The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
Thank you for reading Maine Environmental News. Each year, we post thousands of news summaries, notices, and links related to important environmental issues from across the state (and beyond). If you find this service useful, you can help us continue to provide it by making a donation. Just click on the button below and contribute whatever you can afford. Thanks again for your generous support!
Sincerely,
Jym St. Pierre
Editor, Maine Environmental News
MAINE PUBLIC • October 9, 2025
Farmers may find it difficult to access federal aid programs due to the government shutdown as Maine endures its worst drought in more than 20 years. The Farm Service Agency declared an extreme drought disaster in 10 Maine counties a week before the shutdown. Farmers were urged to report drought-related crop or livestock losses to their local Farm Service office, but some say they're having trouble getting information. Currently displayed on the USDA website is a banner that says: "Due to the radical left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse." As of Oct. 9, a search function on the government website does not display any contact information for Maine service centers.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 8, 2025
Two Mainers were among a class of 22 “exceptional, creative, and inspiring people” named MacArthur Fellows Wednesday, an honor often referred to as a “Genius Grant.” Artist Jeremy Frey, a Passamaquoddy weaver based in Eddington, and Margaret Wickens Pearce, a Rockland-based cartographer who creates maps that foreground Indigenous understanding of place, were both named as fellows by the MacArthur Foundation. The award comes with an unrestricted grant of $800,000. Frey, 46, grew up on the Passamaquoddy Reservation at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township) and has taken the Wabanaki practice of basketmaking and launched it into the world of fine art. Pearce, 60, is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Through collaboration with Indigenous communities, her work blends archival materials and other forms of historical knowledge to create maps that center Indigenous understandings of land and place.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 8, 2025
President Trump claims that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” Now that he gets no resistance from the courts nor the Republican Congress, he acts on his groundless opinion by halting renewable projects and rescinding appropriated funds that would create jobs and promote clean energy. He stops agencies from researching climate change, destroying data and knowledge. He favors fossil fuel production, which is more expensive than renewables. Our environment is changing in real time. California Gov. Gavin Newsom noted that he has witnessed communities wiped off the face of the Earth. His response to Trump’s speech, “There’s no Republican…or Democratic thermometer, just reality. And a lot of us are getting mugged by reality.…wake up to the reality.” ~ Dorothy Jones, Brunswick
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 7, 2025
The Passamaquoddy Tribe can move ahead with a plan to install hundreds of solar panels on homes and administrative buildings in Indian Township, regulators unanimously said Tuesday. The project’s fate is now largely up to the Environmental Protection Agency — and whether it will still allow the tribe to access a $7.4 million grant secured more than 13 months ago. The fight has revolved around whether the local utility, Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative, should be required to provide billing credits for households that get rooftop panels installed as part of the project and produce more electricity than they use. That answer relies largely on whether the installations are viewed as one large project, as the co-op has contended, or as hundreds of smaller projects, as the tribe has said.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 7, 2025
Maine utility regulators have sided with the Passamaquoddy Tribe in a dispute with its local utility to install solar panels and battery storage across more than 200 homes in Indian Township. The tribe's plans have been delayed for almost a year, after Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative argued that the federally-funded rooftop arrays amounted to a "single discrete generating facility." The Co-op insisted that meant the arrays collectively had the capacity to produce more power than was allowed to qualify for billing credits that offset homeowners electric costs. The Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday rejected that position.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 7, 2025
