Maine students head outdoors for Life Happens Outside Challenge

SUN JOURNAL • May 8, 2025

The Teens to Trails’ Life Happens Outside Challenge is urging Maine students to trade the indoors for the outdoors during a weeklong outing beginning May 9. The challenge encourages schools to track how many minutes students spend outside during that time, with a prize of $1,000 for the top three middle schools. The event, open to middle schools, has 25 schools participating this year. Alicia Heyburn, Teens to Trails’ executive director, said the idea behind the challenge is simple: to help students contemplate how they spend their free time and learn through experience the benefits of time outdoors.

Letter: A fairer version of Maine’s proposed EV fee

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 8, 2025

I’ve owned two fully electric cars since 2011. I wholeheartedly agree that I should be supporting the state highway fund to replace the road use taxes I’d have paid if I were driving a gas car. But $250 per year? A gas vehicle would pay $53, about 21% of the proposed fee. A fair tax would be based on vehicle weight and miles driven to compensate for the damage done to our highways. The heavier the vehicle, and the more it was driven, the higher the fee. To make sure nonresidents pay their share, we can still charge a tax at the pump. That way all residents and nonresidents would pay their fair share, not just EV owners. ~ Daniel Abbott, Portland

Opinion: Sporting camp legislation would harm nonprofit groups

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2025

Operation Reboot Outdoors takes veterans on outdoor adventures, including hunting and fishing trips cost free. Rep. Jared Golden’s office was successful in getting us $770,000 toward building our state’s first ADA-accessible hunting lodge so that we can have a wide range of vets, including the severely disabled, do overnights with us. Unfortunately, there is a group pushing, LD 1737, which would create a new term, “commercial sporting camp.” This bill has problems. Some bureaucrat from DHHS is potentially going to be judging whether caretakers live close enough, whether they got too many short-term rentals or whether their share of day visitors (food, gas, lodging customers) was too great to qualify for a lodge moose permit tag. The Legislature must resoundingly defeat this proposal. ~ Dan Waite, Turner

Canoe racing is returning to the Allagash

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2025

A new 15-mile downriver Class II whitewater canoe and kayak race is sparking some buzz among veteran paddlers still deciding whether to make the trek north. The inaugural Tylor Kelly Allagash Dash, slated for 10 a.m. May 18, was recognized by Maine Canoe & Kayak Racing Organization as the 11th race in a 2025 series that awards racers points as it goes along, according to Jake Feener, who is organizing the event with his wife Lisa. The race’s namesake, Tylor Wade Kelly was competitive, racing just about anything — including wooden canoes with wooden paddles he made himself.

Opinion: Removing navigational buoys is an unsafe idea

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2025

The United States Coast Guard proposal to remove inshore buoys in favor of using GPS electronic displays for inshore navigation is the most ridiculous, unsafe nautical idea I’ve ever heard. During my career in the Coast Guard and as a Merchant Marine officer, I’ve used every form of offshore navigation available to determine our position from sextant to shipboard electronics including loran, sat-nav, GPS and radar. Taken together they ensure the vessels’ safety. Hazards are everywhere: reefs, shoals and even wrecks. I cannot imagine members of the merchant marine/sailing brotherhood supporting such an unsafe U.S. Coast Guard action as removing buoys and subsequently deleting their location from the thousands of United States nautical charts and GPS displays. Without buoys as aids to navigation serious groundings will certainly follow. ~ Richard de Grasse, Islesboro, Coast Guard veteran and retired U.S. Merchant Marine officer

‘Relentless’ effort needed to get Maine ready for extreme weather, commission says

SUN JOURNAL • May 7, 2025

The 24-member Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission was established by Gov. Janet Mills in May 2024 after several extreme storms rocked the state in late 2023, wiping out infrastructure and flooding roadways. The commission aimed to create a long-term resiliency plan for the state as extreme storms become more common due to climate change. The commission’s plan has three core pillars: strengthening infrastructure and reducing disaster risk, improving disaster preparedness and response, and sustaining the state’s resilience momentum. A statement from Mills’ office said the increasing uncertainty about federal disaster funding highlights the importance of the state’s efforts to address climate change.

