Learning the art of sheep shearing in Belgrade

MORNING SENTINEL • June 22, 2025

Fourteen students, mostly from Maine, a handful of auditors and several instructors, attended a two-day workshop on sheep shearing at Sunrise Farm and adjacent North Belgrade Community Center, organized by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Students learned about sheep handling, shearing and equipment maintenance, with participants expected to have had prior basic sheep-handling experience. Some of the students took the course in hopes of becoming professional sheep shearers and some because they own sheep and want to shear themselves.

With sunshine and batteries, Maine oyster growers are starting to electrify their operations

MAINE MONITOR • June 22, 2025

Shellfish farming is a small but fast-growing segment of Maine’s seafood sector. Now these enterprises — and more broadly the aquaculture industry — are emerging as first movers in the quest to electrify Maine’s working waterfront. Phasing out gasoline and diesel fuel has obvious climate and pollution benefits, but there’s also a business case for electrification. Enduring the constant drone of gas-fired generators and breathing the fumes are hazards for sea farm workers. Generators also are finicky to maintain around salt water and the noise can annoy shoreside residents. Solar and battery power could lower operating costs and create quieter coves.

Opinion: Biden’s signature act fails Maine — while feeding China

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 22, 2025

Former President Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), pushed through Congress without serious conservative input, was sold as a clean energy plan. In reality, it was a reckless green giveaway that benefited China, rewarded wealthy elites, inflated our national debt and punished working Americans. We call it Biden’s Green New Scam. The centerpiece of the law — $7,500 subsidies for electric vehicles — might sound good to the lobbyists and activists who helped write it. But for the rest of us, it’s a joke. The IRA included a slush fund for radical left-wing nongovernmental organizations that are at odds with Maine values. ~ Sen. Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, and Sarah E. Hunt, Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy [a Washington, D.C. think tank with deep ties to the climate change denying, pay-to-play American Legislative Exchange Council]

Swan Island ferry restoration effort makes slow progress over IF&W objection

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 22, 2025

On June 9, state legislators approved LD 976, creating a working group to study restoring public transportation to Swan Island, three years after the U.S. Coast Guard shut down the operation for safety and inspection concerns. LD 976 was expected to automatically become law Sunday, even without Gov. Janet Mills’ signature. Currently, the public can access Swan Island only with a personal boat or kayak. The ferry that for six decades carried passengers between Richmond and the four-mile-long island has not operated since mid-2022. And the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, the agency that owns the island, has expressed little interest in restoring that ferry service. State wildlife managers say such a plan would require staff and money and they prefer to focus on wildlife management and facilities maintenance.

Paper mills in Maine and across the U.S. releasing more greenhouse gases than federal data shows

MAINE MONITOR • June 21, 2025

Two of Maine’s largest paper mills are among the dirtiest in the country, according to a new study on U.S. pulp and paper plants, putting their emissions on par with some oil refineries. The report from the Environmental Integrity Project calls attention to the industry’s overreliance on dirty fuels and the old, inefficient technologies they use to burn them. “In Maine, there are several plants that are still burning coal and…tires,” said Courtney Bernhardt, EIP’s director of research. The group analyzed greenhouse gas emissions from 185 paper plants across the country, which Bernhardt says use a loophole in the reporting process: the EPA doesn’t include greenhouse gas emissions from “biogenic” fuel sources like biomass, which mills burn to power their operations and can be dirtier than coal. The agency’s rationale for excluding biomass from emissions estimates is “because trees can grow back in the future” and offset the carbon emissions from biomass fuels. 

Letter: An unfortunate South Portland legacy must end

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 21, 2025

As a practicing physician assistant living near the Sprague and Global tank farms, I fear for health impacts from tank fumes. Daily, I question whether to open my windows or leave them closed. Absurdly, after many years of activism around the hazards of these “neighborhood tank farms,” Sprague remains a DEP licensed emitter of 49.9 tons of air pollution and Global pollutes us with 21.9 tons of yearly. EPA air pollution lawsuits against Global and Sprague did nothing. The complaints of many to City Hall and DEP no result. Since new neighborhoods are proposed near the tank farms, such neighborhoods will suffer for decades to come. South Portland’s unfortunate legacy of mixing petroleum hazards with people needs to end. ~ Robert Klotz, South Portland

