Column: I’m a birder now (and other signs of aging)

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2025

It was about this time last year that I noticed blue jays and bluebirds, cardinals and robins. I asked a friend who’s a birder to help get me started, and we went for a walk around the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth. She introduced me to the Merlin Bird ID app, which can tell you what birds are around you by listening to their calls. This is one of the surprising things I’m learning about aging. I wasn’t prepared for my interests to suddenly change, opening up a whole new world of things I might like to do. ~ Leslie Bridgers

Public Hearing Today on Establishing a Climate Superfund to Make Polluters Pay

MAINE CONSERVATION VOTERS • May 5, 2025

Environmental advocates, municipal leaders, youth, and businesses will call on the Legislature to pass LD 1870, An Act to Establish a Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program to Impose Penalties on Climate Polluters. The legislation would mandate compensatory payments from multinational oil and gas companies based on their greenhouse gas emissions surpassing one billion metric tons. A public hearing will be held by the Maine Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee on May 5, at 10 am.

Maine DEP urges delay for climate superfund bill

MAINE PUBLIC • May 5, 2025

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has urged lawmakers to delay a bill that would make major fossil fuel companies compensate the state for damages from harmful climate change. Bills proposed by Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland and Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough, would establish a climate superfund to pay for mitigation and adaption projects that prepare Maine communities for violent storms, sea level rise and extreme weather. DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim said lawmakers should wait until next year to seriously consider a climate superfund measure. The department wants to wait and see how similar laws in Vermont and New York are enacted and how they fare against legal challenges from the fossil fuel industry and the Trump administration.

Without action, Old Town residents worry town will be ‘sacrifice zone’ to Juniper Ridge

MAINE MORNING STAR • May 5, 2025

More than 50 people joined a rally Sunday afternoon in Old Town to not only voice their concerns about expanding Juniper Ridge, the state’s largest landfill, but also to ask the lawmakers who represent them in Augusta to back bills that could address the contamination and injustice they feel local communities have endured. As opponents see it, LD 297 would complicate the definition of what constitutes waste generated in Maine, opening the door for more out-of-state waste that would fill the landfill even faster. Proponents argue this is necessary to bring in more bulky waste to stabilize the sludge that is disposed of at the facility. 

Get outdoors and take a walk — in every corner of Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2025

Spring officially starts in March, but Mainers know not to put the winter coats in storage until before the end of April. We’ve finally traded snow boots for hiking boots, and we can stretch our legs without freezing our toes. Maine has no shortage of trails and plenty of useful tools to find them. You can check out websites such as AllTrails and Maine Trail Finder for maps, basic info about parking and even recent trail conditions. Rebecca Goldfine started her blog Maine By Foot in 2012 and has posted about hundreds of trails of all kinds. We compiled 16 options for a nice stroll in nature — one in every county.

Opinion: Care about climate change? Protest

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2025

America is seeing a resurgence of protests in response to President Trump’s recent attacks on public health, national parks, abortion rights and immigration, to name a few. Over 10,000 people rallied across Maine last month — a big turnout relative to our population. And while many of the signs were both poignant and funny, I was struck by how few addressed the urgent need for climate action. Sadly, it seems we’ve lost our appetite for climate activism. But as the climate crisis accelerates, and our president derails our progress on the issue, it’s more important than ever to take action. Seventy-three percent of us think the government should be doing more to address climate change. We have the numbers to make serious political change. What’s needed is mobilization. ~ Violet Apodaca, Bowdoin College senior

Letter: Hold cruise lines responsible for pollution emissions in Portland

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 5, 2025

For the next seven months, cruise ships will be coming to Portland. It is time to be proactive. The majority of ships will utilize exhaust gas cleaning systems, also known as scrubbers. These devices reduce the appearance of air emissions by “washing” pollutants into the harbor — a practice that is being banned throughout the world. It is time to reduce air pollution and eliminate toxic scrubber wash discharge and time to create communication protocols for when ships have norovirus outbreaks. It’s time to encourage reporting of complaints from excessive noise, air pollution, charter bus emissions and passenger congestion. It’s time to determine if sales tax revenue is being collected onboard, and time to calculate the actual direct and indirect costs of hosting cruise ships. ~ Matthew Day and JoAnn Locktov, Portland Cruise Control