A Maine moose, because of its sheer size, demands precise shot placement. Noted guide and author Dave Kelso writes that the best possible shot is in the neck. Guide Matt LaRoche warns of the risks if a neck shot is missed. He advises clients to aim for the heart and lungs. Outdoor video producer John Altman prefers a heart-and-lungs shot but would take a neck shot if the moose were within range and it was the only option. Outfitter John Floyd favors a neck shot at 100 yards and under, but says that beyond that distance he would want to be confident in the shooter’s ability and would consider a traditional vitals shot safer. Tom Kelly noted that many guides favor a low neck shot because it can drop a moose in its tracks when executed properly, but he personally prefers a double-lung shot for the greater margin of error. Dave Hentosh of Smoldering Lake Outfitters, who has extensive moose-hunting experience, calls lung shots the “safest and most reliable.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 6, 2025
As the ongoing federal shutdown approaches a full week, concerns are growing about its economic impact on Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island. Last October, Acadia collected about $1.5 million in fees that it stands to miss out on this month if the shutdown continues for the next few weeks, according to Friends of Acadia. But how long the shutdown might last — and how much income the park will lose — is not the only question that has observers scratching their heads. Last week, information about the federal shutdown effects on the park changed daily, though the park’s current conditions alerts on its website have not changed since Friday. Bo Jennings, president of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, said that though both Acadia and Bar Harbor remain busy with tourists, things could be better. He said visitors have felt frustrated at not having park staff on hand to offer guidance or other assistance, and with the haphazard manner that information has been released or changed. Even so, people have been happy they can enter the park and that the weather has been good for being outside, he said.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 6, 2025
Campfire stories and a Bigfoot calling contest will be featured events at Maine’s Bigfoot Festival on Saturday, Oct. 18, and Sunday, Oct. 19, in Eustis, as well as Sasquatch-inspired kids events and guided walks in the woods to look for signs of the elusive creature. The two-day event, hosted by the Spillover Motel and the Spillover Inn at Stratton Brook, includes vendors and speakers and kicks off at 10 a.m. at the Eustis Community Building, 84 Main St. Peter Small, president and lead investigator of Maine Bigfoot Foundation, will give the opening remarks. According to Small, northern Franklin County, especially in the Bigelow Mountain area, has been a very active area recently.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 6, 2025
Multicolored Asian lady beetles, an invasive species in the same family as Maine’s native ladybugs, often move indoors in the fall to overwinter. They’re mostly harmless. They don’t chew on furniture, spread disease or reproduce indoors. The downside is that crushing them releases a strong odor and yellow stain, and they can bite, Asian lady beetles may be a pest inside your home, but outdoors, they play an important role in Maine’s gardens and forests, feeding on aphids. With a few preventive measures, you can keep these seasonal visitors where they belong — out in nature and not crawling across your ceilings.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 5, 2025
Four historic sites have been added to the 2025 list of Maine's most endangered and at-risk places compiled by the non-profit Maine Preservation. It includes the home of former Gov. Abner Coburn in Skowhegan. A fire destroyed the roof and upper floors of the home last year. The list also includes the Guy P. Gannett Garage in Augusta, now home to the First Amendment Museum, which preservationists say is structurally unsound. The Leach-Overlock House in East Vassalboro and the North Franklin Agricultural building in Phillips have both fallen into disrepair. The Phillips building is the last remaining structure from the days when busy agricultural fairs were held in town. All four sites faces expensive repairs, structural failures and legal challenges that make restoration efforts difficult, Maine Preservation said. The group said the list is intended to shine a public light on these sites and boost interest in preserving them.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 5, 2025
Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument added $3.4 million to the northern Maine economy last year. The park's economic impact is detailed in a new report from the National Park Service. The park service reports that the national monument had just over 35,000 visitors in 2024, who spent $2.7 million and supported 26 jobs in the surrounding region. Superintendent Neal Labrie said visitors are drawn to the North Woods by the Monument's International Dark Sky Sanctuary designation and its Wabanaki worldview. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument was created in 2016 by a proclamation from President Barack Obama. It includes more than 87,000 acres of land in Penobscot County adjacent to Baxter State Park.
ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 5, 2025
As part of a broad Trump directive, the National Park Service is under orders to review interpretive materials at all its historical properties and remove or alter descriptions that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” or otherwise sully the American story. This comes as the Republican president has complained about institutions that go too deep, in his view, on “how bad slavery was.” The Interior Department order covers more than history. At the nature parks, material that “emphasizes matters unrelated to the beauty, abundance, or grandeur” also is to be flagged. That means references to climate change or other human degradations of nature. At Acadia National Park in Maine, 10 signs citing climate change are now gone. “Our national parks are not billboards for propaganda,” Rep. Chellie Pingree told Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 5, 2025
This year, Maine saw its sixth-driest summer on record. As of Oct. 2, more than half of the state was in severe or extreme drought. The Maine agricultural economy is grappli in July and August and now threatens next year’s harvests. The drought has caused reductions in hay crops, shortened the season for many row crops, resulting in smaller harvests, and it could hurt next year’s berry and tree fruit. Most of Maine will need an extra 6 to 12 inches of rain above normal levels — 125% to 175% of the seasonal average — before the ground freezes in order to come out of drought, National Weather Service hydrologist Sarah Jamison said.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 5, 2025
The entrances to America’s seventh-busiest national park were open Friday, but unmanned. Visitor centers were closed. Park rangers were scarce, most having been furloughed by the government shutdown. The parking lots and Island Explorer buses remained full of guests determined to enjoy one of Maine’s most popular tourist destinations at the height of leaf peeping season, but the experience looked a little different. “It’s confusing to know what’s open, what’s closed, what we can do, what we can’t do,” said Chris DeMichieli, who was visiting from Michigan. “We know they have limited services, but because the visitor centers are closed down, it’s been hard to find any information.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 5, 2025
On occasion, the most prepared hiker can become injured or worse. But there are many ways you can reduce risks while hiking.
• Research your hike ahead of time
• Leave a hiking plan behind
• Hike with a companion
• Carry lots of water
• Pack a light
• Set a turnaround time
• Wear proper footwear
• Carry high-calorie snacks
• Wear synthetic or wool clothing
• Carry a map and navigational tools
• Consider a personal locator beacon
• Watch your step
• Carry some first aid
• Carry some survival gear
ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 4, 2025
U.S. officials in the coming days are set to hold the government’s biggest coal sales in more than a decade, offering 600 million tons from publicly owned reserves next to strip mines in Montana and Wyoming. The sales are a signature piece of President Donald Trump’s ambitions for companies to dig more coal from federal lands and burn it for electricity. Yet most power plants served by those mines plan to quit burning coal altogether within 10 years. Three other mines poised for expansions or new leases under Trump also face declining demand as power plants use less of their coal and in some cases shut down. Those market realities raise a fundamental question about the Republican administration’s push to revive a heavily polluting industry that long has been in decline: Who’s going to buy all that coal?
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 4, 2025
Maine’s apple harvest is underway, and orchard owners in western and central Maine say that while conditions this year affected each grower differently and caused some reduction in yield, there will be plenty of top-notch apples this fall. The concern is primarily the quantity of fruit.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 4, 2025
Having just returned from a “bucket-list” trip to Hawaii, I learned something that made me angry and very disappointed in our state. Hawaii’s plentiful and wondrous beaches are all open to the public — everywhere in the entire state. There is no such thing as a private beach in Hawaii. Why can’t Maine, like Hawaii, fight to keep our beaches and more scenic recreational areas free and accessible to the public? It really is a shame. ~ Ellen Kornetsky, Brunswick
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 3, 2025
You won’t find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in the Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area, but hike in from the Golden Road and you will discover plenty of rainbows. Like Rainbow Lake, Rainbow Ledges, Rainbow Mountain, Rainbow Spring, Rainbow Stream and the Rainbow Loop Trail. Never mind the big rainbow of a smile across your happy face when you find yourself deep in the midst of this remarkable chunk of wild country. Situated at the far northern end of the 100-Mile Wilderness, the 46,271-acre Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area is one of the crown jewels of conservation in Maine’s North Woods. ~ Carey Kish