The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
CBS 13 • December 16, 2024
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has identified a rabid raccoon in Cape Elizabeth. It’s unclear where or when that raccoon was spotted, but the agency is reminding folks about rabies safety, such as avoiding wildlife, especially if an animal seems to be acting irregularly, and to get your pets vaccinated for rabies. Rabies in wild animals is common in Maine and is most often found in raccoons, skunks, foxes, and bats.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 16, 2024
President Joe Biden is creating a new national monument in Maine to honor the legacy of a crusader for workers’ rights and the nation’s first female Cabinet secretary. That is the culmination of a campaign to win that designation for Frances Perkins’ family homestead in Newcastle. Biden on Monday will officially sign a proclamation declaring the property the Frances Perkins National Monument during a ceremony at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building in Washington. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2014.
MAINE PUBLIC • December 16, 2024
President Joe Biden plans to designate a new national monument in Newcastle, Maine, honoring Frances Perkins, who was the country's first female cabinet secretary. Perkins was a key architect of some of nation's most sweeping labor laws and reforms. During her 12 years as Franklin D. Roosevelt's labor secretary, Perkins led the push to standardize the 40-hour work week, to ban child labor and to create a federal minimum wage. She is also credited with helping to establish Social Security. According to the Biden administration, the president plans to designate the historic Newcastle farm as a national monument during a ceremony at the Labor Department headquarters in Washington on Monday.
MAINE PUBLIC • December 16, 2024
The Portland City Council will weigh in Monday night on a proposed two-day music and arts festival with national touring artists in Payson Park next summer. Concert organizers are proposing a festival for Aug. 2-3, 2025, and envision that the two-stage event would draw a crowd of about 12,000 people each day. Two years ago, promoters tried to bring a similar concept to the park but faced opposition from neighbors over noise, traffic and parking. If approved, festival organizers say they'll arrange a free shuttle service between Payson Park and offsite parking lots. The METRO bus service would be free for ticketholders.
THE WHITE HOUSE • December 16, 2024
Today President Biden will sign a proclamation establishing the Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine, to honor the historic contributions of America’s first woman Cabinet Secretary and the longest-serving Secretary of Labor. Frances Perkins was the leading architect behind the New Deal and led many labor and economic reforms that continue to benefit Americans today. During her 12 years as Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she envisioned and helped create Social Security; helped millions of Americans get back to work during the Great Depression; fought for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively; and established the minimum wage, overtime pay, prohibitions on child labor, and unemployment insurance.
MAINE MORNING STAR • December 16, 2024
The state’s newly updated climate action plan, known as Maine Won’t Wait, set a goal of having 150,000 light-duty electric vehicles on Maine roads by the start of the next decade. However, one of the incentives the state has used in recent years to promote that transition has run dry without any current plan to bring it back. “To further increase the number of EVs on the road, Maine must continue to offer attractive EV rebates and expand the dealer network offering rebates, especially in rural communities,” the climate action plan reads. But those rebates will need more money to continue. Going forward, Efficiency Maine has proposed a three-year strategic plan that gradually increases rebate funding from about $2 million next year to $4 million in fiscal year 2028. The State estimates a low-income EV rebate program would require $11 million to $28.8 million per year through 2032.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 16, 2024
The Newcastle home of labor secretary Frances Perkins – the central architect behind the New Deal – will become Maine’s second national monument after a declaration by President Biden on Monday. Perkins was the first woman to serve in a U.S. president’s cabinet, as secretary of labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945. The longest-serving person in that post, she spearheaded New Deal reforms like Social Security, the 40-hour work week, child labor laws and the minimum wage. The Frances Perkins National Monument will be run by the National Park Service, in collaboration with the nonprofit Frances Perkins Center. It is the second site in Maine to earn such a designation, along with Katahdin Woods and Waters, which was named a national monument in 2016.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 16, 2024
Maine is finalizing the next phase of its ambitious plans for energy storage, a renewable avenue that is becoming more important amid President-elect Donald Trump being poised to stall clean energy projects. Long-term energy storage facilities often feature nondescript box-like structures that are actually large batteries that absorb excess energy from the grid and discharge it when needed. In Maine, they already exist in old mill towns such as Rumford and Millinocket. Bigger projects are coming in Gorham and in Lincoln, which will be home to the world’s largest multi-day battery system.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 16, 2024
Pristine lawns can add value to a property, but the chemicals used to kill crabgrass, grubs and other insect pests also can run off into nearby waterways and cause health problems for humans and animals. Hallowell, Portland and Falmouth are among the first in Maine to devise ordinances with more teeth to minimize potential harm from pesticides. About three dozen other municipalities have adopted less sweeping restrictions, according to the regulatory Maine Board of Pesticides Control, with rules ranging from prohibiting the storage of pesticides within aquifer protection zones to whether they can be applied in woodland and shoreland areas.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 15, 2024
Ellsworth firefighters rescued a boy who fell through the ice on Graham Lake in Ellsworth on Sunday afternoon, according to WMTW. The boy, along with three other kids, had run away from a group home when they crossed a marsh on the lake, the Maine Warden Service told the station. At that point, three of the kids fell through the ice. While two of the kids who fell through were able to get out on their own, the third one eventually had to be pulled out by members of the Ellsworth Fire Department.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • December 15, 2024
