The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 3, 2025
A three-and-a-half-year restoration project on Portland Head Light at Fort Williams is finally complete. In that span, the iconic and historic lighthouse has had new windows and a new roof installed, a complete exterior repaint, and an updated AC unit and HVAC system. The museum inside the lighthouse has also seen enhancements, including new carpeting, which addressed damage to the first floor after it flooded during a storm last winter.
MAINE PUBLIC • May 3, 2025
In the back woods of Industry, Maine, an intimate gathering was held to honor the life of Mark Ancker. While the ceremony marked the end of Ancker’s 77 years on earth, it also marked the start of something new — the first time a mushroom casket has been used in the United States. An artist and longtime gardener, Anker's longtime wish was to be returned to the land that he loved. The casket, made by Loop Biotech, is made entirely out of mycelium. This allows it to decompose quickly, with full decomposition occurring 45 days after burial. It is also designed to provide nutrients to the surrounding soil. This was key for Ancker-Robert, who alongside family and friends, will be turning the site into a garden.
SUN JOURNAL • June 3, 2025
Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law Tuesday updating septic system regulations aiming to safeguard Maine’s lakes and ponds. The new law, LD 1550 sponsored by Sen. Henry Ingwersen, D-York, addresses “short circuiting” in systems on properties abutting freshwater bodies such as lakes and ponds. Short circuiting occurs when septic system effluent skirts natural filtration processes by draining quickly through sandy soils or along shallow bedrock and into water bodies.
SUN JOURNAL • June 3, 2025
Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law Tuesday updating septic system regulations aiming to safeguard Maine’s lakes and ponds. The new law, LD 1550, addresses “short circuiting” in systems on properties abutting freshwater bodies like lakes and ponds. Short circuiting occurs when septic system effluent skirts natural filtration processes by draining quickly through sandy soils or along shallow bedrock and into water bodies. Maine Department of Health and Human Services will be required to revise design standards for septic fields in high-risk soil profiles only which address nutrient pollution through natural soil processes.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 3, 2025
Baxter State Park rangers are searching for two hikers from New York who were last seen Sunday on the Katahdin Tablelands. Tim Keiderling, 58, and his daughter, 28-year-old Esther, were last seen Sunday morning as they headed toward the summit of Katahdin.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 3, 2025
For decades, the legal status of puffin-friendly Machias Seal Island has been taken lightly. That easy reality may not last. While the U.S. has long claimed Machias Seal Island, Canada also calls the uninhabited island 20 miles south of Machias its own. Almost two centuries ago, Canada erected a lighthouse with a foghorn there…and it still sends out lighthouse keepers. The Republican leader of the state House, Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor, last week urged President Donald Trump to defend “sovereignty over our waters,” referring to the little island in the Gulf of Maine. “We’ve been taken advantage of for too long,” Faulkingham said. Them’s fighting words.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 3, 2025
Tim Keiderling, 58, and his daughter, 28-year-old Esther Keiderling, both of Ulster Park, New York, were last seen on Katahdin’s Tablelands heading toward the summit about 10:15 a.m. Sunday, according to Baxter State Park. The Keiderlings left Abol Campground that morning for the hike. Park rangers began searching for them Monday morning when they discovered the Keiderlings’ vehicle still in the day-use parking lot. No sign of them was found during a search of the Abol and Hunt trails and the Tablelands. The search expanded Tuesday morning, with more than 30 game wardens along with tracking dogs, three Maine Forest Service helicopters and two Maine Army National Guard helicopters outfitted with infrared thermal imaging assisting park rangers.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 2, 2025
Acadia National Park is trying to figure out how to manage hot spots that get congested during its busy summer tourist season, but its top priorities aren’t the places that social media users might think. Last week, a video of a long line of hikers slowly snaking its way up the ladder trail on The Beehive mountain got ample attention online and discussion about conditions at Acadia. But crowded trails on the mountain, where hikers can climb up a series of iron ladders fastened to a steep rock face that overlooks scenic Sand Beach, are not a new phenomenon during the post-COVID boom, according to park officials.