Trump administration says it will combat forever chemicals. Maine scientists are skeptical.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 5, 2025

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released its much-anticipated steps to fight contamination by forever chemicals, but the scant information it provided raised more questions than answers among scientists and environment experts. Notably absent from the actions was information about whether the agency intends to go forward with the stricter maximum safe limits of forever chemicals that it announced last April. Those limits — the first national, enforceable drinking water standard on forever chemicals — are on hold by the Trump administration. Maine, which already has taken steps to curtail PFAS products in the state and to supply filtration systems for polluted private wells, scientists said.

They want to create Maine’s biggest scallop farm in Penobscot Bay

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 5, 2025

Andrew Peters was on a waitlist for a lobster license. Then he learned it was possible to farm scallops in Maine. For the last seven years, Peters and his wife Samantha have been trying to do so successfully, adapting techniques from Japan to Maine waters. Using long, vertical lines of nets tethered along four acres of Penobscot Bay off Deer Isle, they’ve found seemingly unlimited demand for the scallops they grow. Now, to find whether scallop farming really can provide sustainable small businesses for Mainers, they have applied for a 41.2-acre, 20-year standard aquaculture lease to replace their experimental lease. If the state approves the application, it would rank among the largest leases for all shellfish growing operations in Maine.

Maine man pulls in nearly 7-pound native salmon at Sebago Lake

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 5, 2025

A man who caught a 38-inch 18.69-pound lake trout nearly three years ago just hooked a native Sebago salmon that bested his own record for that fish. Early season open water fishing can be tricky, Gary Theriault of Naples said Friday. “It took me four or five tries before I could scoop him up,” Theriault said. He couldn’t believe how big the fish was. The fish weighed 6.9 pounds and was 27½ inches long, beating his personal best of 25 inches for salmon.

High rate of return on Jimmy Carter’s investment in national parks

ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION • May 4, 2025

Jimmy Carter is widely praised as an ex-president for his Nobel-prize-winning work eradicating diseases and enhancing democracy around the world and for building thousands of homes. But Carter’s most lasting legacy is a conservation quilt in the form of the many parks and wild spaces he preserved. Carter doubled the size of our National Park System, created 39 new national parks, designated 56 million acres of wilderness for protection and perpetually protected over 150 million acres through the Alaska Lands Act. Teddy Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to protect more land than Carter. Historically, every $1 invested in our National Park System directly returns at least $10 to the federal budget. The economic output of America’s national parks is over $55 billion annually. No one even remotely serious about ferreting out government waste would lay a finger on the National Park Service. It’s one of the few federal programs that actually makes money.

Residents resist plans to expand Maine’s largest landfill

NEWS CENTER MAINE • May 4, 2025

On the banks of the Penobscot River in Old Town, drums and chants echoed to pay respect and honor the important role the river plays in life and culture of the Penobscot Nation. The crowd, some 50 strong, were also gathered to protest plans to expand the nearby Juniper Ridge Landfill. Last year, the State of Maine approved plans to add nearly 12 million square yards of capacity to what is already Maine’s largest landfill. Due to appeals by members of the Penobscot Nation and Conservation Law Foundation, those plans are on pause. However, many still worry that Juniper Ridge will continue to grow. Of the half-dozen who spoke on Sunday was Kathy Paul, a Penobscot Nation elder and activist. Paul says she has seen the pollution taint the land and water that is sacred to her people. “I just can't sit still and let them ruin, ruin our land,” Paul said, noting her fears of what could come if the expansion occurs.

USFWS Gulf of Maine Coastal Program - Past, Present & Future, May 14

FRIENDS OF MERRYMEETING BAY • May 4, 2025

US Fish & Wildlife Service Coastal Program Project Leader Chris Meaney will talk about the evolution of the Program, current priorities, and future challenges and opportunities. May 14, 7 pm, Zoom, see www.fomb.org.

