Canadians put off by Trump’s bluster and border arrests are booking far fewer US visits

ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 25, 2025

Trump’s attacks on Canada’s economy and threats to make it the 51st state have infuriated Canadians, who are canceling trips to the U.S. in big numbers. The U.S. gets more visitors from Canada each year than from any other country. The 20.4 million visits from Canada last year generated $20.5 billion in spending. But there has been a big drop in foreigners traveling to the U.S. since Trump took office, and Canadians are no exception. There were more than 910,000 fewer land border crossings from Canada into the U.S. last month than in March of 2024 — a more than 22 percent drop. Trump brushed aside the decline in tourism to the United States on Wednesday, saying, “It’s not a big deal.”

Column: Keep your eyes and ears open, spring migration is about to begin

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 26, 2025

One of the most fun aspects of spring migration is you can step outside almost every day and see or hear some new bird species arriving for the summer. Keeping track of the arrival timing of migrants, or other phenological indicators like crocuses blooming, has been a major interest and area of study for naturalists for centuries. Download Merlin Bird ID. a free mobile app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that can identify birds in several ways. ~ Doug Hitchcox

A midcoast native is opening the 1st virtual lobster museum

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 25, 2025

After eight months of planning, designing, researching and building, a Belfast native is getting ready to open a new museum for Maine’s most famous crustacean. The Maine Lobster Museum will feature colorful, wide-ranging exhibits on everything from how lobsters have been caught over the years, to their biology, to their role in American pop culture. And it will be open to visitors anywhere in the world, at any time. That’s because the museum isn’t a brick-and-mortar space, but rather, a virtual resource available to anyone online.

How businesses along Maine’s northern border see Donald Trump’s trade war

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 26, 2025

Business owners from northern Maine and Canada attending the Top O’ Maine Trade show this weekend had the trade war on their minds, with some opposed to tariffs and others unsure that it will have a major effect on their operations. Business owner Scott Beaulieu said the tariffs may not have a direct impact on them, it will ultimately hurt the economy and tourism. “They’re creating a kind of a scare for people, and it’s too bad because we’ve had a relationship with the United States and Canada for so long that people who used to come and go each day are starting to get a little nervous, not to go, but to come back,” he said.

Some Maine landowners see a future in ecological forest management

MAINE MONITOR • April 26, 2025

Sustainable forestry, exemplary forestry. Foresters argue the pros and cons of each model, but the overall goal is the same: Timber harvests generate profits; woodlands remain healthy. Such approaches are more labor intensive and can be slower to produce income than traditional timbering practices. Even so, their earnings can be substantial — sometimes greater — and they tap into a natural, regenerative loop. The New England Forestry Foundation has developed a model it calls Exemplary Forestry, which strives to balance the conditions in individual forest tracts with those of the surrounding landscape, filling gaps in habitat needs for plants and wildlife while producing high-quality timber. The goal is to have a healthy mix of land uses, as well as a diversity of tree species and sizes. 

Opinion: Maine’s farmers and retailers can’t afford cuts to SNAP

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 26, 2025

Maine’s farms are in the news for all the wrong reasons — federal funding freezes, grant funding cuts, concerns over proposed tariffs and the end of a USDA program that helped schools purchase directly from farms. While support from our communities, media and members of Congress is important in the wake of these announcements, we need the same level of support against proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Food Assistance Program (SNAP), which will have dire consequences for Maine farmers and residents. ~ Jamie Cermak, Belfast Community Co-op, and Noami Brautigam and James Gagne, Second Frost Farm in Monroe

Avoid the crowds at Acadia by hiking this steep trail with granite steps

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 26, 2025

On the steep eastern side of Mansell Mountain is an impressive talus slope, a jumble of angular granite rocks baking under the sun. Adorned with faint blooms of white and green lichen, the rocks vary greatly in size and shape. Some of the hunks of granite are no larger than a book, while others are true boulders, exceeding the height of the hikers who labor past. It would be a tricky area to traverse if not for the stone staircase that strikes right through its center. Such is the magic of Acadia National Park. The trail, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, is steep and fantastical, its many steps forming a clear path through the wilderness. Yet it almost seems a part of the landscape.