Appalachian Trail Conservancy Decries President's Proposed Budget

NATIONAL PARKS TRAVELER • May 7, 2025

President Donald Trump's fiscal 2026 budget proposal is anathema to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. According to the organization, the budget outline presented by the president proposes to "slash funding and fundamentally alter the structure and functions" of the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service. "The reported staffing reductions this year, including over 4,000 at USFS, are already affecting operations across both the USFS and NPS, from trail maintenance to permitting and recreational access," the organization said. In addition, the budget proposes to potentially give to the states NPS assets that are not “national parks.” The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is a unit of the National Park System, but not a national park.

Deer tick populations further solidify footing in Maine; ecologists monitor for new species

MAINE PUBLIC • May 7, 2025

Vector ecologists at the MaineHealth Institute for Research say there's good news and bad news when it comes to tick populations in the state and the diseases they carry. The bad news is that even though ticks may be top of mind during warm weather, they're remaining active well into December. And deer tick populations are established in every county in Maine except Aroostook, said vector ecologist Chuck Lubelczyk. The good news, he said, is that Maine still does not have any established populations of the aggressive lone star tick, which carries a bacteria that can cause an allergy to red meat.

Infrastructure commission urges focus on climate projects

MAINE PUBLIC • May 7, 2025

Preparing Maine for future storms and flooding will cost billions of dollars according to a commission examining the state’s infrastructure. Despite the scale of the challenge the state must act urgently to protect communities from the worst effects of climate change, commissioners said in their final report. The report recommends more than 50 actions and policies to strengthen infrastructure and mitigate risks, improve emergency response and rebuilding and use limited resources to the greatest effect. And it suggests establishing a reporting system so state agencies and organizations can regularly update progress towards actions outlined in the plan.

House Republicans push to sell thousands of acres of public lands in the West

ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 7, 2025

House Republicans have added a provision to their sweeping tax cut package that would authorize the sale of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, prompting outrage from Democrats and environmental groups who called the plan a betrayal that could lead to increased drilling, mining and logging in the West. Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee adopted the land sales proposal early Wednesday morning. “Public lands shouldn’t have a price tag on them. But (President) Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are working like mad to hand over our public lands to billionaires and corporate polluters to drill, mine and log with the bare minimum oversight or accountability,” said Athan Manuel, of Sierra Club.

Camden will sue resident for feeding birds despite rat infestation

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 7, 2025

Camden will sue a local homeowner who feeds wild birds at his home despite several warnings from the town that he’s allegedly violating local rules and has contributed to a rat infestation in his neighborhood. While Camden allows residents to feed “songbirds using well-maintained bird feeders,” local rules prohibit scattering birdseed and other food that could attract wild animals. On Tuesday night, the Select Board voted 3-0 to file legal action against Gian-Angelo Gallace of 11 Chestnut Hill, after he allegedly continued to feed wild birds despite entering a consent agreement with the town last fall meant to address the rat infestation at his home.

Opinion: Time for Maine to learn about the dangers of lead ammo

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 7, 2025

I can’t think of a study more important to hunters and wildlife advocates than the one proposed by LD 1364, a bill to “Authorize a Study on the Impacts and Risks of Lead-based Ammunition.” I’ve been doing the same study for decades with my friends Dan Ashe — former U.S. Fish and Wildlife director — and Elaine Leslie, former chief of the National Park Service’s Biological Resources Division. Ashe issued a rule (overturned by Trump 45) that would have banned lead ammunition on all 567 national wildlife refuges and 38 wetland management units. Leslie drafted an order to ban lead ammunition from national park units open to hunting. Her superiors never rescinded it but never implemented it. Lead poisoning symptoms include anemia, memory loss, depression, convulsions, brain damage, stillbirth, paralysis, kidney and liver failure. I won’t forget the day when Mark Pokras of Tufts University’s Wildlife Clinic opened a giant freezer and two dozen stiff bald eagles tumbled out around my feet. Most were from Maine, and most had been poisoned by consuming lead bullet fragments. ~ Ted Williams

Opinion: DOGE has a chance to reinvigorate America’s fisheries

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 7, 2025

Elon Musk’s government efficiency campaign may be the last, best chance to save beleaguered American fishing jobs from overregulation and foreign competition. Fishermen have been regulated to the brink, with alphabet soup agencies placing surveillance agents aboard their boats, closing huge swaths of the water for months at a time and ordering large amounts of gear removed from the water. There are about 50,000 commercial fishermen working U.S. waters. They support another 200,000 jobs onshore. Overzealous environmentalists have managed some communities into decline, as with Washington and Hancock counties in Maine. Regulators are driving American fishermen off the water. For too long, bureaucrats have treated fishermen like interlopers on our oceans. ~ Alex Titcomb, executive director of The Dinner Table, the largest “conservative” grassroots organization in Maine