As a professor of both environmental law and torts, I have previously called for legal action to hold accountable the fossil fuel companies that have driven the world into a climate crisis. Their products have caused the vast majority of carbon dioxide emissions, and, worse, they carried out a coordinated, decades-long campaign of deception about it. Now I am proud and grateful that the state of Maine has officially joined the fight to make big oil companies pay for the harm their illegal behavior has caused to our residents, economy and environment. A lawsuit, this one or any other, is not going to stop climate change. But it might help us pay for it. ~ Anthony Moffa, University of Maine School of Law
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • December 15, 2024
This year has been stellar for enjoying Maine’s skies. A total eclipse, Northern Lights, and the brightest comet visible in nearly 30 years. A dark night sky full of stars is a shared human heritage. Yet this resource is now increasingly rare. Nearly 80% of North Americans can no longer see the Milky Way due to light pollution. There is good news, however. East of the Mississippi River, Maine enjoys some of the darkest night skies. Both the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and the Appalachian Mountain Club’s forestland in Piscataquis County have been recognized by Dark Sky International for the quality of their night skies. Our organizations and partners are committed to conserving the night skies that Mainers and visitors love and that nature needs. ~ Eliza Townsend, Appalachian Mountain Club, and Francesca Gundrum, Maine Audubon
SUN JOURNAL • December 15, 2024
For anyone concerned about the alleged competition between solar energy and American farmland, there is abundant reassurance to be found in simple facts. The DOE states that to meet climate goals for 2050, the U.S. will need 10 million acres of photovoltaics, which is only 1.2% of farmland. In the last 20 years U.S. farmland has decreased by more than 65 million acres, six times what we need for solar. We should be concerned about farmland taken out of food production for reasons other than solar. An acre of corn planted for ethanol produces enough net energy to move a typical internal combustion powered car about 2,500 miles per year. The same acre with solar panels could move a typical electric car 1 to 1.5 million miles per year. ~ Paul Stancioff, Ph.D., emeritus professor of physics, UMaine at Farmington; Cynthia Stancioff, Master of Public Administration
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • December 15, 2024
The town of Falmouth Conservation Commission has put forward an ordinance that will ban commercial applicators of fertilizers from using nonorganic products on residential lots but not on town-owned areas. It is unfair to create a dual structure of who can and who can’t apply their preferred type of fertilizer. A poll that showed 57.5% of residents oppose this restrictive ordinance. This ordinance takes away consumers’ right to choose. It comes from ideology and is not based on science or data. ~ Matthew R. Tabenken, Falmouth
WABI-TV5 • December 15, 2024
A man fell through the ice on Notched Pond in Raymond on Saturday afternoon but managed to pull himself out and return to shore. The incident occurred about 200 yards offshore. A bystander called 911. Rescue crews were on the scene within 10 minutes. The man was taken to a hospital, where he is being treated for hypothermia. Sgt. Kyle Hladik with the Maine Warden Service urged caution when venturing onto ice this time of year.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 15, 2024
Karen and Paul Volckhausen have spent more than half their lives on the Happytown Road in Orland. There, the couple built a home, grew vegetables and flowers, tapped maple trees and raised chickens, turkeys, sheep and pigs. They started as homesteaders during Maine’s 1970s back-to-the-land movement and grew their efforts into a commercial farm that’s now a local fixture. At the end of the year, Karen, 83, and Paul, 73, are retiring. But they’ll still live there, and the farm will keep growing — an employee, 32-year-old Angelica Harwood, is taking it over.
DAILY BULLDOG • December 14, 2024
When the first storm of the season drops a good 10 inches of snow across the foothills of Western Maine, I head for the snowshoe trails of Mt. Blue State Park in Weld. I usually get out my snowshoeing gear by mid-November, to have it at the ready when snow arrives. My email inbox brings a notice from the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands that the Park trails are open for use. I am out the door – snowshoes, trekking poles with snow baskets, a daypack with hot soup, plenty of water, a back-up layer of clothing, and other essentials. ~ Doug Dunlap
MAINE MONITOR • December 14, 2024
When Whole Oceans announced plans to build a land-based Atlantic salmon farm on the site of a former paper mill in Bucksport in 2018, the town embraced the project. This diverged from the reception of a similar proposal in nearby Belfast, which was announced just a month earlier. Both projects were pitched as better for the environment than fish farms that use net pens in the ocean, which abound in Washington County but have been banned in all states on the West Coast due to their environmental impacts. Yet six years later there is nothing to see at the Bucksport site, and its local permits have expired. A land-based fish farm proposed for Jonesport has been hung up by legal challenges, as has the Nordic Aquaculture proposal in Belfast.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 14, 2024
Now that winter is here, it's important to store your gear properly. Check buckles and straps, and repair or replace tears and other damage. Check your tent walls, mesh and rainfly for tears and holes; repair as needed with tape or mesh patches. Wash your sleeping bag in a front-loading machine on the gentle cycle using a down cleaner product. Dry the bag on low and throw in three or four tennis balls to break up the down clumps. Your air mattress should be gently wiped down with a damp sponge or cloth and a dab of liquid dish soap. Let it dry and then stow loosely rolled up. Gently scrub your boots using warm water and dish soap. Air dry of the sun. Remove the insoles, rinse and dry. Treat boots with a waterproofing wax for leather. Clean and dry your cook kit. Disinfect your hydration bladder and drinking tube. Sort through the rest of your gear and organize it all. ~ Carey Kish
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 14, 2024
Trapping is a fascinating part of the conservation tools that we have in Maine. The benefits of trapping are also often misunderstood. It has played a significant role in our country’s history. The fur industry led to the creation of some early economies, and the creation of some of the most well-known trading hubs in all the colonies. Hunters and trappers have been at the forefront of conservation efforts from the start. ~ Erin Merrill