Maine trappers are being suspended from YouTube with little explanation

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 26, 2025

Maine outdoorsmen who post trapping videos on YouTube were stripped of their ability to earn money on the platform, with little explanation as to why. Two of those channels were reinstated Friday after a Bangor Daily News reporter questioned YouTube over why the channels were demonetized. YouTube, which is owned by Google, is one of the few that allows channel creators to earn money from subscribers, merchandise, advertising and marketing. Two outdoorsmen recently posted videos on their YouTube channels explaining that they stopped posting content because YouTube demonetized their pages. YouTube cited its animal abuse policies as the primary reason for the demonetization in emails with the creators.

Opinion: The Endangered Species Act is endangered

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 26, 2025

Protecting imperiled species against destruction and fragmentation of their habitat is essential to conserve biological diversity. Habitat loss is the single biggest reason that many species face extinction. Yet, the Trump administration has proposed a rewrite of the definition of “harm” in rules under the Endangered Species Act. Regulations under the ESA define “harm” to include “significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.” The proposed change would remove this clause. The Trump proposal is illegal, ill-advised, and intended to disable the law that has worked to protect America’s wildlife for more than 50 years. ~ Sharon S. Tisher, lecturer emerita, UMaine

Big Tech’s soaring energy demands are making coal-fired power plant sites attractive

ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 26, 2025

Coal-fired power plants, long an increasingly money-losing proposition in the U.S., are becoming more valuable now that the suddenly strong demand for electricity to run Big Tech’s cloud computing and artificial intelligence applications has set off a full-on sprint to find new energy sources. President Trump suggested that coal can help meet surging power demand. He is wielding his emergency authority to entice utilities to keep older coal-fired plants online and producing electricity. Scores of coal-fired plants that have been shut down the past couple years — or will be shut down in the next couple years — are the object of growing interest from tech companies, venture capitalists, states and others competing for electricity. They have a very attractive quality: high-voltage lines connecting to the electricity grid that they aren’t using anymore and that a new power plant could use.

Column: This bird-tracking technology is mind-blowing

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 25, 2025

Bird migration is both orderly and chaotic. Nocturnal flight is no longer invisible thanks to BirdCast, a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Migrating birds show up on weather radar, so since the turn of the century, BirdCast has watched migration in real time via radar. It now shares the results and makes migration predictions online. The information may help address a long-time predicament. Ever since humans started building things skyward, birds have been crashing into them. It’s one of the major reasons bird populations have plummeted by 3 billion since 1970. Another project called BirdFlow launched a YouTube video that graphically shows the movements of a billion birds from Argentina to Canada. Look up Spring Bird Migration Data Visualization, and prepare to have your mind blown. ~ Bob Duchesne

Coast Guard proposes removing navigation buoys from Maine waters

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 25, 2025

The U.S. Coast Guard has proposed to remove navigation aids from up and down the East Coast, including more than 100 in Maine waters. The buoys targeted for removal mark harbor entrances, ledges, and other routes and hazards. Some are lighted, while others have gongs, bells or whistles, according to detailed descriptions in the notice. According to the Coast Guard, most, if not all would be removed to modernize a constellation of navigation aids “whose designs mostly predate global navigation satellite systems, electronic navigation charts, and electronic charting systems.”

'Toss the Tanks' campaign ramps up in South Portland

MAINE PUBLIC • April 25, 2025

A new campaign in South Portland wants a Canadian oil company to remove old, mostly empty holding tanks from a residential area. And supporters are imagining the possibilities for sprawling real estate the tanks occupy in the heart of the city. "Toss The Tanks" wants to persuade Suncor Energy that their Hill Street tank farm isn’t a good fit for the city. "Suncor has to understand that the community does not want them here any longer," said organizer Tim Honey during a recent community forum. Almost 20 tanks sit on about 100 acres bordered by schools and homes. Some of the tanks date back to the Second World War, and they have prompted concerns about health and environmental safety. The tanks are mostly empty, but are designed to hold crude oil shipped to Canada through the pipeline — not for U.S. consumers.

The Trump administration cut a key FEMA grant. What does that mean for Maine projects?

MAINE MONITOR • April 25, 2025

The Federal Emergency Management Agency program — Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC — has dished out roughly $133 million to fund local resilience projects since it was launched in 2020 under the first Trump administration. In 2023, FEMA awarded an additional billion dollars through BRIC after the agency received a windfall in congressional funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and saw a surge of applicants. The program’s most recent applications included $5 million for more than 30 separate resilience projects at the state, tribal and municipal level in Maine that have been awarded BRIC grants or identified for further consideration by FEMA. According to the agency’s April 4 announcement, any future grants and funds not yet distributed to local grantees will be returned.