MAINE PUBLIC • May 2, 2025
A new state law requires Maine woodland owners to report contracts they've entered with forest carbon offset programs. University of Maine forest resources professor Adam Daigneault said the law will help policymakers and others better understand Maine's changing forest industry and clarify the state's greenhouse gas reduction goals. Carbon markets have grown in recent years as companies and other entities try to offset their greenhouse gas pollution by preserving woodlands and other environments that are natural carbon dioxide traps. The programs pay landowners to manage forests in ways that maximize that storage.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 2, 2025
V. Paul Reynold’s May 28 column, “Is this the role of Maine’s fish and wildlife commissioner?” criticizes Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Judy Camuso over her efforts to bring more women into Maine’s sporting community. But he fails to mention a critical fact: these outreach efforts are working to keep Maine’s hunting and fishing economies alive. Maine sold more hunting licenses in 2022 than it did in 2002. Here’s part of the answer: women! Maine now boasts one of the highest hunting license rates among women in the country. ~ Rachel Libby, Milford
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 31, 2025
As an IBEW member in Maine representing over 4,000 workers, I know firsthand how important clean energy is to making our economy work for all of us. The U.S. House budget reconciliation bill, however, proposes what amounts to a total repeal of many clean energy investments, putting our jobs at risk. This bill is a direct assault on American manufacturing and American-made energy right here in Maine. The Trump Administration has already arbitrarily attacked Mainers’ access to energy efficient heat pumps that can help bring the costs of heating and cooling our homes under control, even as Maine is embracing them more and more, but now U.S. House Republicans want to immediately repeal all federal tax credits that can help working people lower their energy bills. ~ Rep. Kilton Webb
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 2, 2025
During the summer months, Iceland’s round-the-clock sunlight draws in a panoply of birds: Razorbills, guillemots, phalaropes, godwits, plovers, terns, and puffins. Wildlife photographer Shawn Carey shares images and stories from his journey to two Icelandic islands. In Mather Auditorium at Wells Reserve at Laudholm, June 17, 7 pm, free. Sponsored by York County Audubon.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 2, 2025
A government-funded campaign has begun spraying insecticides and biological agents on 240,000 acres of Maine’s North Woods infested with spruce budworm, a voracious forest pest that killed millions of spruce and fir trees during its last population explosion. JBI Helicopters began spraying tebufenozide over 9,000 acres in far western Maine on Thursday. The spraying, approved by the Board of Pesticide Control in April, could last through June 25 of this year. The tebufenozide (MIMIC) kills the budworm caterpillar by triggering a premature molt. Any caterpillar that eats it will die, however, including those that turn into beneficial moths and butterflies. A biological agent, Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk) is also authorized for use, but will likely be applied in much smaller amounts. It destroys the caterpillar’s gut lining.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 2, 2025
Pineland Farms has shut down its milking operation and sold off all but two cows in its Holstein herd, considered one of the oldest in the nation. It’s keeping a pair of youngsters for educational purposes. It’s a bittersweet change for staff at Pineland Farms — a farm, education center and major cheese producer with a large campus in New Gloucester. And it’s an upsetting change for some community members. But milking and caring for 100 cows had become too costly — Pineland Farms said it lost $500,000 to $600,000 a year on the operation in recent years. Dairy producers across the state have expressed similar concerns: that costs are unsustainable, profits are shrinking and smaller farms in particular are struggling to stay afloat.
SUN JOURNAL • June 1, 2025
City Administrator Bryan Kaenrath told city councilors last week Kennedy Park is the “crown jewel of our city park system,” but is currently “not an inviting place” for all residents and visitors. He said a new effort between Public Works and the Police Department will aim to change that. The city will be placing more emphasis on maintenance and minimizing “behaviors” in the park that make it uninviting, including public intoxication. The renewed focus on Kennedy Park is part of a larger, multi-pronged effort to improve Lewiston’s image. Initial efforts will include graffiti cleanup, trash violation enforcement, and renovations to the Wiseman Bridge. Public safety is the No. 1 concern and the downtown’s biggest barrier to economic development.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 2, 2025
From Eastport to Biddeford, a new kind of farming is transforming Maine’s working waterfronts. Seaweed farming, one of the fastest growing forms of aquaculture, is no longer a niche idea. It’s a serious agricultural sector with growing demand, measurable environmental benefits, and real opportunity to enhance rural prosperity. And Maine is leading the charge. But seaweed farmers need the same science-based support that land-based agriculture has received for generations. Maine has the farmers. We have the science. We have the opportunity. Let’s match it with the investment and policy support needed to lead the next chapter of American agriculture — from the water up. ~ Deborah Bronk, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 1, 2025
We express our firm support for the passage last week in Augusta of two trail development bills, LD 29 and LD 30. The advancement of both is the result of hard work by advocates of outdoor recreation in our state. LD 30, the replacement of the abandoned rail line connecting Portland and Auburn with a multiuse pedestrian the Casco Bay Trail is supported by the mayors of both cities. “Economically, trails bring real dollars into local businesses,” wrote Mark Dion (Portland) and Jeffrey Harmon (Auburn). The viability of passenger rail in Maine, while hotly and persuasively defended, is still grimly theoretical. There is no doubt that a forward-looking Maine would benefit greatly from robust networks of both rail and trail. These trails pay off. Let’s start bringing them into being.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 31, 2025
Ocean and seafood lovers braved the rain Saturday to celebrate Portland’s working waterfront culture during the 10th annual Walk the Working Waterfront event. All along Commercial Street, people in rain jackets stopped by booths marked with orange flags, learned about lobster traps and aquaculture, and sipped samples of hot clam chowder. “It’s a celebration of Portland’s protected waterfront,” said Katie Tims, of the city’s Sustainability Office. “We’re preserving the working waterfront industry and how Portland became a prominent city.”
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 31, 2025
The wild blue mussel beds that once blanketed Maine’s dynamic intertidal zone are disappearing, driven out by warming water that not only hurts the mussels themselves but benefits one of its chief predators, the highly invasive and always hungry green crab. Scientists at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute want to know if the intertidal disappearing act is a sign the blue mussel population is in decline or in retreat, with its local beds gradually moving out of the easy-to-spot intertidal into the colder waters of the more far-flung subtidal zone.
SUN JOURNAL • May 30, 2025
Over 50 years after U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie helped usher in the federal Clean Water Act, the Androscoggin River, which he once called “a national disgrace” for its pollution, may be on the verge of a momentous milestone. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is considering upgrading the classification of key stretches of the river, including through Lewiston-Auburn, from the current lowest-quality designation. Such a move would reflect years of improvement to a river that was once emblematic of industrial contamination. The push to reclassify the river’s water quality from Class C to Class B comes as the Department of Environmental Protection seeks public input as part of a three-year review process.
