The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 8, 2025
Maine lawmakers have rejected a proposal to extend a conservation easement on Sears Island to include the proposed site of an industrial wind port. The Senate voted 24-9 Monday to kill a bill that would have extended the easement held by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust that currently protects about two-thirds of the 940-acre island by adding the rest of it — about 330 acres owned by the state.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • April 8, 2025
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service. Its mission is to leave natural and historic phenomenons "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Since then, our national parks have welcomed visitors from around the world to experience some of the best the country has to offer and to showcase the country's natural beauty and cultural heritage. Today, the 63 national parks in the U.S. contain at least 247 species of endangered or threatened plants and animals, more than 75,000 archaeological sites, and 18,000 miles of trails.
92MOOSE • April 7, 2025
When it comes to Maine wildlife, we are very fortunate for a number of reasons. For starters, Maine isn't really a place where there is a large population of animals that are poisonous to humans. Secondly, Maine IS in fact home to a wide array of different species that people from all over the country come for a chance to see. According to information from the Maine Audubon website, the fastest bird in Maine (and the world) is the super-speedy Peregrine Falcon.
ENVIRONMENT MAINE • April 7, 2025
On Monday, Environment Maine submitted testimony before the state legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources committee in support of LD 1158: An Act to Expand Appliance Energy and Water Standards sponsored by Representative Arthur Bell. The bill aims to implement energy and water efficiency standards for nine products sold in Maine starting on January 1, 2027. According to analysis from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, if passed, the standards would:
• prevent 2 billion gallons of water from going wasted between now and 2050;
• prevent 286 tons of nitrogen oxide pollution from entering our air by 2050, and
• prevent 3 tons of sulfur dioxide pollution from entering our air by 2050.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 7, 2025
A debris pile burn on Saturday in Mapleton got out of control and burned 45.8 acres before it was stopped. The fire threatened three structures, according to the Maine Forest Service. After an earlier fire on April 2 in Fort Fairfield that burned 3.7 acres, the forest service urged caution with outdoor burns, saying early melting of the snow pack this year has left fields susceptible to burning much earlier than normal.
TIMES RECORD • April 7, 2025
Maine Coast Heritage Trust and the Maine Land Trust Network got a boost with a recent $5,000 donation from Norway Savings Bank. The donation supports the conservation groups’ 2025 Maine Land Conservation Conference. Scheduled for April 29-30 at the Augusta Civic Center, the conference is hosted by MCHT and MLTN and draws hundreds of conservation professionals, advocates and volunteers from across the state. Last year’s event drew more than 300 participants who exchanged ideas, built connections and talked land conservation across Maine.
TIMES RECORD • April 7, 2025
Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust is seeking volunteers for a long-standing community science program that collects data on horseshoe crab populations in the Damariscotta River estuary. Horseshoe crabs will soon be arriving at the shores of estuary to lay their eggs. A volunteer training session will be from 3-5 p.m. next Friday, April 18, in the Denny Conservation and Education Center at Coastal Rivers’ Round Top Farm in Damariscotta.
MAINE PUBLIC • April 7, 2025
What do a farmer, a food bank director and a Republican state senator all have in common? They're among those sounding the alarm about a proposal in Congress to cut between 20% and 30% from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP. In Maine, 174,000 people rely on it for food every month. But if the reduction is approved, advocates say food insecurity will rise and Maine's rural economy will suffer.
MAINE PUBLIC • April 7, 2025
New building codes take effect Monday in Maine. The State Fire Marshal's Office and Governor's Energy Office want builders, residents, architects, and municipalities to understand the changes. The new codes are intended to ensure that buildings moving forward meet updated structural integrity, energy efficiency, and indoor air quality standards. Among the changes are the requirement to use more insulation in floors and walls to improve energy efficiency that the U.S. Dept of Energy estimates will save homeowners hundreds of dollars on their utility bills.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 7, 2025
Great white sharks appear to be using the shallow coastal waters next to some of Maine’s most popular beaches in late summer while traveling between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, most likely snacking on the growing seal populations in the Gulf of Maine. A team of New England scientists documented 107 white sharks off the coast of Maine, ranging from 7 to 16 feet in length, between 2012 and 2023, with most detected within a half mile from shore in less than 65 feet of water, according to a study published last month in Frontiers in Marine Science.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 7, 2025
Geoff Bowley, a Kennebunk-based developer, bought 38 acres of former commercial blueberry land in Blue Hill in 2023 and proposed high-end homes for the site last year. Public resistance in Blue Hill and neighboring towns has been significant, continuing for months without showing signs of stopping. The ongoing debate over the project has illustrated the tension that many Maine communities face as they work to address a critical statewide housing shortage while trying to protect cherished natural resources. It has also demonstrated how traditional uses of land are changing.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 7, 2025
When Dolly Perkins was a young real estate agent, Mainers could easily find an affordable home that came with hundreds of acres. But those kinds of properties, known as “kingdom parcels,” are becoming more and more rare to find in Maine. The ones that are on the market tend to sit for months despite high interest from farmers, developers and hunters, because of their high prices and maintenance needs. “It takes a huge commitment in order to have a kingdom parcel,” said Perkins, a realtor with Realty of Maine. “People, for the most part, tend to gravitate towards 5 or 2 acres a lot where they can just have a house, and they’re not beholden to the property to maintain it.”
