Judge pauses Maine lobster defamation suit pending appeal

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 15, 2025

A federal judge on Tuesday paused proceedings in a defamation lawsuit Maine lobstering groups brought against a California aquarium, staying the case until broad questions about how to interpret Maine libel law are answered by an appeals court. U.S. District Judge John Woodcock had ruled in February that the suit — brought by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and a handful of lobstering businesses — could proceed after nearly two years in legal limbo. The groups sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation “for making false and defamatory statements about Maine lobster fishing practices and for misleading consumers and commercial lobster buyers about the integrity of the Maine lobster harvest” after the aquarium’s Seafood Watch program downgraded its rating for Maine lobster.

Proposed bill would restructure Brunswick Landing leadership, require environmental stewardship

TIMES RECORD • April 25, 2025

A bill introduced Friday would reshape the leadership of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, the organization responsible for Brunswick Landing. If passed, the bill would amend the goals of the authority to require it to engage in “environmental stewardship.” It would also restructure the authority’s board of trustees, an 11-member body appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature. Brunswick Landing is the site of an August 2024 firefighting foam spill that released 51,450 gallons of foam laced with toxic forever chemicals.

Orrington trash plant won’t reopen for more than a year

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 15, 2025

The Orrington trash incinerator is 15 to 18 months away from reopening. The plant was shuttered in 2023 after longtime owner Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. was foreclosed on. The timeline shared Tuesday is the latest update on the incinerator’s future, and is more than a year and a half later than the facility’s newest owners had proposed reopening when they purchased it last year.

Brunswick Landing removes toxic foam from airport hangar

TIMES RECORD • April 15, 2025

The authority in charge of Brunswick Landing has removed firefighting foam containing forever chemicals from one of its airport hangars. Hangar 6 held 975 gallons of aqueous film-forming foam concentrate, or AFFF, containing a toxic PFAS chemical compound known as PFOS. A malfunction at Brunswick Executive Airport’s Hangar 4, which is owned by the Navy but operated by Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, dumped 1,450 gallons of AFFF concentrate mixed with 50,000 gallons of water last summer. The spill prompted ongoing cleanup and monitoring efforts as well as a push to get rid of the foam at the airport in Brunswick and across the state.

Celebrate the outdoors on the big screen in Brunswick this Earth Day

TIMES RECORD • April 15, 2025

EveningStar Cinema in Brunswick will celebrate Earth Day with screenings of “A Peace of Forest,” a new nature documentary made by Maine filmmakers about the state’s wildlife. The movie theater will screen the film in the days following Earth Day, which is on April 22. There will be showings on April 25-27 and May 1. Husband-and-wife team Lee Ann and Thomas Mark Szelog shot the entire film within 70 acres of forest in Whitefield, where they live. “‘A Peace of Forest’ is a compelling, feature-length film, celebrating the beauty and intimacy of wildlife in Maine,” according to a theater news release. “This one-of-a-kind cinematic adventure showcases surprising, tender and exquisite interactions of wildlife during peaceful moments in Maine’s natural world.”

Opinion: What Republicans won’t tell you about the US trade deficit with Canada

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 15, 2025

For years, the United States has actively assisted Canada in growing its oil production because U.S. presidents saw an opportunity to shift oil acquisition away from OPEC countries to our more secure and trustworthy partner to the north. Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada under a tortured idea that Canada is treating us unfairly doesn’t acknowledge the enormous benefit we set up for both countries by giving Canada the assistance needed to expand its oil production. Engaging in a trade war will cost both countries dearly but also force the United States away from secure Canadian oil, back into the arms of OPEC and its Middle Eastern billionaire-supported terror networks. Far from making America great again, Donald Trump is destroying beneficial relationships with allies, enabling unfriendly regimes and driving costs up for everything: a lose, lose, lose proposition. ~ Stephen Demetriou, Waldoboro

Maine lawmakers pitch a new way around forever chemicals

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 14, 2025

A proposed bill to be heard by the Maine Legislature’s energy committee on Monday aims to get a one-time, $10 million payment from the state to extend Fairfield’s public water supply to residents with private wells that have high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. To date, state regulators have dealt with the high readings in Fairfield by providing free filtration systems to residents. So far, 149 homes have the systems, and another 111 are approved for them. But money for the $25 million filtration program will run out in a few years.