Opinion: Protect our national parks, don’t exploit them

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 7, 2025

National parks are a beautiful reflection of our country’s magnificent national and cultural heritage. Their protection is a high form of patriotism and worldwide source of inspiration. National parks also generate significant revenue for national, regional, and local economies. National parks are a good deal for America. Nevertheless, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is eliminating resource specialists, who provide protection for all 400-plus national park units. Our national parks are constantly under siege. Those wishing to develop, prospect, mine, hunt, trap, harvest, irrigate, and generally extract something from nature’s last refuges are persistent and powerful. To save money cut questionable subsidies that give away public resources at below market rates for water, timber, grazing fees, and oil, gas and mineral extraction. ~ Michael Soukup, National Park Service chief scientist, 1995 to 2007, Blue Hill

Column: The real cost of the state’s trout stocking program

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 7, 2025

A recent bill to increase fishing license fees to raise more money for hatcheries got a lot of people talking. Is this what Maine should be promoting? Is stocking the best use of our limited funds? During public hearings, some said that anglers want, and in fact expect, more and bigger stocked trout. Are we obligated to provide this? Can we afford to do so? Who should pay for these fish? Stocking is rooted in the belief that trout should be unlimited. How did we get to the point where stocked fish are so universally accepted by trout anglers? Trout stocking is an economic black hole. The cost to raise fish continues to go up. The belief that trout should be unlimited is flawed economically and ecologically. It’s time to reduce stocking, not increase it. ~ Bob Mallard

Letter: Do not sell our public lands

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 7, 2025

I was dismayed to read Congress is considering selling public lands. National parks, monuments, and scenic trails are part of our heritage and our history. They belong to all of us and should stay that way. If you’ve taken your kids on vacation to Acadia National Park, seen the beauty of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, marveled at the Grand Canyon, or benefited from the outdoor recreation economy, like I and my family have, now is the time to take speak up and speak out. Keep our public lands public. ~ Katie Simpson, Cumberland

Trump budget proposal portends deep cuts to public lands

MONTANA FREE PRESS • May 6, 2025

Taking aim at “climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life,” President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 federal budget would reduce spending on public lands and shift some national park facilities and forest management to states. The Interior Department would take an overall $3.8 billion reduction from its 2025 budget of $18 billion. That includes a $1.2 billion cut to National Park Service operations.

Sens. Collins and King press Trump administration officials on frozen funds and canceled contracts

MAINE PUBLIC • May 6, 2025

Maine Sen. Susan Collins pressed President Trump's agriculture secretary on Tuesday for details on when farmers will receive remaining federal funds that were frozen as part of the Trump administration's policy changes and cost-cutting initiatives. During a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins told U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that she has heard from numerous farmers in Maine who were still waiting for word on previously approved grants or loans that had been frozen. Collins, a Republican who chairs the powerful budget-writing Appropriations Committee, told the secretary that the uncertainty is troubling to the farming industry. Maine Sen. Angus King, meanwhile, had a spirited exchange with Trump's secretary of veteran's affairs over a list of hundreds of cancelled federal contracts.

Scarborough adopts open space plan, unveils new barometer for conserved land

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 6, 2025

The Scarborough Town Council recently adopted a new open space master plan, which catalogs all open space in the town and identifies areas to target for conservation. The plan, passed unanimously by the council last month, is Scarborough’s first open space master plan since the 1990s. It will aid the town’s effort to achieve its goal to have 30% of land in town under conservation by 2030. When the council set the goal in June 2023, the town had 5,391 acres, or roughly 17%, of its land either under conservation or reserved for open space and public recreation. That number now stands at over 23%.

Angus King III, son of U.S. senator, announces campaign for Maine governor

MAINE PUBLIC • May 6, 2025

Angus King III — son of independent U.S. Sen. Angus King — announced on Tuesday that he's running for governor. King has never held elected office, but his announcement video highlights some of the same traits that have helped define his father, a two-time governor and Maine's current junior senator. King III pitches himself as a renewable energy businessman with big ideas. Among them, an operation in Clinton that uses cow manure to produce energy. But unlike his father, King III is running as a Democrat, not an independent. He joins a field of candidates that's expected to grow and already includes two Democrats, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former Senate President Troy Jackson.