THE TRAVEL • April 5, 2025
Acadia National Parks issued several citations in recent weeks for hikers that violated the closure of the Precipice Trail. During the year, the park closes several of the trails for the peregrine falcons, who usually nest. The falcons are vulnerable to human disturbance. Not listening to the rule can lead to the falcons abandoning their next, and leaving the chicks vulnerable to starvation, along with hypothermia. As expected, visitors standby Acadia's decision to close the trail.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 6, 2025
EverettvSmith, an eighth-generation descendant of the early settlers in the town of Hope is focused on the future: bringing the land back into production to provide for his three young children. Those fruit trees — mainly apples, pears and plums — are a link between the two. Smith is building a small mail-order business of local varieties, a passion that grew out of researching his family’s long history in the Maine orchard world. While Maine has long attracted aspiring homesteaders from out of state, Smith is building up his own homestead and business on land he has deep connections to. Because he knows so much about its past and is so invested in its future, he said he feels he’s just borrowing the land.
SUN JOURNAL • April 6, 2025
By the end of 2024, finances at TimberHP were in distress. The growing expenses and unsuccessful attempt to raise more equity ultimately led the parent company of TimberHP, GO Lab Inc., to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection March 25. As part of the prenegotiated Chapter 11 restructuring plan, the company said participating bondholders will invest $29 million to support the transition through bankruptcy and to provide capital for business growth, including the completion of its manufacturing line for the TimberBoard product. Madison, the third largest town by population in Somerset County with about 4,700 people, was faced with a serious blow when Madison Paper Industries announced its closure in 2016.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • April 6, 2025
This administration is using its chainsaw to whack away at what it falsely defines as “government waste” with no forethought or plan. The National Park Service (NPS), for example, operates under various legal mandates. Its mission is to preserve this nation’s most cherished natural and cultural resources for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and all future generations. There is no “deep state” — only park rangers, biologists, historians, maintenance workers and other dedicated professionals committed to preserving our nation’s most cherished natural and cultural heritage. The people who serve the millions of visitors to our national parks are not thinking about who the president is or how the political winds are changing as they go about their work on behalf of all Americans. They’re just keeping up with the daily operations of the park. ~ Sheridan Steele, Acadia National Park superintendent (retired)
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • April 6, 2025
Maine gets a decent amount of sun. Why don’t our engineers, architects and construction folks integrate solar into the buildings, and utilize more of the natural resources we have filtering into the urban environment? Ask a tradesperson what breaks down their materials and installations over time. Solar PVs are the one thing that actually wants to get hammered with 30 years of UV sunlight. ~ Will Kessler, NABCEP-PVIP, Portland
SUN JOURNAL • April 6, 2025
A Lisbon Falls farm was able to build a strong relationship during the pandemic with Lisbon schools through the federal Local Foods for Schools program, which provides funding to districts to buy local produce. That’s all in peril now. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month the program has been canceled along with $2.78 million in federal funding that would have come to Maine over the next three years. As school districts recalibrate how much they can afford to purchase from local producers, the farms, many of them already struggling financially, are bracing for the loss of income they had planned on.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 5, 2025
Loggers are a testament to resilience, ingenuity, and dedication, working tirelessly to harvest and transport timber. Today, wood remains vital — not only for construction and paper, but also for emerging fields like nanotech and biofuels. Maine’s logging industry significantly contributes to the state’s economy. Very little of this money coming into the state had anything to do with federal funding, rather it’s the result of the free market at work as intended. An implication that Maine loggers depend on government subsidies to survive is entirely untrue. The government can be most helpful if it protects its citizens and their businesses from unfair competition, not stimulate them with subsidies. ~ Brent Day, owner of Day Logging in Porter
MAINE MONITOR • April 4, 2025
For more than a decade, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence included the mounting impacts of climate change in its annual reports on global and regional threats to U.S. national security. But the U.S. intelligence community’s fact-based, nonpolitical streak came to a screeching halt last month. The 2025 threat assessment, which the Trump administration released on March 18, makes no mention of climate change or other environmental threats, part of a broader administrative effort to scrub such references from government websites and documents. At a Senate hearing last week, Maine Sen. Angus King (I) used part of his allotted time to interrogate Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard about the sudden change.