Conditions are perfect in the Maine woods for moose-killing ticks

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 21, 2025

Brandon Bishop remembers vividly the first time he saw a dead moose infested with thousands of ticks. The registered Maine Guide was snowmobiling in the north woods in 2012 and within a week found a dozen carcasses, mostly of calves, lying in the roads. Since then, moose partially bald from trying to dislodge mats of winter ticks have become an increasingly familiar sight. Changes across Maine’s northern woods in recent years have created risky conditions for the state’s iconic moose herd. Warmer winters have boosted populations of ticks, which prey on moose throughout the cold season. Most concerning to state wildlife biologists is that half of the calves they have tracked in recent years do not survive their first year of life, and tick-infested female moose become less fertile. Guides also are nervous about being able to continue to make their living from hunting.

NOAA forecasts hotter than normal summer

MAINE MONITOR • June 20, 2025

While it’s been rainy and cool these past few weeks the months ahead are gearing up to be hotter than usual, per the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s three-month forecast. That comes with the potential for more extreme heat, more humidity, and, according to environmental epidemiologist Rebecca Lincoln at Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, more risk for heat-related illnesses. Heat can be particularly dangerous in Maine since we are not accustomed to the extreme temperatures seen in other parts of the country. Under President Trump’s proposed 2026 budget, NOAA is set to lose 25 percent of its funding. That would reduce the agency’s workforce, including at the National Weather Service, which will affect the accuracy of weather forecasting and the ability to collect climate data.

Maine continues to see tens of thousands fewer international visitors

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2025

Roughly 85,000 fewer international visitors entered the U.S. through Maine in May compared to the same month a year earlier, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, continuing a depressed period that started in February. Total visits last month numbered 176,387 compared to 261,020 in May 2024. The overwhelming majority of those travelers arrived in passenger vehicles crossing the U.S. Canada border. The drop corresponds to a period of tense relations between the U.S. and Canada stemming from threats and punitive actions by President Donald Trump, ranging from tariffs on Canadian imports to suggesting he would annex the country to be the 51st U.S. state.

Opinion: Susan Collins’ big opportunity to protect Maine’s future

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 20, 2025

Under the proposed budget reconciliation bill Maine could lose $400 million annually in federal funding — cuts that would disproportionately harm rural Mainers. Maine has led the nation in heat pump adoption. Eliminating the $2,000 home energy credit would undermine hard-won momentum toward energy affordability and independence. The broader clean energy economy in Maine also tells a compelling story. The 15,000 total jobs and $2.1 billion impact statewide are at risk. Maine’s outdoor economy would also take a hit. Outdoor recreation contributed $3.4 billion to the state economy in 2023 and supported nearly 30,000 jobs. Sen. Collins must decide whether to summon the moxie to do what’s right for Maine. In this truly pivotal moment, She should vote “no” on — or demand major changes to — the current budget reconciliation bill. ~ Blake Keogh, South Portland, graduate student at the University of Southern Maine

Loon lovers will soon flock to Lincoln

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2025

The town of Lincoln is holding its annual four-day Loonfest next month. The celebration, scheduled for July 17-20, will feature a variety of activities for locals and visitors alike. An estimated 12,000 people attended last year’s festival.

Dover-Foxcroft residents fought to keep their dam, then changed their minds

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2025

When Eli Towne was the first permanent settler in Dover in 1803, the Piscataquis River flowed freely through town. Now, more than 220 years later, the river is set to flow freely again. That emotional connection to the dam is partly what motivated voters to keep the dam in a 2024 vote in a 557-441 decision. But a year later, those same voters denied the needed $9 million in retention and repairs in a 659-297 vote. The recent vote means it is now slated for removal in the coming years. Locals also hope the decision will bring an end to a debate that has divided public opinion.

Column: How to identify woodpeckers by the sounds they make

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2025

Today we learn how to speak woodpecker. At least five different species are cavorting somewhere near your house right this minute. Most birds have a small vocabulary, limited by their vocal abilities. But woodpeckers have multiple calls. They can also pound out a message. Each woodpecker drums differently, and most of the time you can tell them apart. ~ Bob Douchesne

Diesel spill prompts water advisory near Kennebunkport and Kennebunk

NEWS CENTER MAINE • June 19, 2025

A diesel fuel spill caused by a vessel collision offshore that injured two people has prompted officials to issue an urgent water advisory for parts of the Kennebunkport and Kennebunk shoreline. Around 4:44 p.m. Thursday, the schooner "Eleanor" issued a mayday after being struck by the fishing vessel "The Flying Dutchman" roughly a mile off the Kennebunk Jetty. The advisory, issued by the Kennebunk Fire Department, warns the public to avoid swimming or entering the water near Government Wharf in Kennebunkport and Gooch's Beach in Kennebunk. 