Project at former Jay paper mill uncertain after tariffs

MAINE PUBLIC • April 11, 2025

The fate of the former Androscoggin Mill in Jay is uncertain once again, as the new owner contends with the impact of tariffs. Godfrey Forest Products has started demolition on the site to build a new facility to manufacture oriented strand board — a material similar to plywood, said owner John Godfrey. But he said the facility will require equipment from Europe and electrical components from China — and even domestic machinery is affected by the rising costs from tariffs on steel. And the tariffs could reduce demand for construction materials domestically. "So the tariffs represent a double whammy of raising the cost of building the factory and perhaps diminishing the market's desire for our product," Godfrey said.

Opinion: Maine farms are under attack in Augusta

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 13, 2025

Agriculture in Maine is responsible for more than 200,000 jobs totaling $11.3 billion. It brings in more than $5 billion in tax revenue and exports nearly $650 million worth of goods. We should be doing everything possible to support our farmers. Some policies being considered in Augusta right now would do the opposite. LD 1323 seeks to ban the use of insecticides known as “neonics.” Neonics have been proven safe for human health. Lawmakers are also considering labor bills that would have a detrimental impact on farmers. The most problematic would get rid of the overtime exemption in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. This is a farm-killer. Last, Maine is part of the New England Food System Planners Partnership — a collaboration with a goal that 30% of the food consumed in New England will be produced here by 2030. That will be extremely hard to pull off by enacting policies that increase our production and labor costs. ~ Jim Pitreau, Green Thumb Farms, Fryeburg

Farmers on Maine’s coast are trying keep their land from becoming vacation homes

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 12, 2025

Some longtime farmers who, despite the state’s hot real estate market, are struggling to sell or lease their land because they’re searching for people to take over their farms rather than turn them into vacation homes. That’s partly due to the challenges facing younger generations, they say, including their own past apprentices who love their farms but are either unable or unwilling to take over. Newer farmers, for their part, face prohibitively expensive land prices paired with low wages.

Children’s Museum loses federal grant intended for Wabanaki history programs

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 12, 2025

The Trump administration has terminated a nearly $250,000 grant the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine was using for programs about Wabanaki culture and history. The Portland museum was awarded the money last yearfrom the Institute of Museum and Library Services and was already deep in the process of developing a project that includes programs for schoolchildren and other visitors, curriculum support for teachers and a play adapted from a children’s book. President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary federal support for U.S. libraries and museums, “unnecessary” and vowing to eliminate it.

Maine extends gray squirrel hunting season

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 11, 2025

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife expanded the hunting season for gray squirrels by a month and shifted youth waterfowl hunting dates in the north zone to start and end a week later than last year. The bounty of food, including acorns, in the last few years has helped the gray squirrel population increase to a point that the department felt the hunting season could be expanded, especially in southern and central Maine. It will be held from the last Saturday in September through the end of January. The season has in past years ended on Dec. 31.

Construction starts on $55M Aroostook potato chip plant

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 11, 2025

After numerous technical delays, construction is underway on a $55 million potato chip plant on the former Loring Air Force Base, with plans to open for production about a year from now. The Taste of Maine Potato Chip Co. expects to begin producing chips in spring of 2026, then reach full capacity that June. The 80,000-square-foot facility could employ up to 100 people and use more than 1,500 acres worth of Aroostook potatoes.