Meet the two women behind Farmington’s bustling parks and rec programs

SUN JOURNAL • May 4, 2025

It’s no surprise that two women who grew up in Maine playing sports, enjoying physical activity, and working with children are the director and assistant director of the Farmington Parks and Recreation Department. Jennifer Savage of Chesterville was the assistant director of the department under former Director Matt Foster and was promoted to director in January. Michelle Dowd of Farmington was named assistant director of the department in January.

Amphibians on the march for their Big Night

MORNING SENTINEL • May 4, 2025

On warm, rainy spring nights, hundreds of volunteers stake out roads across Maine to do what they can to usher some of the state’s smallest creatures across to the road to ensure the next generation of amphibians will live to take the same trip in years to come. Maine’s annual spring migration brings throngs of frogs and salamanders down from the forested uplands to shallow seasonal or vernal pools, where amphibians gather to breed each night. But the migration paths often take them across the state’s network of paved roads, putting them at risk of death from traffic. Greg LeClair, biologist at Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, sought a solution to the carnage. He founded Maine Big Night, a community science project that invites volunteers across Maine to help amphibians safely cross dark roads while collecting data to support long-term species survival.

Trail or rail? Brunswick to Augusta rail trail nears vote, but questions remain

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • May 4, 2025

State lawmakers could soon approve a rail trail almost two decades in the making, providing a potentially crucial economic and recreational link along the Kennebec, Cathance and Androscoggin rivers. Lawmakers on the joint transportation committee voted 11-2 on April 15 to recommend allowing construction of the 33.5-mile Merrymeeting Trail, sending the project to a potential vote in front of the full state Legislature, where the fate of the trail hangs in the balance. The trail would replace the existing state-owned Lower Road railroad tracks connecting Brunswick to Augusta. The line hasn’t been used consistently since the 1980s, but the corridor would be preserved for rail in the future, per state law.

Editorial: It’s about time lobster regulation was informed by lobster fishery

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • May 4, 2025

The state of Maine last week announced it has undertaken to conduct the first survey of commercial lobstermen in almost 20 years. Too infrequently are the primary sources of each of our state’s most valuable and vital industries — and none of greater cultural importance than lobster fishing — asked for their informed, experienced read. Fishermen were kept on the sidelines of the process of ropeless gear testing in 2023, which fueled already-pulsing distrust of a technology that was suspected to lead to inefficiency. The survey needs to be exhaustive…without asking too much. It’s a tall order, one that’s important Maine makes its very best effort to fulfill.

One of North America’s oldest apple trees found on Maine island

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 4, 2025

A rare, historically significant French apple tree recently discovered on a Verona Island farm is one of the oldest in North America. Called the Drap d’Or de Bretagna, the cultivar came from the Brittany region of France and was likely brought to Maine by Castine’s early French settlers in the late 1600s. The tree, believed to be a direct descendant of early plantings, was rediscovered by a group of local “apple explorers.”

Motorsports could be the next big draw to Aroostook County

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 4, 2025

If the trend of less snow in northern Maine continues, motorsports may be the next crucial tourism draw, event promoters told a Caribou crowd Thursday. More than 100 people gathered for the annual tourism summit hosted by Aroostook County Tourism. Snowmobiling, a longtime staple of Aroostook County’s winter economy, has taken a hit with diminished snowfall in the past two years. To maintain its economic stability, the area needs attractions to lure visitors north whether the snow is dependable or not.

States’ nuclear energy growth needs federal action to follow Trump’s vocal support

MAINE MORNING STAR • May 3, 2025

President Donald Trump and his team have signaled a strong interest in continuing to strengthen federal support for nuclear power. And more blue states have also started to embrace nuclear power, which has traditionally been more favored by Republicans, to reach climate goals and grow electricity capacity amid anticipated increases in demand. But even as interest in states grows, the cost of building nuclear infrastructure remains an impediment only the federal government is positioned to help scale.