Gulf of Maine scallop fishery halted again, this time for the year

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 25, 2025

Federal regulators are once again halting scallop fishing operations in the Gulf of Maine, this time through the end of March 2026. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration paused scallop fishing on April 12, marking the first midseason closure since regulations were first put in place about 16 years ago. That pause lasted just over a week. But on Friday, the agency announced a second closure, which takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday and lasts through the end of the fishing year, March 31, 2026.

Proposed 96-unit development draws opposition in Scarborough

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 25, 2025

Opposition is mounting against South Portland Housing Authority’s proposed 96-unit senior and workforce housing development on Route 1 in Scarborough at the location of the former site of the Southern Maine Indoor Flea Market. The Marshview Apartments would consist of a four-story building containing 60 affordable units for ages 55 and older, plus three buildings with 12 workforce housing units each. A 114-space parking lot, playground and walking trails are also in the plans. Located on Route 1 near the Payne Road intersection, the proposal calls for a right-turn-only exit and a right-turn-only entrance on and off Route 1, providing no access to the southbound side of the road. That is a concern voiced by community members and abutters.

Trump administration stalls UMaine’s offshore wind project

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 24, 2025

The federal government has directed the University of Maine to halt activity on $15.8 million in offshore wind research projects, including a floating turbine that is over a decade in the making and weeks away from a final launch off the coast of Castine. The University of Maine System received a letter from the U.S. Department of Energy on April 11 saying it was suspending the projects for “failure to comply” with federal policies, but did not specify which ones. The notice came just hours after contractors had towed an important piece of the university’s major project, a 375-ton concrete floating hull, to Mack Point, an industrial port in Searsport, university spokesperson Samantha Warren said. And researchers and contractors were just weeks from finalizing the installation of the floating offshore wind turbine.

“As Maine Goes.” Updating a Consequential 1965 Photo Project

BOWDOIN COLLEGE • April 24, 2024

By 1965, John McKee, who was hired to teach French literature at Bowdoin, had fallen in love with photography and with Maine's beauty. Encouraged by Marvin Sadik, the art museum director at the time, McKee spent the summer driving along the state's ragged coast to take photographs. The black-and-white images revealed raw sewage flowing into the ocean, rusting hulks of cars lining beaches, a rash of “no trespassing” and ”keep out” signs, and commercial billboards blighting landscapes. Exhibited in the 1966 show As Maine Goes at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and published in a catalog, his pictures lent visceral imagery to a swelling environmental movement. This semester, to commemorate and reflect on As Maine Goes, Chris Zhang ’25 and Bowdoin College Museum of Art codirector Frank Goodyear are taking their own road trips to retrace McKee’s footsteps. Their photography project coincides with an exhibition of McKee’s work at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art opening June 28.

Senators Collins, King Sponsor Bipartisan Bill to Ban Offshore Drilling off Coast of Maine

MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • April 24, 2025

U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King are cosponsoring bipartisan legislation to prohibit offshore drilling along the Maine coast, extending throughout the entirety of New England. The New England Coastal Protection Act would ban oil and gas leasing off the coast of Maine and in these protected areas. According to NOAA Fisheries, ocean and coastal industries, including tourism, fishing, and recreation, generate more than $17.5 billion in New England annually. Expanding drilling in the Atlantic would pose potential harm to New England’s key industries and significantly increase the chance of environmental disaster in the region.

Proposal for passenger rail to Bangor loses steam in committee

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 24, 2025

A renewed effort to restore passenger rail service from Portland to Bangor was soundly rejected Thursday by the Legislature’s transportation committee, following a similar failed attempt last year. The committee voted 9-1 against LD 487, recommending that it “ought not to pass” when the bill goes before the House and Senate in the coming weeks. The bill would direct the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA), operator of the Amtrak Downeaster, to apply for at least $500,000 in federal funding to develop a proposal for passenger service between Portland and Orono, just north of Bangor. Opponents say passenger service to Bangor would be too slow, attract too few riders and cost too much to establish and operate.