Column: A wave of migratory birds is about to change the Maine landscape

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 11, 2025

The curtain rises on the big show in a week, when the first major wave of migrant songbirds returns to Maine. Three warbler species will lead the way: palm, pine, and yellow-rumped. Ruby-crowned kinglets may overwhelm them all, at least vocally. It’s hard to shut ‘em up this time of year. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers will fly in overnight. At dawn, they will begin drumming on the loudest thing they can find. I’ll share one final observation that makes me giggle. Ring-billed gulls look like a smaller version of the ubiquitous herring gull. They’re all over town right now. While getting gas at BJs last week, there were too many in the parking lot to count. ~ Bob Duchesne

Republican lawmakers want to put a moratorium on dam removals

MAINE MONITOR • April 11, 2025

In a hearing on Monday, a pair of Republican state legislators introduced three bills they say would put an outright moratorium on dam removal. State officials and fish passage advocates voiced stern opposition to all three bills, testifying that they would contradict federal law and undermine ecological protections. The conflicting viewpoints created an unusual dynamic: On one side, nonprofits like the Atlantic Salmon Federation argued in favor of existing regulatory processes — the same processes they so often critique when dams go through federal relicensing. On the other side, Republican legislators cited Maine’s clean energy goals in pushing for additional regulations.

Maine’s top court rules in favor of Down East fish farm proposal

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 11, 2025

Maine’s top court has rejected appeals that challenged the permits for a proposed 94-acre, land-based fish farm overlooking Chandler Bay in Jonesport, clearing the way for the multimillion project to move forward.Opponents said state environmental regulators, as part of their approval of the project under the Natural Resources Protection Act, did not do enough to assess the impacts that the discharge of treated wastewater would have on wildlife in the bay. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the opponents’ arguments Thursday, saying the regulators’ approval of allowing the discharge of treated wastewater into the bay was consistent with the requirements of state law.

Trump team cites wolf ‘de-extinction’ as reason to cut endangered species list

WASHINGTON POST • April 10, 2025

The Trump administration is trumpeting a biotech company’s claim of reviving a long-lost wolf as an argument for slashing endangered species protections. Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences said Monday that it used gene editing to create “de-extinct animals” in the form of three pups with the light-colored fur and musculature of a dire wolf. Many scientists expressed skepticism that the pups could be classified as part of a canine species that went extinct over 10,000 years ago. But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the achievement demonstrates that it is not government regulations but innovation that will save species.

REI retracts endorsement of Trump's Secretary of Interior, vows to protect public lands

FOX NEWS • April 10, 2025

REI's CEO has publicly retracted the company's previous endorsement of President Trump's nominee for Secretary of the Interior - and issued an apology while doubling down on protecting public lands. After Trump began his second term, REI was part of the "Outdoor Recreation Roundtable" that sent a letter officially endorsing Burgum in January. Trump confirmed his nominee, Doug Burgum, as the secretary on Feb. 1. Burgum is an ultra-wealthy software industry entrepreneur and served two terms as governor of North Dakota. In a video message posted on REI's social media platforms on Wednesday, current REI CEO Mary Beth Laughton described the endorsement as a "mistake." She emphasized, "Our public lands are under attack from the gutting of national park staff to expanded threats of drilling or even selling off our public lands, the future of life outdoors has never felt so uncertain.”

Bowdoin College to open outdoor recreation center named for late student

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 10, 2025

Bowdoin College plans to build an outdoor education center in the Carrabassett Valley that will carry the name of a Bowdoin student who thrived in the wilderness and died in a kayaking accident. The college has purchased 21 acres along the Carrabassett River in Kingfield that will become the Finnegan McCoul Woodruff Mountain Center. The Bowdoin Outing Club will use the space as a base of operations for its camping, skiing, mountain biking, hiking, fishing and other adventures. Brunswick native Finnegan “Finn” Woodruff was the son of Bowdoin Outing Club Director Mike Woodruff and an avid lover of the outdoors. A Bowdoin senior, he died in a kayaking accident on the White Salmon River in Washington in November 2021.

Gulf of Maine scallop fishery likely to close for first time in over 15 years

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 10, 2025

Fishermen are likely to be restricted from hauling scallops from federal waters in the Gulf of Maine for several weeks because regulators have delayed finalizing annual catch limits. The temporary closure, expected in the next five days, would mark the first time the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shut down the regional fishery midseason since the regulations were put into place 16 years ago. Those who dive for scallops near Maine’s coast are unaffected; federal waters begin 3 miles offshore.