EPA will revisit Biden-era ban on the last type of asbestos used in US

ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 19, 2025

The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court it will reconsider the Biden administration's ban on the last type of asbestos used in the United States to determine whether it went “beyond what is necessary." Asbestos is linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually and causes mesothelioma as well as other cancers. It has been largely phased out in the United States. Last year, the Biden administration sought to finish the decades-long fight by banning chrysotile asbestos. At the time, the EPA called it a milestone in the fight against cancer.

Want to plant trees to offset fossil fuels? You’d need all of North and Central America, study finds

ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 19, 2025

Planting trees has plenty of benefits, but this popular carbon-removal method alone can’t possibly counteract the planet-warming emissions caused by the world’s largest fossil-fuel companies. To do that, trees would have to cover the entire land mass of North and Central America, according to a study out Thursday. Many respected climate scientists and institutions say removing carbon emissions — not just reducing them — is essential to tackling climate change. And trees remove carbon simply by “breathing.” But crunching the numbers, researchers found that the trees’ collective ability to remove carbon through photosynthesis can’t stand up to the potential emissions from the fossil fuel reserves of the 200 largest oil, gas and coal fuel companies — there’s not enough available land on Earth to feasibly accomplish that.

What's a vernal pool? New law increases protections for the water habitat

MAINE PUBLIC • June 19, 2025

ov. Janet Mills has signed a new bill into law that creates stronger protections for vernal pools. Found in forests in the spring and early summer, vernal pools are essential habitats for young aquatic insects, frogs, salamanders and other amphibians. Larger species like birds and mammals rely on the pools and the smaller animals that live there for food — Maine Audubon directory of advocacy Francesca Gundrum calls them "protein packs." "Without vernal pools, we would almost certainly lose species like wood frogs and spotted salamanders and blue spotted salamanders that rely on these pools," she said, "in order for them to lay their eggs and continue contributing to future generations." The new law adds taking climate change into account by protecting vernal pools even if they dry up sooner than usual due to lack of snow melt or hot temperatures. The law had faced opposition from the Chamber of Commerce and housing developers. But Gundrum says compromises were made — and that it's important to strike a balance between economic development and conservation.

Lisbon dam removals already paying off, officials say

SUN JOURNAL • June 19, 2025

The removal of dams on Sabattus River is transforming the ecosystem and the river’s relationship to the surrounding community as old industrial pollution is cleaned up and wildlife habitat restored, state officials say. In 2024, crews completed restoration work at the former Mill Street dam, the southern most of three projects. Remnant concrete was removed from the river channel and a natural fishway was installed. Already, the project is drawing attention as a good spot to observe herring return upstream. Upstream, the Upper Dam was removed in 2022 after sitting unused for years. The most complex work is still ahead between the Upper and Lower dams, where three projects in development are overlapping: the removal of a third dam, cleanup of a No. 6 oil contamination site and the closure of an old landfill near the river. While the oil cleanup is expected to begin this year, dam removal and landfill remediation may take until 2026.

Changes to energy tax credits could raise Maine’s electricity costs by 20%

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 19, 2025

Federal lawmakers are contemplating changes to energy tax credits that would likely raise energy and electricity costs for Mainers and stall growth in the state’s expanding renewable energy economy, analysts and industry players say. A slowdown in renewable development and increased reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation would also leave costs vulnerable to the volatile prices of oil and gas, creating the potential for further rate increases down the line.

6 Maine summer hikes where you can go swimming

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 19, 2025

There are numerous Maine hiking trails that either lead to or past swimming holes that are bound to be more beautiful and less crowded than most of the public beaches. Here are some of our favorite options.
• Schoodic Mountain near Sullivan
• Tumbledown Mountain in Weld
• Gulf Hagas near Brownville
• Shore Trail near Flagstaff Lake
• Seawall Beach in Phippsburg
• Tunk Mountain near Franklin