are about the sophistication of our guns or bows we use, or whether we employ game cameras or scout with drones. I like some hunters’ suggestions of training and licensing recovery drone operators or requiring a warden’s presence when using that equipment to find a dead or wounded animal. That approach doesn’t seem to violate hunting ethics or fair chase. It could be Maine’s future.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • December 8, 2024
The Asiatic (or oriental) bittersweet vine is highly invasive and a grave threat to native trees, shrubs and entire ecosystems. Thaea Lloyd, a retired landscape architect, lives on Peaks Island, where she is founder, organizer and force of nature behind an unusual adopt-a-tree-in-perpetuity program aimed at saving island trees from this same deadly vine. She launched the program in May with 16 volunteers. Seven months later, she has nearly 115 volunteers with almost 400 trees under their care. She calls the effort “tree-age – urgent care for the trees.”
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 8, 2024
Defective electric school buses provided to eight Maine school districts by Lion Electric, a now cash-strapped Canadian manufacturer, have wreaked havoc throughout the state. It is deeply unfortunate that Maine’s first interaction with the Clean School Bus Program, a rebate initiative managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has panned out this way. By 2035, the agency wants 75% of all new American public school buses to be electric. What should have been a bold and encouraging step in the right direction, one funded by the federal government to the tune of $5 billion nationally, has stirred disillusionment and doubt in our communities. Not only, then, do we not have safe and dependable fleets of school buses, we have a vexing breach of public faith and trust that will take some recovering from.
ALL OUTDOORS • December 6, 2024
The Billfish Foundation (TBF) has announced the 2024 launch of its latest conservation initiative, The Skillie Project. A new project with the goal of better understanding and advancing the conservation of the understudied Northeastern Atlantic White Marlin (Tetrapturus albidus) population. Named for the local name of the billfish “Skillies”, this project is partnered up with the University of Maine, local captains, fishery pioneers, and the greater fishing community of southeastern New England. Additionally, cutting-edge satellite tagging tech is being used as well to better understand the migratory patterns of the White Marlin.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 7, 2024
The Canadian manufacturer of electric buses drawing complaints from several Maine school districts about mechanical and service problems is financially struggling and negotiating with creditors for more time to come up with cash. Winthrop, Vinalhaven and Yarmouth are among the districts reporting problems with electric school buses. The Maine Department of Education advised that Lion Electric Co. buses be parked until further inspections.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 7, 2024
A half-dozen University of New England students put their classroom knowledge to work last summer helping local partners tackle sustainability challenges such as how to reduce extreme heat, lay hiking trails through wetlands, and help businesses reduce their carbon footprints. The students were UNE’s first sustainability fellows, each paid a $6,800 stipend to work full time over 10 weeks to address real-world sustainability challenges identified by local community partners, such as Climatework Maine, The Ecology School and Nonantum Resort. Cameron Wake, the director of UNE’s Center for North Atlantic Studies, hopes the program he launched will train the next generation of sustainability leaders, aid community partners seeking help on specific sustainability challenges, and build an official sustainability network in southern Maine.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 7, 2024
As an official sport, cross country running with your dog, or canicross, has only recently gained traction in the United States. Canicross is a mashup of the words canine and cross-country. It began as a way for sled dogs to train off-season, and over the past few decades, it’s evolved into a stand-alone sport. According to Canicross USA, canicross is a “team sport” with the team consisting of a person and a dog working together. Typically, the person wears a waist belt, while the dog wears a special harness. The two are joined by a bungie-like leash that reduces shock when the dog pulls. It’s a lot like skijoring, a sport in which a dog pulls a person who’s on skis.
FRIENDS OF BAXTER STATE PARK • December 6, 2024
Friends of Baxter State Park is hiring a full-time Development Director. This is an outstanding opportunity to join a thriving organization and work on behalf of our beloved Baxter State Park. The Development Director will play a pivotal role in our growing organization, working at all levels to help achieve continued success. Application deadline is December 15, 2024.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 6, 2024
The state added three species of flower flies to its “special concern” list. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Advisory Council approved the designations Wednesday to increase the protection of the hourglass drone fly, the Slosson’s pond fly and the Holarctic bristleside fly to special concern. The advisory council’s action also adjusted its lists to reflect the addition of eight species, including five birds, a bumblebee, a bat and a beetle to the Maine Endangered Species list last year, and eliminated the salt marsh or margined tiger beetle from its special concern list. At last count in 2023, Maine had 57 species on its endangered species list.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL • December 6, 2024
The Greater Augusta Utilities District shut down two of its drinking water wells last month after testing showed levels of PFAS above the limit allowed by the state. The levels of PFAS, commonly known as forever chemicals because they stay in the environment for hundreds of years, were measured on Nov. 4 at 23.3 parts per trillion – 15% higher than the regulated maximum – at the two Riverside wells. The district was notified of the measurement on Nov. 19 and shut down the wells the same day. Levels had nearly tripled since the previous test in March.
NEWS CENTER MAINE • December 6, 2024
This week, the Biden administration moved to prevent dangerous "forever chemicals" from being released onto the market after a less rigorous review process. The federal action comes as Maine's first accredited lab to test for PFAS chemicals expands to meet the testing needs of customers in state and beyond. The lab works with researchers at the University of Maine who test crops like corn. Studies show corn takes up the chemicals in the stalk but not the kernels.
